Theatre Department Faculty
Susan Thompson
Lecturer in Theatre
Susan Thompson
Ph.D.
Contact
Rubenstein Hall, Room 4F
Telephone: 617-552-0124
Email: susan.thompson.2@bc.edu
Education
- B.A., Boston University
- Ph.D., Tufts University
Courses
Introduction to Theatre
Research Interests
Ensemble Theater, Mask, Clown, Dream Work
Department
Profile
Susan Thompson has performed, directed, and taught in Europe and Latin America and across the United States.
Thompson graduated from Jacques Lecoq’s International School in Paris and completed her Ph.D. in theater history at Tufts University. She performed for five years with Flemish movement innovator Frederik Vanmelle's company, based in Mexico City. Thompson has been a core member of Pilgrim Theatre Research and Performance Collaborative since 1990, performing at La MaMa (New York), Ko Festival (Amherst), Malta Festival (Poland), Yuyachkani (Peru), the National Mall (Washington, D.C.), and, locally, at the Boston Center for the Arts, among other venues.
Thompson's original plays include Missing Persons, Panic, The Wild Place (co-authored with Jon Lipsky), Anam Cara (co-authored with Anne Gottlieb and Judi Wilson), Boundless as the Sea, Haunted by Waters, and, most recently, Unforgettable: Letters from Korea, which is based on love letters written by her parents during the Korean War. She has been a visiting artist/teacher/director at numerous area schools, including Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Emerson, Tufts University, UMass Amherst, and MIT. Her areas of specialty include ensemble work, Lecoq training and styles work (clown, buffoon, commedia dell'arte, band mime, tragic and comic chorus), and dreamwork. Her work is noted in Jon Lipsky’s Dreaming Together, Susan Letzer Cole’s Playwrights in Rehearsal, and The Plays of Jon Lipsky, Vol. 2. Her recent publications include a chapter on Lecoq’s work in The Routledge Companion to Jacques Lecoq.
Selected Publications
Missing Persons (Play)
Unforgettable: Letters from Korea (Play)
The Wild Place (Play, co-authored with Jon Lipsky)
Anam Cara (Play, co-authored with Anne Gottlieb and Judi Wilson)
Boundless as the Sea (Ten-minute play)
Panic (Ten-minute play)
"The Actor/Creator and Three American Ensembles," (Chapter)
The Routledge Companion to Jacques Lecoq "Freedom and Constraints: Jacques Lecoq and the Theater of Ensemble Creation" (Chapter)
Encountering Ensembles “Mujeres Aliadas/Women United: Exploring Birth Work in Rural Mexico” (article)
International Doula Magazine, 28 (2), 6-10, 2020
"The 1985 Artist's Brigades, Mexico: an account from the streets" Consciousness, Literature and the Arts, (e-journal, Vol. 4, No. 3, December 2003)
Selected Appointments & Awards
Professor Kalman A. Burnim Prize for Scholarly Excellence in Drama (Tufts, 2002)
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Student Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education (Tufts, 2001)
Graduate Symposium Award Winner for “Jacques Lecoq and the Actor/Creator" (Tufts, 2000)
Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society