Biographical Text
Professor Emerita of Theatre and Dance Susan Stockbridge Cole (January 26,1939-), a native of San Francisco, California, a fourth generation Californian was born to Martha Rosenauer (1918-1988) and Elmer Leroy Stockbridge (1910-1983). She has one brother, David Edward Stockbridge (1945-) who lives in Boone, North Carolina. Cole graduated from Carlmont High School in 1956 where she was active in journalism and theatre activities. She attended Stanford University, majoring in theatre and earned her A.B. degree in April 1960. She went on to complete an M.A. degree in theatre, with an emphasis on scenic and lighting design in August 1961. While a student, she worked summers as a production assistant at the University of British Columbia in 1959 and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 1960 and 1961. In 1961-62 she worked as a designer for the Menlo Players Guild and other local theatres. She obtained her Junior College teaching certificate from the University of California, Berkeley during the summer of 1962. Cole began her teaching career at Bakersfield College, Bakersfield, California in 1962 where she was the scenographer (designer of sets, lights and costumes) and technical director and taught the technical theatre courses. While there, she discovered a love for directing and decided to pursue further education in that area. The first full-length play that she directed in 1968 was Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons. The next year she directed her first Shakespearean play, Macbeth. The next step, in 1969, was graduate study at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon where Cole studied theatre history and directing in the Ph.D. degree program in theatre. She worked as technical director and later taught theatre history and oral interpretation. She continued to direct, while there, in both a Shakespearean Repertory Company (King Lear) and a summer stock company. After completing her dissertation on "Productions at Niblo's Garden Theatre, 1862-1868 during the Management of William Wheatley" in 1972, she went on to teach at Keuka College in Keuka, New York for three years. She was hired as the theatre teacher in the English department and formed and chaired a Department of Theatre and Dance during her second year. She then formed and chaired a Department of Fine Arts during the next year. She directed and designed two or three plays each year, including two more Shakespearean plays. In 1975, Cole was appointed Director of Theatre at Appalachian State University in the Speech Department in which she was the third theatre faculty member. Her charge was to develop the theatre area and to strengthen the children's theatre and creative drama areas. She continued to direct plays, as well as teach theatre history, dramatic literature, directing, and introduction to theatre, voice and diction, and speech. The program began to grow, and more faculty members were added, while Cole sought improvements to Chapell Wilson Auditorium, the old Appalachian High School building. The formation of the separate department was delayed by an early discussion about creating a College of Fine and Performing Arts. Finally, the Department of Theatre and Dance was created in 1989, with five theatre teachers and one dance teacher. Cole served as acting chair for two years and finally as regular chair in 1991, a position she held until her retirement in 2005. The promised new theatre was never built, but funds were finally obtained for the renovation of Chapell Wilson Auditorium into a completely rebuilt Valborg Theatre in 1994. Cole directed more than forty plays during her time at Appalachian, both for the University Theatre and An Appalachian Summer Festival. The plays have run the gamut from an original musical through comedies and tragedies, to another seven Shakespearean productions, culminating in the 2002 production of Hamlet. Her final play for Appalachian was a production in the fall of 2003 of A Man for All Seasons, the play with which she started directing. She continued to design, especially in the area of costume design (1975-1987), working for both the University Theatre and Blowing Rock Stage Company. Her cumulative design credits are almost two hundred in scenery, costume and lighting. Cole has continued to write about the nineteenth-century American Theatre. She has published articles in Theatre Symposium, Notable Women in American Theatre (ed. Barranger and others), American National Biography (ed. Garraty and Carnes), Companion to American Drama (eds. Bryer and Hartig), Southern Theatre and other journals. She has presented papers frequently at the American Theatre Association, Southeastern Theatre Conference, North Carolina Theatre Conference, and Theatre Symposium. Cole has been very active in professional organizations and has served as president of the North Carolina Theatre Conference (1991-92), the Southeastern Theatre Conference (1998-99), and Alpha Psi Omega, national theatre honor society (1997-2002). She is also a member of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, the American Society for Theatre Research, and the American Theatre and Drama Society. She is the recipient of the NCTC Herman Middle ton Award for service to theatre in North Carolina (1997), the Suzanne Davis Award for service to the Southeastern Theatre Conference (2002), the Morris Smith Distinguished Career Award from the North Carolina Theatre Conference (2005), and the 2005 recipient of the College of Fine and Applied Arts Award for Outstanding Service from ASU. She is listed in a number of Who's Who and Who's Who Among America's Teachers. In 1976, Dr. Cole married Willie Robert (Bob) Cole (1927-), and they live on fifteen acres in Todd, North Carolina. Bob is a master beekeeper and travels internationally as a volunteer to work with beekeepers and lectures to students in third world countries and emerging democracies. He attended the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and worked for a number of years for RCA Victor in Nashville and throughout the southeast and later for Verdin, Inc., installing church bells and electronic carillons. He has three sons, Calvin Walter, Robert Floyd, and William Alexander and seven grandchildren. Dr. Cole retired in June 2005. During her retirement she continues her favorite leisure activities of reading, writing, traveling and playing with her four cats. Sources: Appalachian State University files and personal correspondence. -Dr. Kay R. Dickson
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