Susan K. Berkompas, B.F.A./M.F.A. in Acting and Directing from CalRep; Professor Berkompas has served as Theatre Department Chair for twenty years at VU.  She is member of SDC, SAG, and AFTRA. 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.  She is the founder and Producing Artistic Director of American Coast Theater Company, and she serves as department chair of theatre arts at Vanguard University where she teaches acting courses.  Sue has directed such shows as Othello, The Boys Next Door, Metamorphoses, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Crucible, Kiss Me Kate; Bullshot Crummond; and Life Without Parole.  She has played such roles as Gertrude (Hamlet), Eleanor (The Lion in Winter), Blanche (A Streetcar Named Desire), Kate (All My Sons), Kate (Taming of the Shrew), and Velma (Chicago).