Susan “Susie” Franklin Tanner (SAG-AFTRA, AEA), TWP’s Founder and Director, is an innovator in the field of documentary theatre and arts education with more than 35 years’ experience as a producer, director, actor, teaching artist, and professional development provider.
As the Founder/Director of TheatreWorkers Project (TWP), she has led the creation of 18 community-based, participant-generated, original performance pieces, including Lady Beth: the steelworkers play which was performed locally and toured 16 cities co-sponsored by Bruce Springsteen. The creation of Lady Beth and Susie’s work with unemployed steelworkers were profiled in the PBS documentary A Steel Life Drama.
Susie was a core member of the Living Stage Company at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., performing and teaching in prisons, halfway houses, and community facilities. Her work in the California corrections community includes residencies and workshops at California Institution for Men (CIM), California Institution for Women (CIW), and Valley State Prison. She is the program director for TWP’s Arts in Corrections program at California State Prison-LAC and leads theatre reentry programs at Dads Back! Academy & The Francisco Homes.
Susie is the producer/director/lead teaching artist for TWP’s LA Unified School District Arts Community Network (ACN) & California Arts Council (CAC) school touring residencies. She has directed numerous readings, and one-acts as a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA and has directed six radio plays for the SAG-AFTRA Radio Play Committee.
Susie designed and taught “Theatre for Social Change” at Woodbury University and created/led a distance-collaboration with La Colmenita, the Cuban National Children’s theatre company. She was honored to share her work as the producer and director Bertolt Brecht’s A Man’s A Man with The Berliner Ensemble’s members.
Susie was a co-presenter with Kitty Felde for Allies at the Table: The Role of White Theatre Artists in Multi-Ethnic Conversations, at the NYU 2016 Forum, and has been a presenter at numerous arts and justice conferences and theatre education events including Connecting Art and Law for Liberation (CALL)/UCLA and the Arts Schools Network, Lincoln Center.
Grants have included California Arts Council (CAC) Artists in Communities and Artists Activating Communities Grants, a Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs Artist in Residence Social Justice Grant, and a Pasadena Arts and Cultural Affairs Individual Artist Grant. Awards have included a 2011 Music Center Bravo Award, CTG JP Morgan Chase and National Artist Teacher Fellowships, and a Los Angeles County Federation of Labor Union Label Award.
Susie is a member of the Justice Arts Coalition, the LACHSA Social Justice Committee, and the Transformative In-Prison Workgroup. She has a B.A. in Theatre from the University of California Riverside, a Lifetime Community College Teaching Credential, and a Career Tech Ed Credential in Arts, Media, and Entertainment.
