Suzanne Sturn is an actor and director with a rich background in classical theatre. She carried out her acting training in the Asian Theatre Program at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, under the direction of A.C. Scott, who was her first mentor and teacher. The inspiration of Asian Stage disciplines, particularly the classical Noh theatre of Japan under Master Teacher Akira Matsui of the Kita Noh School Japan, provided her early training in masked acting, dance, and poetry of the Spirit.

In addition, she completed a Ph.D. in Theatre at the University of Minnesota, and published scholarship on Federico Garcia Lorca’s experimental company, La Barraca, and its impact on popular theatre forms.

Ms. Sturn taught acting for a number of years at the Guthrie Theatre in Minnneapolis, where she was also co-founder, Artistic Director, and performer with the 21st Street Theatre. She taught theatre for many years at Idaho State University, St. Lawrence University, and SUNY College at Brockport.

Favorite regional credits over many years include Paulina in THE WINTER’S TALE at 21st Street Theatre, the Nurse in ROMEO AND JULIET at Idaho Shakespeare Festival, seasons at New Jersey Shakespeare Festival and KY Repertory Theatre, the Mother in BLOOD WEDDING Irish Classical Theatre, NY; DRIVING MISS DAISY at Bristol Valley Theatre, NY; Vivian Bearing in WIT, Centre Stage, NY; Madame Ranevskaya in CHERRY ORCHARD, and Kate in ALL MY SONS, at Western Stage, CA.

She has toured widely with her one-woman play, A THINKING HEART: The Diary of Etty Hillesum. Derived directly from Hillesum’s writings, A THINKING HEART takes place in the midst of WWII and the Holocaust. But the play focuses on Etty’s daily life, her relationship with friends and family, her love affairs, and most importantly her spiritual journey. That journey gave rise to a remarkable affirmation of hope and belief amid the most difficult of circumstances. The play dramatizes an essentially inner dialogue, a continuing conversation with God, that raises in a contemporary idiom the deepest questions about hope and suffering.

She currently acts and directs in theatre on the central coast of California, where she lives with her husband Robert Strayer in a small village by the sea. She is a student of Sheikh Kabir Helminski in the Threshold Society and Mevlevi Order.