Rachel Rosenthal is one of California’s seminal artists who pioneered various approaches to experimental performance before performance art was recognized as a genre. She is the founder and Artistic Director of The Rachel Rosenthal Company, is an interdisciplinary performer who has developed a revolutionary performance technique that integrates text, movement, voice, choreography, improvisation, inventive costuming, dramatic lighting and wildly imaginative sets into an unforgettable theater experience. Rosenthal has been critically ranked with Robert Wilson, Ping Chong, Richard Foreman, Meredith Monk and Laurie Anderson by Richard Schechner, editor of The Drama Review (TDR). She moved to California in 1955 where she created the experimental Instant Theatre, performing in and directing it for ten years. She was a leading figure in the L.A. Women’s Art Movement in the 1970s, co-founding Womanspace, and later, Espace DbD. Since 1975 Rosenthal has focused primarily on creating new works, writing, performing and teaching. Her work and its theatricality has influenced other California artists as diverse as Guillermo Gomez Pena, Joanna Wendt and Bob and Bob, all of whom have worked at the Highways Performance Space at 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica.

Pacific Standard Time was an unprecedented collaboration of more than sixty cultural institutions across Southern California, coming together to tell the story of the birth of the L.A. art scene. Initiated through grants from the Getty Foundation, Pacific Standard Time took place for six months beginning October 2011. Pacific Standard Time was an initiative of the Getty. The presenting sponsor was Bank of America.