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If you take her
mother's account of things, Susan O'Connell began her acting career
just about the time she opened her eyes, and has been going strong
ever since. Be that as it may, Susan has been acting professionally
for over 25 years, starting out in community and college theaters
in Orange, Los Angeles, and Riverside counties of California. (At
right you can see a partial list of Susan's acting credits and awards.)
A dyed-in-the-wool Westerner, she now calls the small southwest
Montana town of Dillon home, and performs frequently at theaters
and festivals throughout the area.
Always eager to explore
new trails, Susan began writing a few years ago, "as a diversion".
She hopes to publish a book of stories and poetry
in the near future, and is now on her fifth completed play, Memoirs
of a Madam. "I'm certainly not Eugene O'Neill", quips
Susan, "but my work has its own special flavor. As an actress
I understand what is required on stage and I write with the actors'
needs in mind."
The writing of Memoirs
stemmed from Susan's long-time desire to write and perform a one-woman
play. "The best parts are the ones you write for yourself,
and I certainly don't have to worry about being upstaged!"
A few years back on vacation, Susan happened to pick up a book on
the "painted ladies" of the early West. Struck by this
goldmine (you'll pardon the pun) of untold stories of history and
human nature, Susan knew she'd hit upon the inspiration she had
been looking for. Six months and a
heap of crumpled paper later, Susan performed Memoirs for the first
time.
Since 1996, Suan has
performed Memoirs of a Madam in five western states. She finds both
her and her audiences' experience very gratifying. "History
tries to play down this particular... field of endeavor", Susan
says, "but we sure can't deny the contribution these ladies
made to the settling of our country."
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