The beauty of live performances is the difference between one show and another; the unpredictability of a musical or theater show, and embracing the unknown of the audience's reaction and interaction between the performer. According to local actor Susan Kulp, such are the qualities that make for the best theatrical presentations,

“You get out there, you’ve prepared, and you don’t know what’s going to happen until you get that reaction and feel from the audience, and where your actors and musicians are around you, where everyone else’s headspace is that day,” Susan says.

Kulp will star in the Fuse Theater of CT’s production of Songs For a New World, a production run by Tony Award-winning composer Jason Robert Brown that will run at the Bregamos Theater in New Haven from Friday, Nov. 18 to Sunday, Nov. 20. As the audience will consist of a different group of people each day, that determines the level of enthusiasm on Kulp’s part for a different performance as well.

“I love getting out there and feeding off what the audience is giving to us, and then hopefully giving back to the audience every night a really genuine, in-the-moment performance, based on all the different factors in the room. The drama is real.”

When asked about what her favorite musical in which she has performed is, she says it's the most recent. But not necessarily because of the performance itself.

“I like the process even more than the actual performance. I love to perform; I love when it happens, but the practicing, the process of rehearsing and building a show, musical or non, is the part that I love the most. I fall in love with that process every single time. In the moment, that’s my favorite thing to be working on.”

Kulp is certainly no stranger to that concept or live theatrical performance. She began performing on stages at the age of 13, later going on to do the “New York thing,” taking her talents to the Big Apple where she attended theater school and performed in a handful of shows. She later moved upstate with a group of 20 actors in “Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland-style” where they collectively purchased and ran a renovated, art deco theater now called Shadowland Stages in Ellenville, New York, that hosted musicals, plays written by Neil Simon, and concerts. It still exists as a full-time equity performance house.

“To be in your early 20s and doing that sort of thing as an actor and getting out of New York was really fun,” Susan says. “Some of the original people still run the board, so we’ve kept some of the connections up there.”

She eventually moved to North Haven with her husband in 1999, temporarily putting performances aside until her children started to show an interest in the performing arts.

“Theater kind of took a backburner to kids and family. And then our kids got into it, so since then, we’ve started to work around the state, doing it professionally and non-professionally, depending on what comes up.”

Her involvement with Fuse started after meeting the company’s artistic director Lara Morton in the Simulated Participant Program at Yale School of Medicine, Kulp’s occupation outside of performances such as those with Fuse. After primarily staging productions led by youth actors, and with the re-opening of performances following the coronavirus pandemic, Morton and the rest of Fuse decided to begin having productions featuring adult actors such as Kulp whose first-time involvement with Fuse as an actor in Brown’s 1995 piece stems from her long-standing love for the musical.

“It’s a beautiful piece, and it really speaks to the last few years of this crazy world we’ve been living in,” she says. “When [Lara] decided to produce it post-pandemic, I was totally on board.”

Those themes in the musical, or more appropriately characterized by Kulp as a “song-cycle,” relate to the lack of direction and personal stagnation by the characters in the production. Songs relate to real people who have reached a crossroads in their lives and the decisions they must make to determine their direction, as all the actors essentially play the part of themselves. In Kulp’s situation, one of the songs she sings is entitled, “The Stars and the Moon,” to which she has a deep connection. The tune is about hitting a wall with regard to relationships and whether they were the best choices for her, contemplating what she has learned and what she may regret.

“That song in particular has always been one of my favorite songs in the show. I’m fortunate enough to sing it,” Susan says. “[Brown’s] music is to die for. It’s challenging and beautiful music. It’s quite the treat.”

Looking back on the previous two years and its connections to the themes of uncertainty and stagnation, Kulp has seen that the performing arts scene in Connecticut and its actors had suffered greatly during the pandemic, with the lack of opportunities for performances actually having erected a metaphorical wall for those who wanted to be involved in live performances of theater and music. She hopes to see excitement for performances resume to get artists and companies back on their feet.

“I encourage people to get out there and buy tickets, donate, and attend community theater/professional theater/music venues.”

To nominate someone for Person of the Week, email Aaron Rubin at a.rubin@shorepublishing.com.