southern vermont’s
leading ladies
Anne Corso [continued]
round community—people
like us who live here every day
who are raising their families
here every day. As we offered
a new suite of programs and
exhibitions, we started to
incorporate those people into our
programming with things like
yoga in the galleries and parent-
child art classes and spring break
camps and holiday camps for
kids. That’s when I started to
hear, ‘It feels like the Arts Center
is coming to life again.’ For me,
that’s been so gratifying.”
On the Vermont Artistic
Community
“I’m shocked at the wonderful
group of artists who were native
to Southern Vermont. The
Luigi Lucioni [paintings] are
incredible. We have one of the
largest collections of them. I
recently discovered our beautiful
collection of Ogden Pleissner
watercolors. He lived in this area
and worked on a nearby farm
painting incredible sportsmanlike
images of fly fishing. We
actually put them up in one of
our galleries and are starting
to focus a little bit more on our
permanent collection. And that’s
just the visual arts. I am very
proud to host Manchester Music
Festival. We have this amazing
resource in the Arkell Pavilion—
that’s a 400-seat performing arts
theater. I hope, looking back 10
years from now, we can say, ‘Can
you believe that we hosted so-
and-so at the Arts Center?’”
38 manchester life | manchesterlifemagazine.com
Susanna Gellert
Susanna Gellert is the Executive Artistic Director at Weston Playhouse.
Prior to joining Weston, she was the associate producer and director of
the Studio at New York’s acclaimed Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA),
and was also artistic producer and resident director at Center Stage in
Baltimore. Susanna currently teaches in the MFA Directing program at
The New School. She has also taught at The University of Chicago, the
University of Rochester, Bard College, Columbia University, and NYU.
She holds degrees from Yale University, Columbia University, and The
University of Chicago.
On Directing
“I knew early on that I didn’t want to be an actor. I loved watching actors,
and I loved working with actors, but the first show I ever worked on, I was
an actor and I just didn’t enjoy it. I felt self-conscious and didn’t like being
told what to do. My theatre teacher said, ‘Why don’t you try directing?’
I went away to summer stock in the Berkshires, and within a week I put
my foot down and said, ‘No. I’m not going to be an acting apprentice, I’m
going to be a directing apprentice’ and I created that program for myself. I
loved the thinking part of it, and the collaboration part of it. I knew that
by being a director, I would spend my time reading, thinking, and working
with people to make them feel as good about the work as possible.”
On Running Weston Playhouse
“Before I became an artistic director, I would often make the case that by
being in the room as a director, you are putting all of the pieces together.
You have to be very political and you have to be an incredible listener and
strategist. Now that I’m running a theater, I feel all the more that that is
true. I think you have to be a little bit more thoughtful about what you
want to put into the world. I find myself thinking a lot about what my
audience might be thinking, what they might be feeling, so that I’m not
just telling them what to think, but responding to what’s going on in the
world.”
On Vermont
“As a child, I came up here almost every summer. My uncle had a place
in Wilmington. I grew up spending at least a couple of weeks here each
year. When I met my husband, he had been coming up here for his work
at Bennington College. When he and I started dating, one of our first
trips was to Vermont. Very early on in our relationship, Vermont became
the dream. And amazingly, the dream came true. And here we are. What’s
attractive about being a woman running an institution in Vermont is that
you’re not a part of the rat race. Some of the leading Broadway stars come
to Weston, but no one is checking their phone every five minutes to see if
their agent has called about the Hollywood gig or to see if the producers
have called about taking the show to Broadway. You really do have that
time for contemplation and thought. And …[Vermont] is also gorgeous!”