Susan K. Berkompas​​

Susan K. Berkompas (Producing Artistic Director) B.F.A./M.F.A. in Acting and Directing. She is a member of SDC, SAG, and AFTRA. She serves as Theatre Dept. Chair for Vanguard University, and she has taught Acting I-III; Directing; Character Acting for Comedy; Improvisation; Movement & Voice and Playing Shakespeare.  She is the recipient of the KCACTF Excellence in Education and Gold Medallion awards and is an alumnus of Directors Lab West. She has studied Shakespeare with Sir John Barton at the British American Drama Academy, and she has worked extensively with MICHA on the Michael Chekov Technique. She is the Founder and Producing Artistic Director of American Coast Theater Company. Sue has directed such shows as Othello; The Boys Next Door; Metamorphoses; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; The Crucible; Kiss Me, Kate; Bullshot Crummond; Life Without Parole; 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee; Lord of the Flies and Around the World in 80 Days.  She has played such roles as Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire; Eleanor in The Lion in Winter; Kate in Taming of the Shrew; Joy in Shadowlands; Rhetta in Pump Boys & Dinettes; Gertrude in Hamlet; and Edith/Edi in Grey Gardens.