Indian, an angel, a grandmother or a paper doll. It could be one or all, all and more. Take this face, add this body and there is within them the possibility to experience every emotion ever felt, all the actions and reactions that have ever occurred since the dawn of man. I have only to open my being to all of these possibilities. In the article, Rice also offers this description of the work of Living Stage and the practice of theatre for social change: For her contributions to the DC community, Rice was awarded the Toast and Strawberries Community Service Award in Washington, DC. In 1985, Rice left Living Stage to pursue her work as an independent artist working in communities across the country, as well as in Europe and Latin America. Eventually she settled in Minneapolis–Saint Paul where she began a long association with the famed Penumbra Theatre Company. There she appeared in leading roles in The Piano Lesson, Fences, Two Trains Running, Willie and Ester and Jar the Floor. The collaboration with Penumbra's Artistic Director, Lou Bellamy, led to an invitation to become a member of the ensemble. In 1993–94, she wrote and directed the season opener, Waiting in Vain, an evening-length play based on a newspaper article of a young African American girl's death and exploring the issues of the working poor and returning veterans. In 1995, Everlasting Arms, a performance piece focusing on street violence and its effect upon mother–son relationships, became the company's season closer. Rice starred in the latter with Omari Shakir (aka Gavin Lawrence) and the show was directed by Laurie Carlos. While in Minneapolis, in 1987, Rice joined the nation's first multi-racial professional women's theater ensemble, At the Foot of the Mountain Women's Theatre Company, where she collaborated in the creation of Story of a Mother and premiered This is the House (written and performed with Janet Stanford). She went on to become Artistic Director of that theater and conducted a yearlong training program in Theater for Social Change that produced the original drama Allegiance, which addressed the issue of racism and its roots in American culture. After taking intensive classes with the Washington School of the Institute for Policy Studies, and Margo-Okasawa-Rey, founder of The Anti-Racism/Anti-Oppression Education Network, as well as the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond in New Orleans, LA, during the 1990s she became a much sought-after