I've been in the professional Theater since I was fifteen. I began as an actor and continued in that career for much of my adult life. I trained in sound design at the Bay Area’s Berkeley Repertory Theatre and The New School in New York City. I designed two shows in New York, before deciding to broaden my horizons by studying clothing design. I began my own company and made clothing for musicians touring with Joe Cocker and Julian Lennon as well as individuals such as jazz artist Hiram Bullock and drummer David Beal. I also designed costumes for the stage during that time. At twenty-eight, I began learning American Sign Language. Ten years later found myself translating Twelfth Night with the ASL Shakespeare Project and performing in my second language.
In the past twenty years I’ve trained my focus on playwriting. I’ve had professional productions of my plays, won national awards, and had more workshops and readings of new work than I can count. I’ve taught at the Wilma Theater’s studio school in Philadelphia, the New Zealand School of Performing Arts/Toi Whakaari, Monroe Correctional Facility, As If Theatre in Kenmore, BPA’s theater school, and privately. In 2012 at age fifty-two I completed an MFA in Writing with a concentration in playwriting. My Husband and I moved to Bainbridge Island in 2018. This October my play, MagPie, will be produced by InD Theatre here on the Island directed by Rachel Noll James.For more details please visit my website www.CatherineRush.com