Susan Hansell began writing for the stage by constructing texts for Bay Area dancers, choreographers, and performance artists. As a result, stylized language and physical elements remain theatrical aspects in her plays. Her earliest pieces can be viewed on YouTube and have been published in More Monologues for Women by Women (Heinemann).
Subsequently based in New York, work began on full-scale plays, including My Medea, a selection of the Best American Short Plays series (Applause); and American Rose, a Jane Chambers Award finalist, commissioned by Sightlines and produced at The Ohio Theatre, NYC.
New full-length plays by Susan Hansell include the historically-driven three-act experimental drama At Dawn with the Rain and the Stars, from which the first act was presented in 2019 by The Shattered Glass Project in Seattle and the second act was presented in 2017 at the William Inge Festival then produced as Every Concentrated Fragment in the 2020 Bay Area Women's History Festival and in 2018 at the Tucson One-Act Festival; the futuristic-absurdist comedy An Ocean of Bees, an early portion of which was presented in 2018 at The Tank NYC by
the Bechdel Group then selected for development by
The Bridge Initiative and presented at the 2019 Bechdel
Test Festival 2.0 (Phoenix); and the experimental rom-com, Waiting for a Table at the Garden of Eden, from which a ten-minute stand-alone excerpt (In the Beginning...) was presented at the Midwest Dramatists Conference in 2017.
CONTACT
Email Susan Hansell directly at: <susan.hansell@gmail.com>.
RESUME
An Ocean of Bees. The Bechdel Group Spring Reading Series. March 5, 2018. The Tank, New York City (reading).
My Medea. Cal Rep, Players Theatre, Long Beach, March 4 – 19, 2005 (production).
American Rose: Our Gals on the Homefront, 1941-1945. Commissioned by Sightlines Theatre Company in September and produced at the Ohio Theatre in NYC, March 6-15, 1997.
Reviews:
“Cal Rep’s My Medea.” Mike Guardabascio. The Long Beach Union Weekly. Vol. 56, Issue 8. 14 March 2005. 11.
“CSULB’s Performance of My Medea.” Mike Guardabascio. The Long Beach Union Weekly. Vol. 56, Issue 8. 14 March 2005. 7.
“Greek Theater, Modern Touch at CSULB.” Harry Saltzgaver. The Long Beach Grunion Gazette. 10 March 2005: 26A.
“Not Like Greek Tragedy, but a Good Show.” Alessandra Djurklon. The Long Beach Press Telegram. 10 March 2005. U Entertainment.
“O.J. Simpson in News Again with CSULB’s My Medea.” Katie DeBoer. The Daily 49er. Vol. LV, No. 86. 9 March 2005.
Critical Studies:
"Highfalutin Greeks." Neal Storrs. Oasis 5.2 Oct.-Dec. (1996): Editor's Foreword.
"Disability in Western Culture." Jenny Morris. Pride Against Prejudice. London: The Woman's Press, 1991. 84-116.
Awards:
Publications - Plays:
“We Are All Dick 3.” Oasis 11.3 Oct.-Dec. (2003): 26-62.
“Little Kings.” Oasis 10.1 Jan.-Mar. (2002): 29-56.
"Mary Mary." Inflatable Magazine 5, 1999. Also at <www.geocities.com/Athens/ Oracle/2515> (click on Issue 5).
"Rollover Othello." Oasis 5.1 July-Sept. (1996): 27-36.
"My Medea." The Best American Short Plays, 1996-97. Ed. Young. New York: Applause Books, 1998. 95-133.
"My Medea." The Best American Short Plays, 1995-97. Eds. Stein and Young. New York: Applause, 1997. 354-389.
"Don't." More Monologues for Women by Women. Ed. Haring-Smith. Portsmouth NH: Heinemann, 1996. 61-3.
"Affair on the Air." More Monologues for Women by Women. Ed. Haring-Smith. Portsmouth NH: Heinemann, 1996. 58-60.
Publications - Poems:
"Missings/s," "Don't Be Evil" and "The Boyfriend Marriage." Spot Literary Magazine Vol. 10 (2017): 101-109.
"As Usual." Rip Rap 28 (2006): 113-4.
"Winter Pears." Disability Rag Nov.-Dec. (1992): 33.
“From The L.A. Horoscope Poems.” The Portable Californian 1 (1992): 28.
"Odysseyan: Excerpts from the Epic/Epoch." Phoebe 3.1 (1991): 4-5.
"Every House Plant." Metis 7 (1991): 6.
“The Wolf.” Pride Against Prejudice. Morris. London: The Woman's Press, 1991. 6-8.
Publications - Essays:
"Re/fractions from Los Angeles." Phoebe 4.1 (1992): 19-22.
Publications - Translations:
Forced to Move. Renato Camarda. Trans. Susan Hansell. Berkeley: New Americas, 1991.
TEACHING AND EDUCATION:
Faculty Appointments:
California State University, Long Beach, Departments of English, History and Theatre, 2000-2007. Lecturer in upper-level Literature (370; 385), Theory (384), and Pedagogy (400) courses, in History of American Women (485), in Theory of Theatre Aesthetics (696), in lower and upper level composition and literature (1; 100; 270; 309) and in interdisciplinary general education courses (372).
Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, 1994-2000. Lecturer in the graduate M.F.A. Program in Playwriting: Taught the M.F.A. program tutorials for the graduate-level student playwrights. Lecturer in Core 6 (Landmarks in Literature) Courses; Lecturer in Multi-Disciplinary Composition.
University Degrees:
Master of Fine Arts: Brooklyn College of The City University of New York.
Master of Arts: San Francisco State University.
Bachelor of Arts: University of California, Berkeley.
website photo by a. paul cartier