Susan Nussbaum
Susan Nussbaum | |
|---|---|
| A young white woman with curly dark hair, smiling Susan Nussbaum, from a 1984 newspaper photo | |
| Born | Susan Ruth Nussbaum December 12, 1953 |
| Died | April 28, 2022 (aged 68) Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Occupations | Playwright, novelist, activist |
| Father | Mike Nussbaum |
| Relatives | Karen Nussbaum (sister) |
Susan Ruth Nussbaum (December 12, 1953 – April 28, 2022) was an American actress, author, playwright, and disability rights activist.[1][2]
Early life and education
[edit | edit source]Nussbaum was born in Chicago and raised in nearby Highland Park, the daughter of Mike Nussbaum and Annette Brenner Nussbaum. Her father, a former exterminator, became a well-known actor and director;[3] her mother was a publicist.[2] Her sister Karen Nussbaum is a noted labor leader.[4]
Nussbaum studied acting at Roosevelt University and Goodman School of Drama, both in Chicago. Nussbaum used a wheelchair after she survived being hit by a car in her twenties.[5] "When I became a wheelchair user in the late '70s," she wrote in a 2012 essay, "all I knew about being disabled I learned from reading books and watching movies, and that scared the shit out of me."[6]
Career
[edit | edit source]As a performer, Nussbaum appeared a comic revue, Staring Back (1984),[7] as Emma Goldman in Frank Galati's She Always Said, Pablo (1987), in another comic review, The Plucky and Spunky Show (1990),[8] in her own one-woman show, Mishuganismo, directed by her father, in Activities of Daily Living (1994),[9] and in No One As Nasty (2000).[10] She worked with Marca Bristo on Access Living,[11][12] and started a group of disabled girls and young women, The Empowered FeFes.[13][14][15] She directed a production of Michael Vitali's G-Man! (1995),[9] and two productions of Mike Ervin's The History of Bowling (1999).[2][16]
Riva Lehrer painted a portrait of Nussbaum in 1998.[16][17] In 2008, Nussbaum was named one of Utne Reader's "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World." Her debut novel Good Kings, Bad Kings (2013) won the 2012 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction.[18][19] The novel is set in an institution for disabled young people in the Chicago area.[20][21]
Works
[edit | edit source]- Staring Back (1983, sketch comedy show, co-written with Lawrence Perkins)[7]
- The Plucky and Spunky Show (1990)[8]
- Mishuganismo (1992, play)[22]
- Telethon (1993, play, co-written with William Hammack)[9]
- Activities of Daily Living (1994, play, co-writer)[23]
- No One as Nasty (2000, play)[10]
- Crippled Sisters (play)[24]
- "Why are Fictional Characters with Disabilities So Unreal?" (2012, essay)[6]
- Good Kings, Bad Kings (2013, novel)[25]
- Code of the Freaks (2020, documentary, co-written and co-produced by Nussbaum)[26]
Personal life
[edit | edit source]Nussbaum had a daughter, Taina Rodriguez.[24] She died from pneumonia in 2022, at the age of 68, at her home in Chicago.[1][2] She was buried at Westlawn Cemetery in Norridge Illinois.
References
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External links
[edit | edit source]- Susan Nussbaum's 2014 lecture for One Book Villanova, on YouTube
- An episode of Distopia, a disability-focused podcast hosted by Christopher Smit, featuring an interview with Nussbaum