Suzan Zeder has been recognized nationally and internationally as one of the nation’s leading playwrights for young and family audiences. Her plays have been performed in all 50 states and many countries in Europe and Asia. She is a six-time winner of the AATE Distinguished Play Awards. Most recently she wrote the book and co-wrote the lyrics for two major musicals: Gretel! The Musical and The Battlefields of Clara Barton, about the civil war nurse, women’s rights activist and founder of the American Red Cross. Zeder co-authored Spaces of Creation: The Creative Process of Playwriting with her husband, movement specialist Jim Hancock, which takes an innovative mind-body approach to many forms of creative work. In 2013, she retired from the University of Texas at Austin where she led the playwriting/directing program for more than 23 years and was the holder of an endowed chair in theatre for youth/playwriting. As president of the board of trustees of the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America, she helms an organization that provides grants to artists, bestows awards and funds collaborative activities in the field of theatre for young audiences. She now happily resides in Santa Fe, N.M.
