Biographical Playwriting Highlights
for Cynthia L. Cooper (Cindy Cooper)
Cynthia L. Cooper (Cindy) writes a range of comedy, drama, long and short plays, united by a passion for provocative themes, stylized staging and a mixture of comedy and drama. Her plays have been produced in many theatres and venues across the U.S., Canada and in Europe.
With wide-ranging success before audiences of all ages,
How She Played the Game , tells the stories of six sports women and was produced off-Broadway by The Women's Project, by Primary Stages, and in theaters in 80 other locations including Reno, Boston, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Montreal, Helsinki and Budapest. It was excerpted on a Lifetime TV spot and included in five anthologies, one of which is
Women Heroes. A version for elementary students,
Go, Girl, Go has been received enthusiastically in schools.
Cooper's plays touch a range of subjects. A new full-length play,
Second Sight weaves together multiple mysteries as a woman journalist and FBI agent turn to Gerard Croiset, the "Mozart of psychics."
Strange Light, produced at Wings in NY, Bailiwick in Chicago, in Philadelphia and Buffalo, involves a woman who struggles with light and dark, studying the history of illumination at the same time that she tries to capture information from her mother's failing memory and hold together her relationship. Of the play, critic Stewart Benedict wrote, "Cooper is a graceful and skilled writer."
Sisters of Sisters about the alternately charged and warm relationships between sisters, was a winner of the Hutchinson Festival of New Plays, and produced in New York, Kansas and Minnesota. Her drama,
Slow Burn, a finalist in five playwriting awards for its tale of entanglement between two teen boys and an elderly neighbor, was produced at Wings in New York under the direction of Michael Warren Powell.
Comrades in the Kama Sutra Zone, (formerly titled 'Strange Bedfellows') describes how a single issue - pornography - enters and then takes over the campaign of a woman politician. Produced by the Women's Theater Project in Minnesota, which commissioned it, it was a finalist at the O'Neill Theatre Conference, and presented at West Coast Playwrights Festival.
Walls was a semi-finalist at the O'Neill Theatre Festival in 2006.
Words of Choice, a compilation of several writers created by Cooper, has toured to over 40 locations and 20 states.
Cooper's one-act plays have won particular praise for their richness and compactability. Many present unconventional characters in complex situations.
Sentences and Words, published in a volume released by the Women's Project and Productions in New York, at the University of Washington and other schools, finds two women grappling with the death penalty and rejecting it, despite personal involvement with the crime. In
Works of Art, winner of the First Prize for Playwriting at Pen & Brush and other awards, a woman sculptor interviews women for an elusive position, but is drawn only to the candidate who can recite poetry.
Beyond Stone tells how the father of a firefighter and a woman artist, both at a loss for words after a devastating fire, connect through art. Others are powerful stories of a woman who runs a shelter for women (
The Dwelling Place, a winner of the Malibu International Short Play contest), a television reporter who reaches for black humor instead of dealing with her breast cancer (
Mountain, a finalist at Louisville), witches who clear a workspace of negativity (
Accounting) and a DNA scientist determined to prevent the desecration of Elvis (
Saving Grace, published in
Elvis Monologues.).
Another series of plays deliver uplifting images to young people -- the life of the inventor of the Braille system of reading for the blind (
Louis Braille), nontraditional career options (
Reachin', published by Holt); ways to counter prejudice (
High-Five;
Changemakers). A new play in 2005,
Sor Juana tells the true story of a young Mexican woman in the 17th century with a burning desire to learn, and who becomes a visionary poet and writer.
Cooper was twice awarded a Jerome Fellowship at the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis, where she began her work as a playwright. In Minneapolis, she planned and directed a Women's Playwriting Conference.
She was presented a special citation in Providence, RI for
Outstanding achievements as a playwright ... devoted to exploring the issues and challenges that mean the most to women. Cooper makes her home in New York City, and is actively working on several theater projects.
