Susan Dalian
Associate Artistic Director, Director
Susan Dalian is thrilled to be a part of the PlayPenn 2022 team. She recently directed Venus in Fur at The Pico Theater in Los Angeles starring Malcolm Barrett and Cloie Wyatt Taylor.
Susan has an extensive background directing staged readings working closely with playwrights as they develop their work. She recently worked with Ricardo Pérez González directing a virtual reading of his play Mother of God at Echo Theater Company’s Playwrights LAB 2022. In 2021 she directed several virtual staged readings: Iseult et Tristan by Pia Wilson, (La Mama, NY/IAMA, LA), How To Raise a Freeman by Zakiyyah Alexander (AMMO Theatre), Breaking Barriers by Katrina D. RiChard (USC’s New Works Festival), and Villains by Marq Ewing (LA Writer’s Center). Other new work readings she has directed include: for AMMO Theatre Company-Tokenby Bernardo Cubria, The Honeycomb Theory by Garrett Mercer and A Bag Full of Starsby Dionna Michelle, for Inkwell Theater Development Lab- Waiting (4,380,00 Hours and Counting) by Aja Houston and Broken by Aaron Braxton and for MACH 33:Cal Tech w/Pasadena Playhouse Lie After Lie After Lie by Stephen Dierkes. She has also directed Troilus and Cressida, Henry VI Part 2 and Richard III for Shakespeare Santa Cruz Undiscovered Shakespeare 2021 & 2020.
Other stage directing credits include: Catch a Fly (MeetCute LA), The Narcissist Next Door (Hollywood Fringe Festival), The Importance of Being Earnest (Mammoth Lakes Repertory Theatre). Susan was Resident Director at Sierra Classic Theatre from 2014-2018 directing Macbeth, As You Like It, Outside Mullingar, The Merchant of Venice, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She has also acted in many plays, films, and tv shows. Susan has been a guest artist for the past four years teaching Storytelling through Improv with Burbank Unified School District. She is an Alumnus of Directors Lab West 2019, holds a BFA from Boston University and is a graduate of Baltimore School for the Arts.