After graduating from Bennington College in Vermont, Susana made her way to Colombia, South America, where she lived for two years working with an internationally recognized puppet theater company, Paciencia de Guayaba. Later she was awarded a full scholarship to study at the Institut Internacional de la Marionette in Charleville-Mezieres, France, where she wrote and produced "The Gardener", a puppet fable which was later performed as street theater in many major European cities.
From there Susana settled into circus life for two years performing as a stilt-walker and fire-eater for Traumtheater Salome, touring most of the major cities in Germany before returning to the states where she began her career as a professional teaching artist. A consistent thread throughout Susana's adventurous life has been her writing. In addition to her original puppet plays, she is also a published poet and author of a number of stories for children.
Susana's marriage to Timmy Abell in May of 2005 transformed her life once again; "The formation of Silver Trout Arts is the very happy culmination of a multifaceted career. I have the exceedingly rare opportunity to do all of the things that I love and believe in with the one who loves and believes in me. The joy of that spills into every class I teach and every performance I offer."