For more biographical info, click About here or at the top of page.Playwriting awards and grants include:
~Jerome Fellowship,Playright-in-Residence, Playwrights Center of Minneapolis (Twice)
~First Prize, Playwriting, Pen & Brush:Works of Art
~Winner, Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival: Fox and Hounds
~Winner, Playwriting, White Bear Arts Council, MN: Fox and Hounds
~First Prize, Playwriting, Barn Theatre, NJ: Fox and Hounds
~Winner, Hutchinson Festival of New Plays: Sisters of Sisters
~Finalist National Children's Theatre Festival: Louis Braille
~Finalist, POW Festival: Sisters of Sisters
~Winner, Malibu's Second International Festival of One-Act Plays:The Dwelling Place
~Winner, Nantucket Short Play Festival: Works of Art
~Winner, Camino Real Playhouse Show-Off! 2005 International Short Play Contest: Sentences and Words
~Finalist, O'Neill Theatre Program 2006: Walls
~Second Prize, Pen and Brush Playwriting Contest 2003, New York: The Dwelling Place
~Runner-up, Drury One-Act Contest: Works of Art
~Finalist, O'Neill Theatre Program: Strange
Bedfellows (Comrades in the Kama Sutra Zone)
~Finalist, Louisville One-Act Contest: Mountain
~Finalist, Source Theatre: Slow Burn
~Finalist, Original Playwriting Award, Aspen Theater Conference: Slow Burn
~Finalist, Western Illinois University Playwriting Competition: Slow Burn
~Finalist, Robert J. Picerking Award for Playwriting Excellence: Slow Burn
~Finalist, Biennial Promising Playwright Contest, Colonial Players: Slow Burn
~Finalist Out on the Edge Playwrights Festival:A Date At Last
~Runner-Up, Pulse Theatre Festival, New York: Second Sight
~Semi-Finalist, East-West Players FDG/CBS New Plays Program: Slow Burn
~Semi-Finalist, Lee Korf Playwriting Prize, The Original Theatre Works: All That Is Green
~Semi-Finalist, Trustus Festival Playwriting Contest: 24 Hours in the Life of the Belted Sandfish
~Semi-Finalist, Two-Headed Challenge, Playwrights Center
~Governor's Award Program, NJ: To How She Played the Game in Recognition of Althea Gibson, Women's Theatre of New Jersey
~Citizen Citation, City of Providence, RI 2006: Outstanding achievements as a playwright and journalist
GRANTS:
~Northwest Area Foundation, Co-Labs Grant
~The Field, Individual Artist Grant Program, Artists' Value-Pak
~BMI Musical Theater Workshop (book)
~New York Foundation for the Arts, Teaching Grant, Damas Gracias
~Writing Grant, Storytalers
~Ragdale Writers' Retreat, Ill., Resident Artist
~Playwright in Residence, University of Alabama
TEACHING PLAYWRITING
~Writer's Voice, West Side Y
~Damas Gracias (New York Foundation for the Arts Grant)
~Schools: New Jersey, Minneapolis, Wisconsin, Alabama, New York
OTHER ACTIVITIES
~Women at Wings, Co-Producer (past)
~Women's Playwriting Conference, Mpls., Director (past)
~Interim Management Coordinator, Playwrights' Center, Mpls. (past)
~Artistic Directorate, Playwrights' Center, Mpls.(past)
~Producer, Actors on Stage, Coffeehouse Extempore, Mpls.(past))
~Producer, Women's Sampler, WARM Galleries, Minnesota
~Producer, Women With Bite, New York
~Producer, After Shakes, a benefit for the Mayor's Earthquake Relief Fund, Eureka Theatre, San Francisco
~Chair (and inciter), Collaboration Award, NY Professional Women in the Arts & Media
ORGANIZATIONS
~Dramatists' Guild of America, Member
~Playwrights' Center of Minnesota, Jerome Fellow, two-time; Interim director; Artistic consultate (past)
~Board Member, 2001-2006
New York Coalition of Professional Women in the Arts & Media
~Author's Guild, Member
~New York Newswomen's League, Member
~Fractured Atlas
THEATRE AFFILIATIONS
~Women's Project and Productions
~Wings Theatre, Member
~Immigrant Theatre Project, NY, Advisory Board
~Circle East, member
~BMI Musical Theatre Workshop, participant (past)
THEATER ARTICLES AUTHORED
~
Some Solutions To the Problems Presented by the NYSCA Report on the Women in Theatre, Arts Wire 2002
~Reviews, New York Law Journal
~Review, Literature in Performance
~
"Sara Jones: 'Bridge and Tunnel'" Ford Foundation Magazine
~Articles, Newsletter, NY Coalition of Professional Women in Arts & Media
ARTICLES ABOUT (SELECT)
~
"Playwrights' Political Visions," THE DRAMATIST (Dramatists Guild of America), panel moderated by Alexis Greene. Jan/
Feb 2007
~"Choice Arts," Fund for Women Artists, January 2006.
~Drama Over Diatribe, by Ann Farmer, Women's eNews, www.womensenews.org
