Susan Ferrara

I can tell a good story.

An award-winning actor-writer, my plays include BUZZ (Dir. Carrie Preston; World Premiere, Alabama Shakespeare Festival; Nominated, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize; Winner, Hidden River Playwriting Award; Winner, Reverie Next Generation Playwriting Award; Developmental readings with Off-Broadway’s Atlantic Theater Company and New York Theatre Workshop; Finalist, Baltic Writing Residency (Brora, Scotland); Honorable Mention, Jane Chambers Award); THE MACHINE (Global Age Finalist); THE SILVER KITCHEN PLAY (Dir. Carrie Preston, development, artist-in-residence, Actors Theatre of Louisville and FRANK, developmental reading, Theatre of Note, Dir. Kevin Earley); THE WONDER (Writer/Actor, Dirs. Julie Ann Emery and Kevin Earley, BEST PRODUCTION, BEST OF THE FESTIVAL...

I can tell a good story.

An award-winning actor-writer, my plays include BUZZ (Dir. Carrie Preston; World Premiere, Alabama Shakespeare Festival; Nominated, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize; Winner, Hidden River Playwriting Award; Winner, Reverie Next Generation Playwriting Award; Developmental readings with Off-Broadway’s Atlantic Theater Company and New York Theatre Workshop; Finalist, Baltic Writing Residency (Brora, Scotland); Honorable Mention, Jane Chambers Award); THE MACHINE (Global Age Finalist); THE SILVER KITCHEN PLAY (Dir. Carrie Preston, development, artist-in-residence, Actors Theatre of Louisville and FRANK, developmental reading, Theatre of Note, Dir. Kevin Earley); THE WONDER (Writer/Actor, Dirs. Julie Ann Emery and Kevin Earley, BEST PRODUCTION, BEST OF THE FESTIVAL International United Solo Festival; Nominated for both the Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award and the William Saroyan Human Rights/Social Justice Award, terraNova’s New Play Series), THE FALL (chosen, Pioneer Theatre’s Play-by-Play Series; The Blank Theatre’s Living Room Series Staged Reading; Finalist, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference), SUICIDE ON PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, and PEASANT (Writer/Actor, Dir. Dale Heinen), among many. My TV pilots include FOGGIA, BETWEEN HELL AND THE BIG EMPTY (co-written with Teresa Harrison), MEAN SECRETARIES and HALF LIGHT. My screenplay THE FALL (based on my play of the same name) is currently in indie-film pre-production, directed by Julie Ann Emery and starring Carrie Preston. Also co-writing a young adult novel called VIRAGO with Julie Ann Emery. I have been seen onstage in Chicago, New York and other lovely places. My web and tv work includes the ONION NEWS NETWORK and the award-winning web series THEN WE GOT HELP (written and directed by Julie Ann Emery). Proud member of AEA, SAG/AFTRA, Dramatists Guild and alumna of terraNova Groundbreakers. Member of both the Actors Studio Playwrights Division (2021-Present) and Rattlestick Theater’s Actors Who Write Lab.

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Scripts

BUZZ

by Susan Ferrara

3
Cast Size
9
Genre
biography,
docudrama/historic,
drama,
experimental,
immersive,
movement/physical,
political

Charismatic director Mary Ann ‘Buzz’ Goodbody was one of only five women directing in the U.K. in the 1970’s. In 1975, she famously directed Ben Kingsley in the title role of HAMLET ina theatre converted from a tin shack; the HAMLET of their generation.

Four days after the first performance, she was gone.

Charismatic director Mary Ann ‘Buzz’ Goodbody was one of only five women directing in the U.K. in the 1970’s. In 1975, she famously directed Ben Kingsley in the title role of HAMLET ina theatre converted from a tin shack; the HAMLET of their generation.

Four days after the first performance, she was gone.

THE FALL

by Susan Ferrara

2
Cast Size
5
Genre
comedy,
drama,
romantic comedy

A grieving, sci-fi novelist struggling to complete her book doesn’t have time for the young guy who keeps coming to her door with chocolate cake in hand and a universe in his eyes.

A grieving, sci-fi novelist struggling to complete her book doesn’t have time for the young guy who keeps coming to her door with chocolate cake in hand and a universe in his eyes.

THE WONDER

by Susan Ferrara

2
Cast Size
1
Genre
comedy,
docudrama/historic,
drama

The ordinary people we meet. The ordinary things we see. On an extraordinary day in a time marked forever. September 11, 2001. A story about a neighborhood and its people as experienced by the writer and her diabetic cat. A clear-eyed telling of discovery.

A true story recorded for the archives of the 9/11 Museum.

The ordinary people we meet. The ordinary things we see. On an extraordinary day in a time marked forever. September 11, 2001. A story about a neighborhood and its people as experienced by the writer and her diabetic cat. A clear-eyed telling of discovery.

A true story recorded for the archives of the 9/11 Museum.

PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE

by Susan Ferrara

1
Cast Size
4
Genre
dark comedy

The day after she buries her husband, Fran looks around her living room. Stacks of bills and paperwork. Empty boxes. Tattered furniture. And the phone never stops ringing. She talks to creditors. Old friends. The bank. Alot. But the strongest relationship she has is the one with her message machine.

The day after she buries her husband, Fran looks around her living room. Stacks of bills and paperwork. Empty boxes. Tattered furniture. And the phone never stops ringing. She talks to creditors. Old friends. The bank. Alot. But the strongest relationship she has is the one with her message machine.