Rachel Jett

Artistic Director

Rachel has been a faculty member at NTI since 1998 and is an alumnus of NTI, NTI-Advanced Directing, and the Moscow Art Theatre Semester. In 2007, she earned her MFA from the Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Rachel was a Baryshnikov Fellow and named "One of 50 to Watch" by Dramatist Magazine. She was the first American aspirant to Andrei Droznin, Master Teacher of Movement at the Vakhtangov Theatre in Moscow. Rachel is one of the few practitioners teaching this method of Russian movement in the United States. Her musical Hameko and Lulu written with composer Eric Day has had workshops at NYU, Barrington Stage, and Playwrights Horizons. She has also written the musicals Comfort with composer Sun Hee Huh and Sophia Venetia Voyager with Shoshana Greenberg and Moon Hee Park.

Currently, Rachel is working on a musical adaptation of Chekhov short stories with lyricist Julianne Wick-Davis and composer Will Aronson. She is a former company member of the Helen Hayes award-winning Stanislavsky Theater Studio and the Synetic Theater in Washington D.C. She has taught workshops at various universities and colleges, including Julliard, Wheaton, Wellesley, and Smith and has taught playwriting and movement for the New York State Summer School of the Arts (NYSSSA). Rachel can be seen in STAG, a short film written by Donna DiNovelli, directed by Kevin Newbury, starring Sarah Steele. She just completed a run of The Body Artist by Don DeLillo adapted and directed by Jody McAuliffe at Abrons Arts Center in New York and Reynolds Industries Theater at Duke University.

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Amanda Kay Ritchie

Director of Marketing & College Relations

Amanda is a graduate of Providence College (B.A. American Studies, Business Studies, Theater) and has held positions with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (National Symphony Orchestra, Washington National Opera, DeVos Institute of Arts Management), and Playwrights Horizons. In 2017 she co-produced the Broadway concert of Tales of the City, benefiting the O'Neill and The Trevor Project. Amanda has worked for the National Theater Institute since 2013 where she oversees recruitment, admissions, college & university relations, financial aid, marketing, and alumni relations. She is the primary contact for the Moscow Art Theatre Semester.

Laura Padilla

NTI Administrative Assistant

Laura Elena Padilla works as an Administrative Assistant for the National Theatre Institute. She identifies as an actor, director, playwright with an emphasis in BIPOC theatre, specifically Latinx Theatre Arts. Originally from Salinas, California, Laura received her Bachelor's degree in Theatre Arts from The California State University of Sacramento in 2019. Laura is a recent National Theater Institute alum from Spring ‘21 in the Acting program.