SUZAN ZEDER Theatre Can Bridge the Divides in Today's Challenging Times
Porfirio Solorzano
W
by Amy Cuomo
When Suzan Zeder was five years old, her mother gave her a choice: to have a birthday party with all of her friends, complete with cake and clown, or to see a Broadway play. Fortunately for future audiences, she chose the play. “I was so excited by everything I saw,” she recalled, “I had to be put to bed with a fever after it.” From that moment on, Zeder knew that she would have a life in the theatre.
She credits her early experiences seeing plays in New York with shaping her aesthetic and setting the bar
high. “It was the golden age of Broadway theatre, and it was still reasonable enough [in cost] that even a besotted kid could take her allowance and go into a theatre. I was given permission to go in by myself, buy my own theatre tickets and see anything I wanted. I was the only 13-year-old I knew that had my own subscription to Variety.” Above: Suzan Zeder speaks to a large crowd at her Friday SETC Convention keynote.
These early interactions with the theatre illuminated the artistic career path that Zeder would follow. “This
crystallizing experience of the velocity of a child’s imagination and a young person’s passion, married to seeing some really great theatre, not only catapulted me into theatre but also catapulted me into writing about kids,” she said.
20 x Southern Theatre x Spring 2018
