Rachel Factor – Performer, School Director, Playwright/Producer – Ramat Beit Shemesh

Rachel Factor is recognized worldwide as an inspirational Jewish performer and educator. Over thirty thousand women worldwide, young and old, religious and non-religious, Jews and non-Jews, have enthusiastically attended Rachel’s performances worldwide.

Her first acclaimed one-woman show, J.A.P., chronicles her journey through Hawaii, Los Angeles and New York as a singer, dancer and actress, and finally to her home in Jerusalem. Continuing the story, Mrs. Factor wrote and produced sequel Not Even Normal and subsequently Becoming Rich, a production of song, dance and story that exploring faith and self-worth.

Rachel founded the Jerusalem Center for the Performing Arts, formerly known as Bnos Miriam, in 2005 to avail Orthodox Jewish girls and women, who did not have prior access to the performing arts and their unique power to build self-confidence, self-esteem and pride in their Jewish heritage. Each year JCPA touches and transforms the lives of thousands of Jewish girls, women, and their families through weekly classes, special programs and public performances.

Rachel Factor worked in “the industry” for 15 years before discovering the light of Torah and taking on a life of mitzvot.  Her extensive experience as a professional performer for over 20 years has included 8 years on Broadway, over 40 television and print commercial clients, numerous MTV music videos, television and film appearances, and performances at the Radio City Music Hall as a World Famous Rockette. She founded a writing/performance group in New York which played to sold-out crowds, starred in several Shakespearean classics and directed plays and readings in the Off-Off Broadway realm.

Based on her years in Shakespeare, Broadway and off-Broadway venues, writing and acting classes in NY and LA, Equity-waiver productions on both coasts with emerging playwrights and experimental theater, and the development of her own solo performances, Rachel will share her process of show development, explaining the various levels of “workshopping” a production, how it is done on the level of a personal artist and on the Broadway scale as well.

Read Rachel’s full and fascinating story HERE, as well as learn about the Jerusalem Center for the Performing Arts HERE