Susanna Hamnett – Director, Foo Productions
Born and educated in England, Susanna Hamnett won scholarships to study acting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, under the tutelage of renowned Shakespeare and Voice coach, Patsy Rodenburg She has worked professionally in England and Europe with Red Shift, Theatre Alibi (with Theatr Gardiniesze), with Anatoly Vassiliev at the National Theatre Studio, Yoshi Oida, and Emma Rice and Mike Shepherd of Kneehigh Theatre among others, as well as a period at the Moscow Arts Theatre School.
Coming to live in Toronto, she studied and collaborated extensively with master clowns John Turner and Mike Kennard of Mump and Smoot and worked with Theatre Smith-Gilmour and Theatre Columbus as she began to deepen her exploration of the application of clown in theatre, as well as directing several clown shows herself including Posey’s Wig for Helen Donnelly (Foo Productions).
Using clown in the exploration of Shakespeare led her to create, with Edith Tankus, a solo retelling of Shakspeare’s King Lear, Nearly Lear, which has toured to great acclaim on Broadway and the Sydney Opera House, Australia.
Susanna is also a committed artist-educator, who has been a recipient of several OAC Artist in Education grants and has taught with Soulpepper Theatre and at LKTYP, as well as initiating a program of teaching Shakespeare to Grade 1 – 3 students in an inner city school.
She is currently developing a new solo performance from a script commissioned by the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.
HYPERLINK “http://www.susannahamnett.com” www.susannahamnett.com
