Professional Theatre Artist Portfolio
Solo Touring Show
DREADFULLY WHITE
In DREADFULLY WHITE, parents teach a delusional family system to a child who will one day become their caregivers.
A zany look at a serious subject.
“I laughed out loud while being chilled to the bone,” wrote Theatre Louisville.
1 actor,
10 characters,
and 5 1/2 Styrofoam heads!
This solo play about growing up in a violent family is a Twisted Tale, spun with visceral imagery, mask, clowning, and song.
“We are not dangerous. We are not bad for the environment. We are good for you. God trusts us!”
…announce the People in Charge of this absurd environment called “Home”. Meet the Household Head, his Housebroken Helpmeet, and a Host of other Hapless Hypocrites in this upside down world where things are never as they claim to be.
Acclaim for Dreadfully White
Theatre Louisville
“I laughed out loud while being chilled to the bone.”
phindie.com (Philadelphia Fringe)
“. . .a convincing mix of whimsy and idle cruelty . . . full of eerie beauty and terror.”
Audience member
“Tonight was absolutely riveting…. I could sit through it again.”
Previous venues for DREADFULLY WHITE:
Philadelphia Fringe Festival
Southeastern Theatre Conference Fringe Festival
Ending Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Conference
Ministries United of South Central Louisville
Maryhurst, Louisville, KY
Berea College Peanut Butter and Gender Series
Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary
Louisville Fringe Festival
Contact Susan for touring info
Artist Statement
Big inspires me. There is something thrilling to me about an actor who is willing to be outrageous in order to communicate. It’s a terrible thrill – the thrill of knowing you have put something “too big” out there to the world, and you can’t take it back now. I think this helps explain my attraction to Shakespeare . . . to musical theatre . . . and to the old styles commonly revived in physical theatre.
I write through improvisation . . . often. I may begin with movement that I find inherently interesting or with an activity I think my character would do. I may spend hours knitting or dancing or throwing props around before I start writing or drawing anything on paper. In my abstract work, I enjoy playing with randomness in the intersection of movement and words — looking for patterns that I can build on and learning the meaning that others see in my work that I didn’t put there, which I can tap into to communicate.
My latest work, DREADFULLY WHITE, is a physical theatre play that incorporates Commedia influences, poetry, and a number of Styrofoam heads. Absurdist elements in this unusual tragicomedy tell of a delusional family system taught to a child who will grow up to become caretaker for the family abuser– a zany look at a serious subject.
Artist Bio:
Susan Pope is an actor, playwright, director, and musician whose training has included study with mime master Daniel Stein at the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre. In her work as an artist Susan has designed and performed interactive museum shows at a historical Shaker village, directed scripted and devised works, acted for stage and screen, and devised and toured her solo physical theatre play, DREADFULLY WHITE, a zany look at the serious subject of growing up in a violent family.
