This site is currently under construction. Please see below a written overview of my work in Theatre, Voice, Teaching & Film. I look forward to updating these pages with more specific project content soon.
Theatre
Eve for National Theatre of Scotland
Susan started performing in dance and theatre at the age of 4 before training for 4 years at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS), graduating with an BA (Honours) in Directing and on leaving won the Percival Steed Prize for Voice Appreciation. She has worked across Scotland’s main theatre stages and national organisations and directs and teaches in the UK, France, Brazil and Lebanon. She has worked with The National Theatre of Scotland and been supported by Creative Scotland, British Council Scotland, British Council Brazil and the Arab Fund for Arts & Culture. Her productions have won 3 separate Made in Scotland Awards.
Susan is co-founding director of Queen Jesus Productions, working with Jo Clifford and Annabel Cooper to direct the internationally acclaimed The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven, which toured to Brazil in 2016, won a Made in Scotland and Scottish Arts Award, was invited to Belgium as part of the inaugural Made in Scotland Festival Brussels and continues to tour to South America, UK and Europe. Funded by Creative Scotland, she co-curated and directed a week long festival for Jesus, Queen of Heaven’s 10th Anniversary in November 2019 which brought together the UK and Brazilian productions, a series of seminar panel discussions, a new 10th Anniversary publication on the history of the work and playtext, as well as workshop opportunities for and the creation of a new ensemble of trans artists.
During their 10 year creative partnership, Susan and Jo Clifford have created numerous works, including Sex, Chips & The Holy Ghost a commission originally for Oran Mor theatre with support from Playwright Studio Scotland. Susan developed and directed this for Channel 4 television, awarded their Channel 4 Alpha Funding. Both World Premieres of Jo’s EVE for the National Theatre of Scotland and War in America which Susan directed are mentioned below.
Susan was the inaugural Director of The Attic Collective, establishing an ensemble theatre company, working with emerging artists aged 18-26. The company was resident at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre and Kings Theatre, Edinburgh, the two largest and most prolific stages in Scotland. Susan created a year round access to industry programme and a season of 3 main-stage productions, which engaged hugely positive critical reviews and nationwide support for the initiative. Ensemble members have gone on to work for national organisations such as the National Theatre of Scotland and the BBC, working locally and internationally on stage and screen as well as gaining places of further education on both the BA and MA programmes at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
In one year spanning over 2017/18 alone, Susan directed 8 productions. She directed and designed the world premiere of Eve by Jo Clifford & Chris Goode for The National Theatre of Scotland performing at the Traverse Theatre, Citizens Theatre, Dundee Repertory Theatre, Nairn Festival and the International Theatre Festival in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. This production was one of the central programme commissions for the NTS that year. She co-created and directed The Last Post composed for trumpet, text and electronics (St Magnus International Festival commission, Made in Scotland 2017 Award), Lysistrata (Aristophanes), Threepenny Opera (Brecht) (Kings Theatre, Edinburgh), War in America (Old Royal High School, Jo Clifford World Premiere) as Director for the Attic Collective ensemble at Kings and Edinburgh Festival Theatre, The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven (UK Tour & Traverse Theatre Christmas Production, 2018), Heroine by Mary Jane Wells (Made in Scotland 2018, Scottish Arts Award), and co-created CLEOPATRA with Brazilian performance artist Diego Bagagal at SESC Palladium, Belo Horizonte, Brazil working with Shakespeare’s Antony & Cleopatra text in Portuguese.
In 2019, she was commissioned to create ALIVEwith dance artist Skye Reynolds, an intimate dance text performed on a dissection table and in anatomy lecture theatres, where the audience gather close, gently confronting their own mortality and celebrating what it is to be alive. This was co-commissioned by Citymoves to open their DanceLive 2019 Festival. With this work, Skye & Susan consulted with the Anatomy Department of University of Aberdeen which is led by one of only two Regius Professors of Anatomy in the world, where they were also invited to deliver a series of artists talks as part of the Medical Humanities core programme.
Also in 2019, Susan directed the European Premiere of Father working with Italian based writer/performer Francesca Bartellini at the Tron Theatre, Scotland looking at the micro to macro causes of climate change.
Heroinemarks Susan’s third Made in Scotland Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2018, having received outstanding critical response for it’s initial outing at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre in 2017. Mary and Susan initiated research for Heroine in 2013 and it’s trajectory demonstrates Susan’s trademark approach of combining an intense embodied vocal development process, creating long term relationships and support to individual artists from which a production is created.
In February 2020 Susan toured her production of Heroine to the USA where it was invited to perform at The Kennedy Centre, Washington DC as part of the World Stages programme to sold out audiences. Whilst there, she was invited to speak at the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics, Georgetown University.
