Welcome! We're really glad you're here.
Meet the Founder
Rachel Aileen Abraham is a queer NYC-based playwright, production designer, and teaching artist.
As an artist, Rachel explores how humans interact with, and are impacted by, the space around them. Her narrative-driven set designs have screened at SXSW, the Beverly Hills Film Festival, Big Apple Film Festival, the NY Latino Film Festival, and the Tallahassee Film Festival. When she’s not on set, she writes slice-of-life plays that exist in the belly of the absurd and the magical, with the setting often becoming a character itself.
She has worked as a teaching artist with New York Theatre Workshop, MCC Theatre, and Center for Arts Education. Deeply influenced by the creative work and pedagogy of Liz Lerman, and shaped by her own creative process, Rachel puts the artist at the center of her teaching practice. She views her participants as collaborators, not students, and believes artists—of any level—are experts in their own work; they just need an experienced guide to amplify their innate creativity.
In 2014, she received her Master’s in Educational Theatre from NYU. In 2025, she put her professional artistry, education, and ten-plus years of teaching artist experience in NYC public schools to use and founded Amplify NYC. She currently resides on the other side of the Hudson River with her cat Penny and a wide variety of houseplants.
About Amplify NYC
Amplify NYC is an educational arts organization dedicated to turning up the volume on young creative voices.
Through in-class learning, after-school programming, and community-based partnerships, Amplify NYC participants create original stories and plays while exploring playwriting, directing, producing, and visual storytelling. Their work culminates in gallery-style showings, staged readings with New York City-based professional actors, and evenings of fully produced short plays for invited audiences.
In addition to our work with young people, we offer professional development workshops for school staff. In our PDs, we explore ways you can bring Liz Lerman's creative pedagogy into your classroom and give you a chance to try some of Amplify NYC’s signature programs!
What Makes Us Unique?
Artist-Centered Approach
We don't tell our participants what to do; we give them the practical knowledge, skills, and support they need to uncover their unique creative voices at their own pace.
Small Menu of Offerings
We offer a limited number of programs so we can bring our very best to each one.
Carefully Tailored Design
Each program provides a unique entry point into story-creation or play-making, suited to support the creative needs of its intended population or grade level.
Adaptable Curriculum
Our teaching artists have broad experience in D75 schools, Alternate Learning Centers, and with the STH population. We can easily adapt our curriculum to amplify these voices.
Why Do Schools Choose Amplify NYC?
All-Inclusive Programming
You provide the classroom and computers; we provide the inspiration, materials, and industry professionals.
Experienced and Screened Teaching Artists
Our teaching artists are required to have at least three years of experience
working in NYC public schools. All are
PETS cleared and fingerprinted
Approved NYC DOE Vendor
Vendor number secured and registered in the Polaris system. You provide the PO, we handle the logistics.
WBE Certified
Certifed as a Women-Owned Business Enterprise
LBE Certified
Certifed as an LGBTQ-owned Business Enterprise