Photograph by David John Attyah
Contact information: Email - [email protected]
Instagram - @stop_saying_im_sorry
FB - https://www.facebook.com/melissa.randel/
actor dancer director choreographer playwright theater-maker
MY STORY:
Thanks to my English teacher, Miss Mitchell, my gift for truth surfaced as a nascent playwright in fifth-grade. We were encouraged to write and perform plays in class, so I invented characters who said and did things I was not allowed to express. Women being silenced has been a recurring theme in my work ever since.
Theater-making driven equally by movement, imagery, and text, is my passion. Revelation of the human condition onstage is my goal. I believe that when the exquisite world of the body wrestles with the complexity of the heart, we cannot look away. Paradoxically, what I love most about live theater is the Audience’s freedom to look anywhere.
I was born in Portland, Maine to Rockette dancer, Myrna Randolph and jazz trombonist, Herb Randel. My first nine years were spent assisting my dance teacher mother and earning college money doing commercials for potato chips. When my father took a sales job with Gretsch drums and guitars, the family moved to Memphis, and later, Los Angeles, California. To satisfy my parents, I attended the University of California Irvine and majored in dance. To satisfy myself, I graduated in three years to pursue a performing career.
Highlights of my early career range from being a magician’s assistant in Mexico to playing Judy Turner in Michael Bennett’s A Chorus Line on Broadway. I spent five years in the Broadway, International, National, and Bus and Truck companies of A Chorus Line. The tutelage of Michael Bennett, Bob Avian, Marvin Hamlisch, and Joseph Papp left an indelible impression. It was my Julliard.
Inspired by a line of dialogue, “Don’t you want to do more than just dance in the chorus?” I left A Chorus Line and attended The Actor’s Space two-year conservatory program, under Alan Langdon. I subsequently built a reputation for originating roles Off Broadway and in the 99 seat theaters of Los Angeles. Productions include the NYC premiere of Molly Newman’s, Shooting Stars and the Los Angeles premiere of Sheila Callaghan’s, Roadkill Confidential.
Working with at-risk populations in the New York City and Los Angeles public schools and juvenile justice systems led to an academic career at Glendale Community College where I chaired the dance department for two years, and the theater department for more than a decade.
Extensive training with Anne Bogart’s SITI Company, an avant garde, movement-based theater company, coincided with my foray into academia. Guided by both Broadway and experimental muses, I mounted wildly inventive productions of classics and musicals at the college, including: Romeo and Juliet (fountain statues of Romeo and Juliet came alive at top of show and watched their lives unfold as ghosts), Waiting for Lefty (marathon dancers flanked the stage, dancing and making scene changes), A Doll House (featured a chorus of Nora's), Godspell (featured an infamous scene with everyone and everything on wheels), and original, devised collaborations with students: This is not a Tree and We are Stardust.
In 2013, I launched my own production company, Leap in the Dark Productions. The inaugural production, The Hat, was an original, semi-autobiographical play with dance and music. The Hat premiered as a duet with renowned New York City jazz trombonist David Gibson, at the New York International Fringe Festival in 2013. It was re-imagined as a solo project entitled, The Women of The Hat at Alva's Showroom, Hollywood Fringe Festival, Los Angeles Women’s Theater Festival, and at The Rag Factory in London in 2017.
In 2019, an early draft of Sorry. was selected by SITI Company for a movement development residency with SITI Lab in New York City. The residency culminated in a Staged Reading. During the Pandemic, the script of Sorry. continued to be developed. In 2022 there was a table reading and in 2023, character studies of the three main characters were workshopped in Gary Imhoff's Professional Artists Workshop.
In June of 2025, Sorry. premiered on Summer Solstice at Moving Arts Theater in Atwater.
Thanks to my English teacher, Miss Mitchell, my gift for truth surfaced as a nascent playwright in fifth-grade. We were encouraged to write and perform plays in class, so I invented characters who said and did things I was not allowed to express. Women being silenced has been a recurring theme in my work ever since.
Theater-making driven equally by movement, imagery, and text, is my passion. Revelation of the human condition onstage is my goal. I believe that when the exquisite world of the body wrestles with the complexity of the heart, we cannot look away. Paradoxically, what I love most about live theater is the Audience’s freedom to look anywhere.
I was born in Portland, Maine to Rockette dancer, Myrna Randolph and jazz trombonist, Herb Randel. My first nine years were spent assisting my dance teacher mother and earning college money doing commercials for potato chips. When my father took a sales job with Gretsch drums and guitars, the family moved to Memphis, and later, Los Angeles, California. To satisfy my parents, I attended the University of California Irvine and majored in dance. To satisfy myself, I graduated in three years to pursue a performing career.
Highlights of my early career range from being a magician’s assistant in Mexico to playing Judy Turner in Michael Bennett’s A Chorus Line on Broadway. I spent five years in the Broadway, International, National, and Bus and Truck companies of A Chorus Line. The tutelage of Michael Bennett, Bob Avian, Marvin Hamlisch, and Joseph Papp left an indelible impression. It was my Julliard.
Inspired by a line of dialogue, “Don’t you want to do more than just dance in the chorus?” I left A Chorus Line and attended The Actor’s Space two-year conservatory program, under Alan Langdon. I subsequently built a reputation for originating roles Off Broadway and in the 99 seat theaters of Los Angeles. Productions include the NYC premiere of Molly Newman’s, Shooting Stars and the Los Angeles premiere of Sheila Callaghan’s, Roadkill Confidential.