In March 2020, Susan returned from the Mostra International Theatre Festival Sao Paulo (MIT-SP) where Jesus, Queen of Heaven was invited to perform in partnership with the FARROFA festival, as a continued part of Queen Jesus’s year long 10th Anniversary celebrations.
Her productions continue to tour the UK, Europe, South America & USA.
Voice & Teaching
Susan met Nadine George at the age of 18 whilst training at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and has worked consistently and closely with Nadine since 1994. She was an inaugural co-director of the Nadine George Voice Centre of Voice Studio International and is one of the small group of world-wide accredited teachers. The Nadine George Voice Work (NGVW) is the basis for all of Susan’s practice: teaching and creating work across artistic disciplines both nationally and internationally. She has played a fundamental role in the development of the Nadine George Voice Centre of Voice Studio International, the establishment of the technique in the Arts and Health sector, in the ongoing creation of the VSI accreditation course and the creation of the accredited teachers’ annual symposium.
Susan works with NGVW in it’s pure form and in translation and works across art forms with writers, directors, actors, producers, musicians, visual artists, dancers and choreographers, as well as with educators, ecologists, academics and executives. Since 2011, Susan has established NGVW with Scotland’s leading neurodiverse company Lung Ha Theatre where her work has become embedded within the company’s daily practice. Susan is currently developing voice research with the actors in vocal sound and Shakespearean text which will lead to co-directing a main-stage production of King Lear with the company in 2024/25.
Susan has developed NGVW within the transgender community in Scotland, working with the LGBT Health Centres in both Edinburgh and Glasgow. She has provided 2 day voice workshops for Sign Language Interpreters in Scotland, offering networking and discussion opportunities for the community through an embodied practice as well as provide space to personally and professionally explore their own voices.
As an Associate Teacher to the Centre for Voice in Performance at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, from which she graduated with a BA Hons in Directing in 1998, Susan teaches across programmes at both an undergraduate and post-graduate level, from the BA actor training programme to the MA in contemporary and classical texts. Susan co-designed the original Daily Voice Practice for the BA in Contemporary Performance Practice, working with the eco-centric artist model and for whom she has also directed. She has taught on the Bachelor of Music courses and designs and delivers training for the Lifelong Learning department including: Directing for Theatre, Introduction to Actor Training, Third Age Company (Ensemble for age 50+) and Acting Skills for Adults with Learning Difficulties.
In 2016, Susan delivered a 2 day voice workshop as part of the International Theatre Festival in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, working into Portuguese Shakespearean text. This was funded by British Council Brazil. In 2018, she was invited to teach at the theatre department of Federal State University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil delivering a series of week long masterclasses across curricular with their acting students.
In 2019, Susan designed and delivered a two month professional actors’ training course on voice, acting and Shakespearean text for YAZAN arts organisation in Beirut, Lebanon. This was supported by the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture and was specifically designed for 10 students including Lebanese and Syrian actors, dancers and musicians. Prior to the Covid19 pandemic, she was invited to design and teach a month long programme for undergraduate theatre students at the University of Kaslik, Mount Lebanon.
Susan has delivered her research ‘Voicing Our Vision’ with Bates Method natural vision teacher, Anna Bambridge, at the World Holistic Vision Conference in Belgium and was guest speaker and workshop facilitator at the Department of Nursing, Queen Margaret University’s ‘Embodied Persons’ Conference, where she received a special invitation to be a TedX Speaker at the department’s event. She was also a visiting lecturer on QMU’s MSc in Dance Movement Psychotherapy.
For 10 years, Susan delivered voice workshops as part of the Voice Studio International workshop programme - one of only 2 teachers to do so outwith Nadine George herself. Previously held in London and now in Glasgow, Scotland, her workshops continue and are sold out every year and include artists who travel from all over the world to participate including Singapore, Croatia, Canada, Denmark, Sweden and France as well as Scotland.
Susan has spent over 25 years working with, teaching and directing Shakespeare both in the English language and in translation, as well as working with classical European playwrights. Alongside this, she also collaborates on the creation of modern texts, understanding the in depth processes of modern form, having worked with Scotland’s leading contemporary playwrights as well as supporting emerging writers.
Since 2001 Susan has worked as an executive coach, transferring her skills to the private and public sector creating packages to support individuals and teams in a range of companies such as Audit Scotland, NHS, Scottish Police Association, Scottish Police College and DC Thomson. Since 2008, Susan has designed and delivered voice and presentation skills training packages for the Senior Careers Development Service based at The Scottish Police College, working with Scotland’s senior chief police officers in small group workshops and one to one sessions. This has led to Susan coaching at a Chief Constable level on a one to one basis and with senior officers at the MET Police, London. During the Co-vid pandemic, Susan continued working online on a one to one and small group basis with: CEO’s across the public sector including Scotland’s Auditor General and leader of the UK Consumer Council for Water; Judges and Lawyers working within immigration courts and in conflict resolution across Canada, Ireland, Lebanon and the UK; with business leaders and journalists in France; with leaders of cultural organisations in Brazil, Uruguay, and Ghana, working with the Association for Womens Rights in Development.
