Suzanne "Suzy" M. Bassani

Suzanne “Suzy” Murray Bassani has been described as extraordinary, amazing, and a dynamic force who made a positive and lasting impact on so many people.

Suzy was born in Johannesburg South Africa in on July 6, 1940. She graduated from high school early at the age of 16 and began pursuing a career in both acting and computer programming with NCR. In 1962 Suzy graduated from the Academy of Acting with honors in Acting and Directing.

In 1963, after her graduation, she was invited to London, England. She left South Africa to move to London with her dearest friend Angela Gay “Gabi” Booth Marza. In London, she joined the Ruth Oppenheim Acting Company. At the same time, during the day, she worked as a computer programmer for NCR.

As her acting career began flourishing, she played lead roles in productions of playwrights Garcia Lorca, Tennessee Williams, Hendrik Ibsen, and many others. In 1964 she was cast in the lead role of Isabella in Edward II for the Marlow Society’s official celebration of the quarter centenary of Christopher Marlow’s birth in London, England.

By the end of 1964 she had moved to Milan, Italy working for NCR and programming computers for large corporations including San Pellegrino. While working at NCR she met Giuseppe “Pino” Bassani. They fell in love and were married in November 1966.

In 1967, Suzy and Pino moved to Genova, Italy as they were both working for NCR as a team. In 1968, they welcomed their first child into the world – Gisella C. Bassani. In 1969, Pino received a promotion and the young family moved to Rome and Suzy became a full-time mom and artistic entrepreneur. Later in 1969, they welcomed their second child – Lorenzo R. G. Bassani.

In 1970, she launched Dinner Theatre on Via Veneto in Rome. She also served as the producer for several theater productions including Coctau’s The Human Voice starring the famous actress and Suzy’s mentor Ruth Oppenheim. During these years, she also founded the Coffee Bar Theater and became Artistic Director of the Goldoni Theatre. There she brought Paul Scoffield and many other celebrities to perform.

Suzy’s adventures in Rome extended beyond the theatre as she became an artist, creating sculptures made of silver and stones, as well as jewelry produced in South Africa. During this time, she also met and was inspired by New Zealand sculpture Colin Webster Watson, with whom she began a life-long friendship.

In 1976 Pino was promoted to Country Manager for Italy and the family moved to the Milan/Como area. While in Como she met Gisella Belgeri, and she was invited to become Public Relations Director for Autunno Musicale, Italy’s second largest music festival at the time. This festival presented musical groups from throughout the world in over 20 towns around the lake for tens of thousands of people. At that time, she also met her friend and long time supporter Maria Grazia Mazzocchi.

In 1977 Suzy founded the European Center for Theatre, Dance, and Music, which collaborated with the Autunno Musicale festival adding a theatre and dance component. The Center also presented workshops and seminars for professional actors, dancers, and singers in collaboration with La Scala (Milan’s Opera House), La Fenice (Venice’s Opera House), and the Opera House of Paris. As President and Founder of the European Center for Theatre, she sponsored such visiting artists as Jerzy Grotowsky, Lindsey Kemp, and Philip Glass.

At the same time, on Lake Como, she founded the first English Theatre Festival, which presented theatre in English to over 16,000 Italian students each year. This started as a 4-day festival and grew to be a 30-day festival with special trains running from Milan to Como.

In 1980 Pino was promoted to Area Vice President for Latin America for NCR and the family moved to Dayton “Action City”, Ohio in September of that year. Shortly after arriving in Dayton, Suzy met Betty Dietz Krebs, critic and arts editor for the Dayton Daily News, who introduced her to many personalities in the arts in Dayton. In 1981, Suzy organized the Once in a Lifetime Festival which brought together over 30 community arts organizations in the region plus a theatre company from England for a ten day period presenting over 50 performances in various venues.

In 1982, along with Jean Woodhull and Frances “Franny” Sullivan, Suzy founded The Muse Machine, an arts education organization aimed at bringing more young people into the performing and visual arts. By encouraging elementary, middle, and high school students to make the arts essential to their lives there was greater hope of students continuing to attend and support the arts in adulthood. The Muse Machine began with one employee (Sheila Ramsey) and included 22 charter teachers from 20 area middle and high schools. Today, this organization continues to change the lives of young people through arts education and serves about 77,000 students and 600 teachers across 13 different southwestern Ohio and Kentucky counties yearly. One of the organization’s longest serving employees, Michael Lippert, is still involved in the program even after his retirement in 2022.

