Leadership & Staff

Sarah Rasmussen started her first theater company at 14 in her hometown of Sisseton, South Dakota, after seeing a Garland Wright production. Since then she's gone on to a directing, producing, and teaching career with critical acclaim for inventive storytelling and a generous exchange between actor and audience.  Rasmussen is the former Artistic Director of the Jungle Theater in Minneapolis, MN where she commissioned, directed, and produced new work.  She was recently named Star Tribune's Artist of the Year and is an inaugural recipient of the BOLD Leadership Circle grant.  Directing credits include Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Guthrie, Dallas Theater Center, Actors Theater of Louisville and La Jolla Playhouse.  Awards include MN Theater Award for The Wolves, Princess Grace, an Ivey Award for Overall Excellence, Drama League and Fulbright fellowships.  New work development with Playwrights’ Center, The O’Neill, The Lark, and many others.  Alum of the Women’s Project, SoHo Rep., and Lincoln Center Directing Labs.   She was formerly the Resident Director for Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Black Swan Lab new work development program and Head of MFA Directing at the University of Texas at Austin.  MFA from the University of California, San Diego.  BA in English and Theater from St. Olaf College.

Originally from Rio de Janeiro, Paula Abreu has built a formidable
reputation in New York as a live event curator and culture pollinator. Since 2012, Abreu has produced dozens of artists' US premieres (including Emicida, Dino D’Santiago, and Gaby Amarantos) as part of a career responsible for the staging of over 1500+ performances,cumulatively attended by nearly a million audience members. She brings a decade of experience with multiple major non-profit NYC institutions, including the Red Hot Organization, Lincoln Center, and the SummerStage and Charlie Parker Jazz Festivals. Abreu’s work joyfully embraces creative diversity and offers a nuanced reimagining of the role of arts presenter. In 2019, she spearheaded SummerStage’s gender parity pledge, making the festival one of the first in the Americas to consistently present a 50-50 balance of male and female performers. A respected and frequently sought-after moderator for panels and engagements, Abreu has acted as an artistic juror, speaker, or mentor at conferences around the world, including South by Southwest (USA), Asia Pacific Music Meeting (Korea), Moshito Music Conference (South Africa), Atlantic Music Expo (Cape Verde), Mundial Montréal (Canada), Sonidos Latinos (Spain), Bogotá Music Market (Colombia), and MusiConnect (France). She is a 2022 Panelist for the NYC Women’s Fund for Media, Music and Theater; a 2021 American Express Converge Social Justice Leadership Academy Fellow;a SIM São Paulo Consulting Committee Member since 2019; and a 2018 WOMEX Samurai. Abreu holds a BS in Production Engineering from PUC-Rio and an MA in Performing Arts Administration from NYU. Among her most proud achievements are presenting the late Brazilian samba legend Elza Soares following a 30-year US performance hiatus; curating a community concert with the French Chilean Rapper/Activist Ana Tijoux; a debut collaboration between Afrobeat icon Seun Kuti and jazz-funk pioneer Roy Ayers, and the birth of her daughter Julia, who joined the Abreu family in 2020.

Susie Medak served as Berkeley Rep’s managing director from 1990-2022, leading the administration and operations of the Theatre. She served as president of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) and treasurer of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), organizations that represent the interests of nonprofit theatres across the nation. Susie chaired panels for the Massachusetts Arts Council and has also served on program panels for Arts Midwest, the Joyce Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Closer to home, Susie served on the board of the Downtown Berkeley Association (DBA). She is the founding chair of the Berkeley Arts in Education Steering Committee for Berkeley Unified School District and the Berkeley Cultural Trust. Susie served on the faculty of Yale School of Drama and is a member of the International Women’s Forum and the Mont Blanc Ladies’ Literary Guild and Trekking Society. She was awarded the 2012 Benjamin Ide Wheeler Medal by the Berkeley Community Fund and the 2017 Visionary Leadership Award by TCG. During her time at Berkeley Rep, Susie was been instrumental in the construction of the Roda Theatre, the Nevo Education Center, the renovation of the Peet’s Theatre, the acquisition of the Harrison Street campus, and the construction of a 45-unit artist housing building. She also worked with three consecutive mayors to help create Berkeley’s Downtown Arts District