Rachel Herriges is a playwright and actor who loves to explore the abstract and ironic elements of being a human. Her work centers around the grotesque side of clichés in poetic prose. Often her writting includes crippling family structures, unexpected gods, forbidden lovers, and decompositions of the human psyche.

Rachel graduated from Westmont College with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre in May 2023, focusing on playwriting and acting. Now in Chicago, she has laid her roots as an ensemble member with A Short Leap Theatre Company as well as a Playwright Residency with microChicago. Her notable highlights on stage are in the Athenaeum Center for Thought and Culture’s productions of It’s a Wonderful Life and Dante 360. She has also been seen on stage in The Runaways Lab Theater’s Milking the Beast and Going to Hell, Eclectic Full Contact Theatre’s Patchwork Play Festival 3, and Thumbprint Studio’s Collab24 Devised Theater Festival.

Rachel’s plays continue transgressing Microsoft Word to breathe new life on stage. Both of her plays Heat (global warming meets romantic queer tension), and Hot Yoga for Women’s Bodies (a metaphysical exploration of the postpartum body) showcased in staged readings with the Chicago Dramatists in 2024. The Artery Theatre also featured her work Straw Hats in the Sand (a futuristically ancient tragic romance) in their play festival in the Spring of 2024. While at Westmont College, several of her plays were performed in their annual Fringe Festival. Notable highlights are Liminal, Purgatory, or Whatever (where the afterlife is a farm), celestial bodies (starcrossed lovers who are actually in the stars), and mind(full) (a dystopian interrogation room). Her capstone project, Hysteria (forest nymph meets Twilight meets the end of the world), was performed on Porter Theater’s stage in May 2023.

Coming up next is Rachel’s one-act I LOVE CHESS! in collaboration with Freshly Brewed and the Understudy in April 2025. Rachel will also star in an abortion care fundraiser with Violet Surprise and Fat Theatre Project’s rendition of Jane! by Paula Kamen in late January 2025. Throughout April, she will also be taking on the role of a stage manager for A Short Leap Theatre Company’s production of Clearing by Beth Hyland.

Projects

In The Athenaeum Center for Thought and Culture’s annual production of It’s a Wonderful Life, we are taken through the Christmas classic with a twist. Actors play in the round with multiple characters, commercial breaks, and a fast-paced exploration of a story we know and love.

Rachel’s role challenged her to play many distinct characters of various ages while constantly reinventing them. Notably, her role as Violet changed the once promiscuous woman into an empowered, assured character that had never been seen before. Throughout the Christmas season, It’s a Wonderful Life, brought Christmas joy to audiences for 13 performances in Chicago, IL.

Dante’s divine comedy is reimagined in The Athenaeum Center for Through and Culture’s Dante 360, as it connects prose, lecture, dance, and live music with the ancient poet’s text. As Dante traverses through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, he encounters many who share their stories with him. In this production, Rachel plays Piccarda, a spirit in the lowest station of heaven, who invites Dante into the joyous dance of her world. This production showcased ensemble work, physical theatre, and deep philosophical conversation. For one weekend only, Dante 360 opened and closed on the Athenaeum’s mainstage in November 2024.

In the third installment of the Patchwork Play Festival presented by Eclectic Full Contact Theatre, Rachel starred in a leading role in Customs. Based on the real life events of the Mignonette, a ship that was lost at sea in the 17th century, Customs follows a group of stranded sailors that resort to cannibalism to survive. In the Custom of the Sea, sailors must draw lots to see who will live and who must die.

In her role, Rachel embodied the moving tale of sacrificing oneself for the ones they love. For two weekends in person and online, Customs premiered at the Edge on Broadway in Chicago, IL.

Collab24 is an annual 24-hour Devised Theater Festival in Chicago, IL where two groups of devisers created a story pertaining to the guidelines - reconstructing and deconstructing. Rachel’s group created the piece Cheesecake and Wine, where fellow maker Garrett Sweere performed a monologue she wrote for the production. Their piece combined the deep emotional undertone of pushing against societal expectations while including light-hearted dream sequences, dance, and improvisation. In the intimate space of Greenhouse Theater’s Studio 44, the audience was invited to join the actors as they broke free of expectations through devised theater.

Hysteria is a new play by Rachel Herriges that brings the 2010’s back to the stage with a supernatural flair. With odes to One Direction, school dances, and the end of the Mayan calendar, Naomi must navigate what it means to grow up in 2012 with an angry mother. Everything changes when she meets a mysterious boy in the forest, and impending doom becomes divine judgment.

As Naomi, Rachel walked the line of angst and child-like wonder that remains in teenagers. Hysteria was performed on Porter Theater’s stage as Rachel’s Capstone project at Westmont College.

She Kills Monsters brings a comedic, fantastical Dungeons and Dragons story to the stage through the eyes of the cheerleader, Agnes, in an attempt to better understand her geeky younger sister, Tilly. Following an adventure with orges, fairies, and elves, Agnes learns that her sister may not have been exactly who she thought she was.

Playing the role of Tilly, Rachel fought monsters and dragons galore while maintaining the emotional connection of the strong Paladin. With dance numbers, sword wielding, and stage combat, She Kills Monsters premiered on Porter Theater’s stage in Santa Barbara, CA.

mind(full) is a short dystopian, experimental play that was performed in Westmont’s Fringe festival. In an underground bunker, an attorney and defendant engage in mental tug-of-war to to fight this society’s model of “guilty until proven innocent.”

With the execution clock ticking, Lee attempts to unravel the mystery behind the defendant, Elliot. Rachel’s portrayal of Elliot leaned into the defendant’s argumentative nature with nuance and poise. Both actors, Rachel and Ford Sachsenmaier, directed the show while swapping roles multiple times throughout the writing process.

KITTY HAWK OR KILL DEVIL engages in the turf war between Ohio and North Carolina, landing firmly on the side of Ohio, where aviation was born. As the Wright Brothers search for a perfect testing ground, a multi-generational, semi-fictional family of Ohioans wrestle with the Kitty Hawk betrayal.

Meanwhile Michael Collins, the third astronaut on the Apollo 11 mission, waits on the dark side of the Moon as Neil and Buzz walk in the light of all that glory. Kitty Hawk or Kill Devil is a play about our country's obsession with greatness and about those of us (most of us) who live only in proximity to it.

Projects

Its a Wonderful Life

Dante 360

Customs

Collab24

Hysteria

She Kills Monsters

mind(full)

Kitty Hawk or Kill Devil

Contact