The yearly Muse Machine musical is still the highlight of many young Dayton area students and alumni. Over the years luminaries such as Nat Horne, David Dusing, Lula Elzy, and Douglas Merk were involved in this musical. Additionally, some notable alumni of the Muse Machine include: Schele Williams, Curtis Cook, Taylor Maynard, Micah Stock, Susan Blackwell, Jason Heil, Steve Williams, Glenn Stoops, David Sherman, Ruth Reveal, Mitchell Rawlins, and many more.

This program has won many awards and has been singled out as one of America’s most innovative programs. Suzy was its artistic director until 1994 and served for many years as President of its national board.

In October of 1985, she coordinated the music section of Italy-on-Stage at Lincoln Center, which was offered by the Italian government to the City of New York.

In 1986, she founded The Human Race Theatre Company with Sara Exley and Caryl Phillips. This was Dayton’s first professional theatre company. She served as their Artistic Director for four years and produced more than thirty plays and numerous touring productions and programs. The Human Race Theatre Company still enjoys great success.

In 1987 she coordinated New York in Venice for the Venice Carnival in Italy. It was a 5-day festival, which presented performances from the Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Opera, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York City Opera, and the New York City Ballet.

Suzy was also a great cook and loved sharing her food, so in 1987, she shared her recipes with the Dayton Daily News and the article “Muse Machine’s founder blends Old World with busy New World – Pass the Pasta” was published on August 26.

In 1989/1990 Suzy was very involved with the restoration of the Victoria Theatre built in 1865 in Dayton Ohio. She served as Artistic Director of the Viva Victoria Festival, a 10 day celebration marking the reopening of the theatre. National and international celebrities performed on the newly renovated Victoria stage for an audience of over 10,000 people. Some may remember the elephant on the stage at the end of the first act.

Suzy also served a six-year term on the Boards of Trustees of the Dayton Opera and the Victoria Theatre Association and helped form the Dayton Visual Arts Center.

Additionally, Suzy served as a member of the National Council of the National Foundation for Advancement of the Arts and was Artistic Consultant and a Board member for the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London, England, supporting her long-time friend Peter Coxhead.

In Dayton, she made many great friends who supported all of her numerous endeavors and became family to her like Macy Janney, Minie and Hjalmar Pompe van Meerdervoort, Patti Giering, her arts organization co-founders, and so many more.

In 1994, after the painful loss of her son Lorenzo in January, Pino retired from NCR as the first Vice President of Stakeholder Relations and the family moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado. There she designed her dream home in Cedar Heights with a view of Pikes Peak and Colorado Springs below. In the over 20 years she and Pino lived there she enjoyed having lots of guests, cooking, entertaining, and swimming in the pool.

In 2001, since The Muse Machine program was so popular Suzy created and became President of the National Muse Machine. This organization was formed to train teachers and communities from throughout America through a Web Site and cd-rom, in methods of how to integrate the Arts into the curriculum and establish a Muse Machine in their community.

In 2003, along with one of her co-founders Carol Sturman, Suzy founded the Colorado Festival of World Theatre. After an inaugural gala in 2003, the festival began in 2004 with a small run. Its first two full series of offerings in 2005 and 2006 included productions from Italy, Great Britain, Ireland, Israel and South Africa.

This Colorado Festival of World Theatre brought together the best and brightest international and American theatre artists to entertain and educate a global audience each summer in a spectacular Rocky Mountain setting. For two weeks every summer, audiences from all over the globe attended some of the world’s finest productions while world-class theatre practitioners met and discussed the concepts of imagination, the art of performance, and their methods of theatrical magic. Additionally, they participated in master classes, lectures and readings, panel discussions and question-and-answer forums with audiences and enriched the festival’s education and community outreach programs.

Suzy was a Founder, Producer and Artistic Director of this amazing festival which brought to Colorado Springs such luminaries as Sir Peter Schaffer, Stephen Sondheim, Ping Chong, Donald Sewell, Allison Janney, Daniel Beaty, Gordon Davidson, Zoe Caldwell, Chita Rivera, Marin Mazzie, Jen Colella, Lonny Price, Paul Gemignani, Jacques LeCoq, Joseph Mydell, Donna McKechnie, Shirley Jones, Patrick Cassidy, Lynn Redgrave, Anna Manaham, Brian Murray, Davis Gaines, Michael Pennington, Valerio Festi, Michael Feinstein, Steven Berkoff, Jason Danieley, Matt Cowart, Lucie Arnaz, Ben Vereen, Sally Struthers, James Naughton, Valerie Pettiford, Debby Boone, Bonnie Franklin, Brock Peters, Hal Linden, Tyne Daly, Mark Nadler, Lillias White, Eva Marie Saint, Jeffrey Hayden, Michael Lessac, Janet Suzman, Joseph Hardy, and so many more.

