ShoutOut LA has published an extensive feature article about TheatreWorkers Project Founder & Director Susie Tanner. Here’s a brief excerpt.
We had the good fortune of connecting with Susan Tanner and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Susan, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
Taking risks has been the driving force behind my career. Starting out as an actor, the risk to put myself forward and take a chance that I would be rejected–not cast, not hired—was ever-present. When I started to explore directing and producing, I took huge creative and financial risks, launching many projects and ultimately founding TheatreWorkers Project funding by the first grant proposal I had ever written.
When I decided to act on my dream of creating theatre with industrial workers, I took a risk by submitting an Artist in Communities grant proposal to the California Arts Council that would set my work with unemployed steelworkers in motion and would change the direction of my professional life. I had no idea how the project would turn out. I had no idea if the men with whom I would eventually work would buy into the concept but they did. It was a glorious time in my life, full of exciting work and creative risk-taking. As the years passed and I added many other unheard communities to TheatreWorkers Project’s programs, I continued to take creative and financial risks because the end products were always the “unknown”.
Creating theatre for the last 6 years with formerly incarcerated and then incarcerated participants has been the most meaningful, rewarding, and challenging risk-based work of my career. I love the feeling of diving into a project not knowing what will evolve. I’m in awe of how collaborating with my fellow artists and the participants always produces amazing creative projects. I would never consider playing it safe by relying on previously written plays for the participants to rehearse and perform. Taking that creative risk and inviting those with whom I collaborate to do the same is where I live!
Enjoy the full article.