Working with at-risk populations in the New York City and Los Angeles public schools and juvenile justice systems led to an academic career at Glendale Community College where I chaired the dance department for two years, and the theater department for more than a decade.
Extensive training with Anne Bogart’s SITI Company, an avant garde, movement-based theater company, coincided with my foray into academia. Guided by both Broadway and experimental muses, I mounted wildly inventive productions of classics and musicals at the college, including: Romeo and Juliet (fountain statues of Romeo and Juliet came alive at top of show and watched their lives unfold as ghosts), Waiting for Lefty (marathon dancers flanked the stage, dancing and making scene changes), A Doll House (featured a chorus of Nora's), Godspell (featured an infamous scene with everyone and everything on wheels), and original, devised collaborations with students: This is not a Tree and We are Stardust.
In 2013, I launched my own production company, Leap in the Dark Productions. The inaugural production, The Hat, was an original, semi-autobiographical play with dance and music. The Hat premiered as a duet with renowned New York City jazz trombonist David Gibson, at the New York International Fringe Festival in 2013. It was re-imagined as a solo project entitled, The Women of The Hat at Alva's Showroom, Hollywood Fringe Festival, Los Angeles Women’s Theater Festival, and at The Rag Factory in London in 2017.
In 2019, an early draft of Sorry. was selected by SITI Company for a movement development residency with SITI Lab in New York City. The residency culminated in a Staged Reading. During the Pandemic, the script of Sorry. continued to be developed. In 2022 there was a table reading and in 2023, character studies of the three main characters were workshopped in Gary Imhoff's Professional Artists Workshop.
In June of 2025, Sorry. premiered on Summer Solstice at Moving Arts Theater in Atwater.
"Melissa's Dream" (aka: Persephone's Descent ) was an early study for Sorry.. Composed during the pandemic, it captures the confinement, restlessness, and ennui of 2020, and contrasts it with Persephone's sense of freedom when she's on Earth. Adam Cohen original composition: Galactic Layers.
Melissa R. Randel - Choreographer, Dancer
Adam Cohen - Composer, Keyboards, Bass, Mix Engineer
David Anderson - Drums, Cinematographer, Video Editor
Filmed on Hollywood Beach in Ventura and Highland Park, CA
It was a joy to collaborate with both of these fine Los Angeles musicians.
HAIR/EYES: DARK BROWN HEIGHT: 5’7” WEIGHT: 125 LBS
ORIGINAL PRODUCTION: BROADWAY/INTERNATIONAL/BUS & TRUCK TOURS
A CHORUS LINE Judy Turner Michael Bennett/Shubert Theatre
US: Sheila/Christine/Cassie
THEATRE
CONFEDERATES Stephanie Christopher Hart/Grove Theater
WHEN SKIES ARE GRAY Diane Thymele Arts/Hollywood Fringe
ESPRIT DE CORPS Kate Sydney Walsh/S. Pasadena Thtr.
WONDER CITY Lupe/Emmanuel/Frank Ashley Steed/Son of Semele
ROADKILL CONFIDENTIAL Trevor Barbara Kallir/Son of Semele
JULIUS CAESAR Cicero/Messala/Cinna the Poet Karesa McElheny/Knightsbridge
365 DAYS/365 PLAYS Woman Martin Bedoian/Glendale Theatre
COVER OF LIFE Kate Sara Botsford/Noho Arts Center
SISTERS ROSENSWEIG Pfeni Phyllis Gitlin/Long Beach Playhs.
TALK TO ME LIKE THE RAIN Woman Tony Greco/Attic Theatre
RULES OF LOVE Maisie Angela Pietropinto/Kraine Th.
SHOOTING STARS Shelby Richard Maynard/Actors Space
ORIGINAL WORKS: DEVISED PHYSICAL THEATRE
SORRY. Persephone Moving Arts
SORRY. Creator/Playwright/Director/Choreographer SITI Company Lab Series
THE HAT (solo version) Rose/Ruth The Rag Factory – London
THE HAT (abridged) Rose/Ruth LA Women’s Theatre Festival
THE WOMEN OF THE HAT Rose/Ruth Theatre of NOTE/Alva’s Showroom/Son of Semele Solo Festival
THE HAT (two-character version w/ live jazz trombonist) NYC International Fringe Festival
ASYLUM Bunny Company Creation Festival/SOSE
WE ARE STARDUST Writer/Director/Choreographer Glendale Community College
This is NOT a Tree Writer/Director/Choreographer Glendale Community College
DOROTHY PARKER Director/Mimi / Woman The Complex
FILM
PLAYING IT STRAIGHT FEATURED James Marshall
INNER VOICES FEATURED Peter Lindberg
DAEDALUS IS DEAD CO-STAR Michael Easton
A CHORUS LINE FEATURED Sir Richard Attenborough
TELEVISION
COULD IT BE A MIRACLE GUEST STAR Swartz Productions
THE FUNNIEST JOKE... GUEST STAR Dick Clarke Productions
SPECIAL SKILLS: Viewpoints/Suzuki/Composition with SITI Company, Choreographer, Director, Horseback, Swim, Body Surf, Snorkel, Softball, Magician’s Assistant: Levitation and Disappearing
EDUCATION: BA Dance - University of California, Irvine
MA Dance - California State University