While in Colorado Springs, Suzy was also very supportive of other arts centers and organizations and became good friends with their creators/leaders like Linda Weise and the Colorado Springs Conservatory, Pam Shockley-Zalabak and the University of Colorado Springs (UCCS) Ent Center for the Arts, and Murray Ross and Theatreworks at UCCS. In addition to those already mentioned, she was also supported by many additional dear friends like Brooke Bower, Richard Nehring, Frances “Franny” Folsom, Sharon and Satish Rege, Roberto Agnolini, Susan and Bill Hart, and so many more.

In 2018, Suzy and Pino moved to Denver, Colorado to be closer to their daughter Gisella.

In recognition of all her years of dedication to the arts and to young people, Suzy received many awards and honors.

In 1996 Suzy was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Wright State University for her contribution to the artistic world and the community in Ohio.

Over the years, Suzy was the recipient of numerous awards, including: the Award for Excellence in Leadership in the Arts from the Ohio Arts Council in September 1985, the Ohio Arts in Education Association Award for outstanding and dedicated service to arts education in Ohio in In October 1986, and the Governor’s Award for Arts in Education in 1992.

Additionally, she received a regional Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and a commendation from the President of the United States of America, and in 2005 was inducted into the Dayton Region Walk of Fame with a marker.

In January 2000 Suzy received the Lewis Hines award presented by the National Child Labor Committee in recognition of outstanding service on behalf of children and youth.

Over the years, Suzy also received at least 4 proclamations from the office of the mayor in Dayton Ohio – January 11, 1996 was proclaimed Suzanne M Bassani Day, September 13, 2001 was proclaimed Human Race Theatre Company Founder’s Day, August 16, 2001 was proclaimed Suzy Bassani Day, and July 6, 2020 was proclaimed Suzanne M Bassani Day.

In 2017 the “Suzy Bassani Theater Off Third” in the new Dayton Metro Library was inaugurated with a huge celebration thanks to Doug and Sharon Scholz.

Suzy also loved the sea and the water and for over 20 years she and Pino took a yearly trip to Cancun, Mexico. There she relaxed, read many plays, hosted friends, and made new lifelong friends, some of which became part of the family like Rossi Marquard-Carney and Tino and Mariella Amati.

On top of all of this, she was a wonderful, devoted, and doting mother to her two children as well as a supportive and loving wife to her husband. She often showed her love for her family and friends through her lovingly prepared and delicious meals.

Suzy passed peacefully on November 20, 2025, in the early morning hours with her loving husband Pino by her side. She is survived by her husband Giuseppe ‘Pino’ Bassani, her daughter Gisella Bassani, her god daughter Isabella Rion, her nieces and nephews Dario (Sol) Bassani, Karyn (Phillip) Kershaw, Andrew (Phillipa McCathie) Murray, Gail (Alex) Tensfeldt, and her grand nieces and nephews Sofia and Lisa Bassani, Sarah, Nicholas (Sarah), and James Kershaw, Matthew and Chelsea Murray, and Alexis Tensfeldt, her uncle former ambassador James “Jim” (Heather) Steward, her cousin former ambassador David (Lanice) Steward, as well as numerous other cousins, their children, and many, many dear friends whom she thought of as family.

Suzy will be greatly missed by all who knew and loved her. She leaves behind a legacy of arts advocacy, creativity, kindness, inclusiveness, love, and service.

Celebration of Life service will be on Saturday, January 3 at 1:30 p.m. with reception to follow. Location: Horan & McConaty, 1091 S. Colorado Blvd., Denver, CO 80246. We are requesting an RSVP if you plan on coming to the reception following the service (yummy food based on Suzy’s recipes will be served): https://forms.gle/WyeCBzMDSsTTVUKX8

There will also be a live stream for those not able to attend in person.

We would also love it if you would share stories on how Suzy had a positive impact on your life both in person and online during the service. Additionally, we would be so grateful if you would share one or more pictures with us of you and Suzy that can be added to the picture slide show at the memorial and possibly online later. To coordinate all of this and plan the program for the service, if you would like to contribute with a Suzy story and/or photos, please fill out the following form (there is an option in the form to easily upload the photos to Gisella’s Google Drive): https://forms.gle/oqfqpfKLNe2MWywc8

In lieu of flowers, please consider making a charitable donation in memory of Suzy. This donation can be made to the newly established Suzy Bassani Theater Scholarship (an annual scholarship supports a Muse Machine musical participant who will pursue theater studies in college, helping launch the next generation of artists) – this is the second option on the form or the Suzy & Pino Bassani Endowment Fund (an endowment fund provides ongoing support to Muse Machine, strengthening its mission to transform the lives of young people through the arts) at the following link: https://musemachine.salsalabs.org/SuzyBassaniIMO/index.html