Drama Queen

Perhaps Suzanne, if you can start by giving us a quick overview of your life – family, school, first job?

I grew up in Glen Iris, a suburb of Melbourne, one of four children. I matriculated from Lauriston Girl’s school and went on to complete a Bachelor of Architecture at Melbourne Uni. I just loved designing and drawing. But whilst I have a very strong sense of the visual, performing was always my first love. In my final year I directed the infamous Architecture Revue and that cemented my passion for theatre.

I began my professional acting career around 1971 with the Australian Performing Group (APG), also co-founding the Women’s Theatre Group in 1974 at the Pram Factory Theatre. This was an early initiative of the APG women and created ground-breaking feminist theatre during the 1970s.

But prior to this, I had left Australia in 1968 believing I’d study drama in England. However I failed the entry audition into the Central School of Speech and Drama. It was pretty heart-breaking, so sort of on the rebound, I got married and gave up on acting. My husband was a fellow architect and we were married for about eleven years, having two children together.