Susan Powers (later known as Susan Powers Kennelly) was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1937. She received a full tuition scholarship to attend the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. for her undergraduate studies where she majored in theatre, studying under the university's drama department founder Rev. Gilbert V. Hartke. In the early 1960s she joined Arena Stage as Director of Public Relations and later formed her own public relations firm, establishing relationships with folk singers and musicians performing in Washington, D.C. throughout the 1960s-1970s. In 1964, she married Justice Department lawyer Thomas Anthony Kennelly, with the ceremony being officiated by Father Hartke. Susan later left public relations and began a new career as a travel consultant. After raising their three children in Washington, D.C., Susan and Thomas moved to Napa, California in 1994 where Susan spent 18 years serving as director of tours and travel for the Fromm Institute for Lifelong Learning at the University of San Francisco. Susan passed away on June 5, 2022 at the age of 84.

One of the first not-for-profit theatres in the United States, as well as a pioneer of the regional theatre movement, Arena Stage was the first regional theatre to transfer a production to Broadway (, 1967), the first invited by the U.S. State Department to tour the Soviet Union, and the first to receive a Tony Award. During the 1960s, Arena garnered international renown in its new space: the Arena Stage Theatre. The new building, located at Sixth Street and Maine Avenue SW, was the first playhouse built in Washington, D.C. since 1895. Today, Arena Stage performs to over 250,000 patrons during a September to June season and employs nearly 200 theatre professionals.