Trained at Birmingham Theatre School, it was an introduction to verbatim theatre as an actor that first sparked Susan’s interest in making original works with diverse communities. After extensive experience performing across the UK and America, in 1990 her first child was born with a life-threatening neurological condition, changing their worlds permanently. Susan’s complex lived experiences as a woman, mother and carer have keenly influenced her perspective as a theatre maker and continue to drive her to tell powerful stories that change how we understand each other. 

As a director, writer, facilitator and performer, Susan has created work for and with participants across a range of organisations including Theatre Centre, Crisis UK, Company of Others and Hexham Book Festival. She stood as Director of the Queen’s Hall Youth Theatre for 15 years, developing it from one to five weekly sessions for 8- to 19-year-olds. She secured the organisation’s first participation in the National Theatre Connections festival, with an acclaimed performance of Salt by Dawn King. Susan also established Projectors as part of the youth theatre; a group specifically for young adults with autism to collaborate and create original works. 

On graduating from Leeds University in 2017 with an MA in Applied Theatre & Intervention, Susan received an award for Best Applied Theatre Practice: Ethnotheatre and the Sibling Narrative. This research provided the basis for her first adult script Prick Him and I Bleed, a deeply personal work about the experience of siblings from families where one of the children has a learning disability and/or autism.

In 2021 Susan was awarded an Arts Council England Project Grant to develop Prick Him and I Bleed. A performed reading of the final script, formed from her interviews with 40 adult siblings, was directed by Matt Woodhead, Co-Founder and Director of LUNG Theatre at the Queen’s Hall Arts Centre in 2022.

Prick Him and I Bleed will be the first in a trilogy of original works. In 2024, thanks to an Arts Council England Develop Your Creative Practice Award, Susan spent six months developing her writing for an adult audience with the support of writer Emma Adams, director Joyce Lee and artists at Mind The Gap. She was awarded a further Arts Council England Project Grant to develop the second script, of which research begins with Mind the Gap in September 2025.