For Susan, the Co-vid19 Pandemic was a period of restrictive times but widening access. Susan designed and translated both her theatre and voice work to the online world, creating new forms and further accessibility to her work.
Susan translated her voice practice onto video conferencing platforms, delivering hugely successful packages of one to one work for previous clients in France, Lebanon and Brazil, whilst entering new territories with clients in Canada, Ireland and the USA. She translated and designed Voice Studio International’s Online Programme, being the sole teacher of the 2 day group workshop programme, making the work uniquely accessible and offering space for expansion during constrained times. She similarly offered artist space for the Tron’s BUILD workshop programme.
Susan continues her work online and internationally in the room, teaching and developing an energised, creative and released style of working.
Film
Susan first worked professionally in film at the age of 18, being cast in the award winning Hunger Artist by Bernard Rudden ('Brilliant the best film I have seen this year. Totally Original.' - Irvine Welsh, Author of Trainspotting.) She went on to learn skills behind the camera as 3rd Assistant Director on Granada Productions and working as a voice director on film productions (Beautiful People, Daybreak) before directing herself. Susan is currently establishing a new production company with film-maker Stuart Platt, bringing together their 60 years of shared experience in theatre and film. She developed her Theatre for Film approach with Stuart, which came to the fore during the pandemic.
With Queen Jesus Productions, Susan has directed live streamed, site specific performances, executive produced an online programme for Queen Jesus’s new ensemble and co-produced 68 Months in Waiting by Nelly Kelly for National Theatre of Scotland’s Scenes for Survival broadcast on BBC Scotland.
Together Susan & Stuart have uniquely translated theatre concepts for film, initially with Sex, Chips and The Holy Ghost, a Channel 4 commissioned short film based on an original theatre production directed by Susan and then translated for television. This included co-writing the script, location scouting, production design, prop & costume design and project management as well as all aspects of film shooting and final edit. Their ‘Theatre For Film’ approach continued with numerous iterations of the reknowned production The Gospel According To Jesus, Queen of Heaven where they have not only documented the national/international journey of the MainStage production but also, uniquely, created a single shot 1hr 15 minute promenade performance that was live streamed during the pandemic in December 2020. This was a highly creative and technically successful production, establishing a safe work environment during the lockdown period and included a separate BSL interpreter link and captions. It is currently being viewed internationally across platforms, and is enabling the work of Jesus, Queen of Heaven to be studied on faith and gender courses in university departments in the USA and Europe.
Also during the pandemic Stuart & Susan deepened their Theatre for Film concept by co-creating two series of A Space To Bless, creating new content and an holistic space for viewers to gather online with a daily live-streamed promenade through St Mary’s Cathedral, with 5 daily chapters culminating in a compete 55 minute film, available in recorded format. These series of films have been distributed through theatre and film festivals internationally and offer a new format of theatre/film viewing.
Susan was originally engaged as Co-Director with Maria Oller of Lung Ha Theatre Company to develop a production of King Lear for stage, which was put on hold at the beginning of the pandemic. With the Co-vid19 pandemic still affecting safe, large group gathering and the ensuing changes to the theatre industry, Susan proposed a first phase step towards this production by creating a short film version of Love Like Salt, the folktale that was an original source for Shakespeare's King Lear play in 1606. Across 2021/22 Susan created, developed and produced this with the Lung Ha acting company, Maria Oller and Stuart Platt to provide a full company production which was safe and creative, offering new skills to the company and which introduced company actors to the themes and source materials of King Lear, bedding in knowledge and language towards an eventual main stage production in 2025. This work completed filming in March 2022 and is now in post production as a 20 minute short film which Susan has written and edited.
Susan and Stuart recently returned from Mexico and Greece to film a new project based on the book Unnatural Companions written by and working with science journalist Peter Christie. Their documentary of the same name traces our relationship to domestic pets and the impact this has on wild life extinction, biodiversity and the crack in our climate stability.
Their current slate of work also includes: two feature films based on John Holloway’s seminal works Change The World Without Taking Power and Hope; a drama documentary based on the work, life and poems of Tom Leonard; and a half hour tv film, posthumously honouring poet Alexander Hutchison. They are currently developing a film based on the legacy of educator Paolo Freire and continue to make short dramas with a self run film collective.
