Theatre
** “Poe-sers” 2011 chosen by New York City based Co-op Theater East for a staged reading in Tribeca as part of their reading series.
* ‘Poe-sers’ to celebrate the Bicentennial of Edgar Allan Poe, Susan remounted the one-act play in the September 2009 Philadelphia Fringe Festival. It was honored by being included in The Third International Edgar Allan Poe Conference held in Philadelphia in October, 2009 where she spoke on the development of the piece and the influence of EA Poe on her life and work.
Poe-sers wrote, produced and co-directed in the 2007 Philadelphia Fringe Festival to a sold-out run. ‘Poe-sers’ depicts the different personas which the character has developed to deal with the trauma of physical and sexual abuse. It is interwoven with lines from the poems of Edgar Allan Poe.
Whispers, Songs, Ghosts of the Past wrote and produced in Spring of 2005 and in the Fall of 2005 for the Philadelphia Fringe Festival ..’Whispers’ chronicles my journey through breast cancer treatment incorporating monologue, film and songs.
Performance Art
Out of the Shadows 2008, written, directed by Martina Plag performed at the CEC Philadelphia and The Joyce Theater, SoHo, New York City.
Truth on-going .. a series of graphic auto-biographical monologues, performed at The Walnut Street Theater, First Person Arts story slam, Philly’s Pissed.
Chalk Fall of 2006 street performance. Wearing a ticking metronome, crouched Silently in the streets writing in chalk the harsh statistics of breast cancer.
Communication 2005 University of Pennsylvania Upper Meyerson Gallery created by Julia Barbosa Landois. Depicted the generational gap between mother and daughter, painful attempts to communicate. partially disrobed, scrubbing each others backs with harsh abrasives.
Photography
*In 2012 at The Asian Arts Initiative – “Witness” – Artists response to Aids 30 years later – large format black and white archival C-Prints with attached poem.
*In 2012 at 3rd Street Gallery – Coney Island Freak Show series – chromogenics with attached poems.
*In 2011 at 3rd street Gallery – ‘Claudia’ series – gelatin-silvers.
In 2009 the photo “Claudia” was chosen by Peter Barbarie, photography curator of the Philadelphia Museum of Art to be included with 68 other photographers internationally in “Onward” at Project Basho as an “Emerging Photographer of 2009”. Gelatin-silvers and chromogenics have also been in shows at The Plastic Club Gallery 2009, 2010 and Highwire Gallery, 2010
*In July-August, 2010 a retrospect of the Gelatins and chromogenics combined with
written text influenced by the images and covering four decades was included in the show“Queer Art ?” at the AxD Gallery.
*Gelatin- silver archival photos “Claudia” exhibited at the William Way Art Salon, 2006, “transgression” art show at The DaVinci Art Alliance, 2008..
Film
Nighthawks written and directed, a short film based on personal experiences as a 15 year-old runaway. Shown in the 2006 Philadelphia Film Festival, appeared for the month of September at I Gallery New York City.
Boston Underground Film Festival, Baltimore Women’s Film Festival, Marblehead Film Festival – 2007. Independent Festival of Cinema and Technology, 2008 and numerous venues and galleries.
Three Little Words – My “Pink Hanger Presents” filmed and produced, shown 2006 Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Washington, D.C.. and 2007 Philadelphia Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.
Installation Art / Multi-media Performance
‘Shout’ 2012 – moderator/ instructor 8 week writing workshop for HIV survivors culminating with a live performance by particpants of their monologues written during the class. ‘Shout’ was the closing for the ‘Witness’ gallery show.
‘a place to be” 2011 collaboration with Linda Dubin Garfield at Philadelphia Fringe Festival. The installation included a grouping of visual and memoir art collected at workshops with homeless organizations. It also included my b&w photos and Linda’s portraits the sale of which we contributed 100% to the organizations involved.
Reel Footage: Shoe Stories 2008 collaboration with Linda Dubin Garfield, Philadelphia Fringe Festival. This time I filmed the women’s shoe stories and also photographed them. It was installed for the duration of the festival at The Book Trader where the film played on a loop. Linda’s portraits and those of attendees were also installed.
Invisible/Invincible a collaboration with Linda Dubin Garfield. Installed at Ardmore Arts Initiative, Wooden Shoe Books. Combined the oral stories and live performance of ‘screams’ with Linda’s “Women of a Certain Age” portraits created by attendees. We were awarded a 2007 Grant from the Leeway Foundation, working with homeless women and children tested HIV positive to give them the tools to create, write and perform their personal stories.
Screams 2006 Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Bert &Jane Gallery, developed, produced, performed, recorded a compilation of women’s and children’s personal audio stories. Viewers of live performers in a muted box were able to listen to audio stories wearing headphones.
Rolling Naked created and produced 2005 Philadelphia Fringe FestivalGallery 51, Engaged ‘nude’ women on a lighted bed in a gallery window.
Grants
5-County Arts Fund – 2008 co-recipient “transgressions” mini arts festival at DaVinci Arts Alliance, over-head soundscape of the personal stories from “screams”
Leeway Foundation Art for Social Change – 2007 co-recipient for Invisible/Invincible with Linda Dubin Garfield. Partnered with Endow-A-Home a non-profit which provides permanent housing for formerly homeless women with young children. Helping them to find a way through art and speech to share their experiences in a way which supports rather than demeans them.