Susan Jackson as Joan Crawford. Photo by Jim Norrena What most excites you about this production?
Playing an icon and wanting to meet audience expectations, but being able to bring something new to the field. And working with the fab people who are a part of Wily West. Thanks to Brady, Ryan, Wes, Quinn, and all the gang! And especially Morgan for the role!
And of course, the jewelry!
What is the greatest challenge you face for this show?
OH MY GOD JOAN CRAWFORD!
What kind of research are you doing to prepare?
My research has been looking at old film clips, but mostly clips of her as herself...interviews, moments where she is on camera--not as a character, but as herself. And reading articles about her--how others saw her....
Susan, you are a teacher, actor, director, and award-winning playwright...what came first? Who have you played before?
Acting came first (the witch when I was 15--perhaps a precursor to Joan?) and then directing, then playwrighting. I have portrayed many famous women--Thomas Wolf's mother, Stevie Smith--British poet, Dorothy Parker, Jackie Kennedy--and I wrote a play about Rock Hudson and his wife, so I knew a lot about the references/movie world of Joan.
Since this play is about our public and private selves or personas - what parts of you as an artist are very public and what are some more private or personal interests that you would be willing to share?
Public and private--I'm on Facebook, so I have to be careful as my students read the messages. As a teacher, I am sometimes overly cautious about the distinction between me as a person and me as their instructor. And then there are days that I bring donuts and they fill me in on the latest slang. Sometimes we let our guard down to complete strangers--tell them things we would never tell another living soul. The expectations people place upon us as teachers, writers, actors, and famous stars...
What do you hope audiences will take from this production?
A new way of looking at what we thought we knew...
Playing an icon and wanting to meet audience expectations, but being able to bring something new to the field. And working with the fab people who are a part of Wily West. Thanks to Brady, Ryan, Wes, Quinn, and all the gang! And especially Morgan for the role!
And of course, the jewelry!
What is the greatest challenge you face for this show?
OH MY GOD JOAN CRAWFORD!
What kind of research are you doing to prepare?
My research has been looking at old film clips, but mostly clips of her as herself...interviews, moments where she is on camera--not as a character, but as herself. And reading articles about her--how others saw her....
Susan, you are a teacher, actor, director, and award-winning playwright...what came first? Who have you played before?
Acting came first (the witch when I was 15--perhaps a precursor to Joan?) and then directing, then playwrighting. I have portrayed many famous women--Thomas Wolf's mother, Stevie Smith--British poet, Dorothy Parker, Jackie Kennedy--and I wrote a play about Rock Hudson and his wife, so I knew a lot about the references/movie world of Joan.
Since this play is about our public and private selves or personas - what parts of you as an artist are very public and what are some more private or personal interests that you would be willing to share?
Public and private--I'm on Facebook, so I have to be careful as my students read the messages. As a teacher, I am sometimes overly cautious about the distinction between me as a person and me as their instructor. And then there are days that I bring donuts and they fill me in on the latest slang. Sometimes we let our guard down to complete strangers--tell them things we would never tell another living soul. The expectations people place upon us as teachers, writers, actors, and famous stars...
What do you hope audiences will take from this production?
A new way of looking at what we thought we knew...
SUSAN JACKSON has performed leading roles in W;t, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, An Inspector Calls, Six Degrees of Separation, and understudied with Theatreworks. Her most recent performance was on the New York off Broadway stage—with Altruistic Theatre Company, performing a piece produced by the Southern Railroad Theatre Company, with her co-producer, Diana Brown. As a playwright, she won a Bay Area Theatre Critic’s Circle award for BLESSING HER HEART, which went on to win top ten at the SF Fringe. Her plays have been produced in San Jose, Mountain View, Napa, Santa Cruz, Sydney--Australia, South Carolina, and San Francisco. As an actress, she has performed with many theatre companies—Pear Avenue Theatre, Women’s Will, Palo Alto Players, and various roles with the Southern Railroad Theatre Company. She is an alumni of Playground, a member of the Eugene O’Neill Foundation, Playwright’s Center of San Francisco, Pear Writers Guild, and San Jose City Light Source. She teaches theatre at City College of San Francisco.
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