Valerie Rachelle is the new artistic director and dean of the Pacific Conservatory Theatre (PCPA), but she isn’t new to the organization.
Prior to leading other professional theatre organizations around the country, she served PCPA as an actor, casting director, resident director, choreographer, and movement instructor in the conservatory’s professional actor training program.
Rachelle has spent nearly three decades directing, choreographing, and producing productions at professional theatres and universities throughout the United States. Her career includes work with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Syracuse Opera, New York University, Performance Riverside, Fresno Grand Opera, Sierra Repertory Theatre, and the University of Southern California, where she taught in the theatre department.
Most recently, Rachelle served as the associate artistic director for Houston-based Stages, and she worked as artistic director and executive producer of the Oregon Cabaret Theatre in Ashland, where she led significant organizational growth during her 11-year tenure.
“Valerie’s return marks an exciting new chapter for the conservatory,” according to Allan Hancock College president Kevin G. Walthers. “Her outstanding artistic accomplishments, deep understanding of PCPA’s mission, and passion for arts education make her exceptionally well suited to lead the program into the future.”
A graduate of the California Institute of the Arts, Rachelle earned a bachelor’s degree in acting before completing a master of fine arts degree in directing at the University of California, Irvine.
PCPA has been and will continue to be a place of education, collaboration, creation and community.” — Valerie Rachelle
Throughout her career, Rachelle has championed new works, arts education, and expanding access to the performing arts. She co-founded the nonprofit theatre company Lucid By Proxy, producing and directing nearly 20 new plays, and later founded the Southern Oregon Center for Arts Accessibility (SOCAA), a nonprofit dedicated to improving accessibility in the arts. She has also served as a mentor through Statera Arts, an organization focused on advancing gender equity in the performing arts.
“Returning to PCPA is like coming home,” Rachelle says. “I look forward to working with an organization that helped shape me as a professional and as an artist. PCPA has been and will continue to be a place of education, collaboration, creation and community.”
As artistic director and dean, Rachelle will provide artistic leadership for PCPA’s professional theatre company and conservatory training program while helping shape its future as both an educational institution and cultural destination for the Central Coast.
Rachelle will succeed outgoing artistic director and dean Mark Booher, who is retiring after his 27-year tenure with PCPA, including 21 years as artistic director.
“I’m thrilled to welcome Valerie Rachelle back home to PCPA,” Booher says. “She will bring both knowledge of and respect for PCPA’s great history, and a terrific density and diversity of experience to advance the mission of the theatre into the future.”