Exciting times for award-winning Susan

SUSAN Collins-Duggan is marking her 25th year teaching speech and drama this year, and her 16th year running her drama & communications business Theatre Tricks.

She’s also an ant technician, a yoga teacher and trainer, and a life coach.

Oh, and the mum-of-three has just launched a second business, which is designed to help people connect, communicate, strive and shine through her corporate leadership Rocket programme and public speaking courses.

“I suppose I’m not afraid to be busy!” she laughs.

There’s absolutely no fear on that front!

“I think the day you think you know everything is the day you should stop what you’re doing,” she said.

Originally from Ballinspittle, Susan’s life was in Cork city from the age of 18 with ‘a plan’ – to study office in Skerries College, get a job, and study to be an ant.

Tick, tick and tick: she got her training in Skerries, got a job in the newly-opened Starwood Hotels & Resorts call centre, first as receptionist, then in the s department, while studying by night in CIT.

Susan had been going to speech and drama classes since she was eight and around this time her teacher got in touch to see if she’d help out with classes in her native village.

“I jumped at the chance,” said Susan.

Fast forward a few years and she had progressed up the work ladder, managing a team, in charge of a payroll of 530, and reporting into the US.

“It was a very demanding job with great perks and while I enjoyed it, I realised that the days I was teaching drama I was out the door like a bullet! It was obvious that something was missing, and that I liked teaching speech and drama more,” she said.

That was in 2006, and at the peak of her career she ‘jumped ship’.

“Part of me was afraid that I was making the worst decision of my life, but my logic was that I could always work at anything if it didn’t work out.”

She was dating her now husband Con, who had his own construction business, and she worked part time in his office, while teaching in the evenings.

They got married in 2008 and when the crash happened she started working in the finance department of Ronan Daly Jermyn in Cork city.

“I’ve honestly never minded what I work at – I was raised on a farm and from a young age we always had our own jobs and the logic was just to get on with it, and that’s what I did, teaching in the evenings,” she said.

The couple’s first child Caoimhlín was born in 2009: “I used to drop her to the minders at 7am, go to work, Con would collect her, then I’d go on to teach in the evenings and I wouldn’t get home until around 9pm. 

I kept that up for 18 months but eventually something had to give.

It was ‘make or break time’, she said, and with Con’s she decided to give the teaching a shot full-time and Theatre Tricks was formally launched in 2012, operating from her studio at home in Enniskeane and other locations around Cork.

At this stage, Susan had three children under three: James and Ben had ed the crew, and when Ben was just six months old he was diagnosed with a rare lung disease, which only a handful of people in this country have.

“Ben spent most of his first year in hospital in Cork, on oxygen full-time, and was also in Crumlin and visited a hospital in the UK,” said Susan.

“Con and I had a rota where I’d sleep in the hospital during the week, while also teaching in the afternoons, and Con would do the weekends so I’d get home to the kids. At the time we had a fantastic au pair Gemma who is a lifetime family friend. We did that for a long number of months.”

With her typical stoicism, most of her students were oblivious to the turmoil she was experiencing behind the scenes. And it was mainly down to her tenacity and determination that she got the information she needed about Ben’s condition.

“I ed a worldwide group of parents in the same position, and the power of the shared information was incredible. 

Ben is completely fine now, he’ll always have the condition, and we’ll always have a watchful eye on him but it doesn’t stop him from doing anything.

Her own mother died when Susan was 24 and she was only 54 – she had been ill for seven years before that. That’s a lot for one person to go through.

“I always say to my kids that the experiences that come your way happen for a reason, and to get on with them, and to move on.”

There’s more of that stoicism – suffice to say Susan doesn’t have the time or patience to wallow in any ‘why me’.

The fact that she did her Drama Fellowship, after spending a night in A&E with Ben in 2018, is proof of that.

She genuinely loves her work, and thrives on seeing her students, adults and children, grow in confidence.

“It’s a lot of fun and it’s so rewarding,” she said, even if she could write a book on Zoom having had to take all classes online during the pandemic.

Theatre Tricks has evolved and at the annual productions it is a family affair, with Con builing the sets and the kids helping out back stage.

Having said that, they joke that when they’re older they are going to go on holidays when it’s production time!

With the launch of her second business in 2023, and her new transformative Rocket programme, which is a leadership and communications programme infused with drama techniques which makes it unique, Susan says: “The best part of my day is seeing clients leave a session with a smile on their face, connected and confident to become leaders in both their professional and personal life, it is worth its weight in gold.”

Winning the Network West Cork Solo Businesswoman award was super recognition: “I’m so used to cheer-leading others on, telling them that ‘this is your dream, go get it!’ that when I was on the receiving end, it was strange, but lovely.”

What’s next for Susan Collins-Duggan?

“That’s what Ben often asks me! I tell him I’ll let him know when I know!”