Susan Felder

Susan Felder is a professional actor and director, produced playwright and a proud member of the Actor’s Equity Association with 20 years of university-level teaching experience.

Felder holds a BA in theatre arts from Eastern Michigan University and an MFA in acting from the Academy for Classical Acting at George Washington University. 

Felder has previously taught acting and movement at Loyola University Chicago, Northwestern University, University of Notre Dame, Bradley University, and graduate-level courses at Oklahoma State University and Montana State University.

With more than 30 years experience as a professional actor, Felder has performed in numerous roles with The Goodman Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Indiana Repertory, Orlando Shakespeare Festival, Richmond Shakespeare, Antipodies (Australia), Northlight Theatre, Boarshead Theatre and the Attic Theatre among others.

Felder received a Thespie Award for Best Supporting Actress as Wendy in Mother’s Day at Boarshead Theatre. She also received the Joseph Jefferson Award and After Dark Award for Best Ensemble in The Laramie Project at Next Theatre.

Felder holds two certificates of achievement from the Linklater Voice Center in Scotland, where she studied under world-renowned vocal coach Kristin Linklater.

As a verse and language direction coach, Felder has worked with actors and directors to help them better understand Shakespearean language at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Montana Shakespeare, Writer’s Theatre, Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival, Milwaukee Shakespeare and Loyola University Chicago.

Her extensive directing credits range from the classical repertoire to more contemporary work. She directed Pride and Prejudice and Julius Caesar for Texas Shakespeare Festival. At Montana Shakespeare, Felder directed Macbeth, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Julius Caesar and Romeo and Juliet. At Richmond Shakespeare - Hamlet and Macbeth.  Other directing credits include The Quiet Man Tales at The Chicago Theatre, A Love Lost Life – The Marlon Brando Story at the Theatre Building Chicago.  Academic credits include Frankenstein, Euridice, Blue Stockings, Hamlet, Lady Windermere's Fan, Hope after Hate and The Winter's Tale at CCM; Waiting for Godot, the American premiere of The Blue Hour, A Son at the Front, and House of Butterflies at Loyola University Chicago and Beyond Therapy at Oklahoma State University.  Felder directed The Seagull, Mountaintop, and Our Country’s Good for Bradley University.

As a playwright, Felder’s original work has seen much success. Her play Wasteland received a critically acclaimed world premiere at Chicago’s Timeline Theatre. The Chicago Tribune said the show was “involving and strikingly emotional.” The play received a tour with UnMasked Theatre. Her other works include Swimming with Van Gogh, which was chosen for the 2012 Arkansas New Play Festival and Milky Way and Main, which was chosen for the Judith Karman Hospice Play Festival. Most recently was the world premiere of Felder’s play Temple Spirit at Echo Theatre Dallas.  She is currently working on Buffalo Talks to the Moon, a play about women in the old west. 

Peer Reviewed Publications

Susan Felder (2018. ) Finding Shaw .The Shaw Review, ,

Invited Presentations

Susan Felder (2019. ) Movement for actors .Antipodes Theatre, Melbourne Australia. Level:International

Home - Home
6536 Teakwood Ct
Cincinnati  Ohio, 45224
smfelder63@aol.com