Leah Cooper
Last updated
April 10, 2016Biography
Leah Cooper has been passionately devoted to making theater for 30 years. She is currently a freelance stage director, Co-Artistic Director of Wonderlust Productions, Executive Director of the Minnesota Theater Alliance, and a co-founder and partner at MinnesotaPlaylist.com. From 2001-2006, she was the Executive Director of the Minnesota Fringe Festival.
Résumé
EXPERIENCE
DIRECTING IN MINNESOTA
Upcoming
Lasso of Truth by Carson Kreitzer, Workhaus Collective
Pride's Crossing by Tina Howe, Commonweal Theatre
The Adoption Play Project, Wonderlust Productions
Past
Shooting Star by Steven Dietz, History Theatre
Arcadia, by Tom Stoppard, Commonweal Theatre
Behind the Eye, by Carson Kreitzer, Park Square Theatre
The Things They Carried, adapted by Jim Stowell from the book by Tim O'Brien, History Theatre
Veterans Play Project, by Footprints Collective and Minnesota military veterans, produced by Mixed Blood Theatre
Or by Liz Duffy Adams, Park Square Theatre
Kill Me, Don't Go by Trista Baldwin, Workhaus Collective
The Drawer Boy by Michael Healey, Commonweal Theatre
Where We're Born by Lucy Thurber, 20% Theatre Company
Independence by Lee Blessing, Theatre in the Round Players
After Miss Julie adapted by Patrick Marber from Miss Julie by August Strindberg, Gremlin Theatre
August: Osage County by Tracy Letts, Park Square Theatre
Ring Round the Moon by Jean Anouilh, Theatre in the Round Players
As You Like It by William Shakespeare, Shakespearean Youth Theatre
Panache by Don Gordon, Theatre in the Round Players
Landscape of the Body by John Guare, Prufrock Theatre
Teach Me Tonight by Ariel Leaf, 20% Percent Theatre
Everywhere Signs Fall by Alan Berks, Gremlin Theater
Anton in Show Business by Jane Martin, Starting Gate Productions
I've Got a Secret by Daniel Pinkeron, Fortune’s Fool Players
Glorious Noise by Rik Reppe, Fringe Festival
Vanek Trilogy by Vaclav Havel, Ministry of Cultural Warfare
Unveiling by Vaclav Havel, Ministry of Cultural Warfare
WASP by Steve Martin, Ministry of Cultural Warfare
It’s Just a Job by Chris Gennaula, Fringe Festival
Listen by Leah Cooper, Fringe Festival
Chicago Avenue Project (four times), Pillsbury House Theatre
24-Hour Play Project (two times), Theatre Unbound
ASSISTANT DIRECTING
A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller, dir. Ethan McSweeny, Guthrie Theater
Desiderare by company, dir. Robert Rosen, Live Action Set
WORKSHOPS OF NEW PLAYS
Outside Paducah by James A Moad II
How Water Behaves by Sherry Kramer
UNCLE by Lee Blessing
Packerlandia by Patrick Dewane
The End of Beauty by Cory Hinkle
Cuban Spring by Vanessa Garcia
Object Permanence by Paula Anderson
The Sequence by Vince Delaney
Wade the Bird by Trista Baldwin
DOE by Trista Baldwin
ADMINISTRATIVE LEADERSHIP
Minnesota Theater Alliance Executive Director, Mar. 2010-present
Wonderlust Productions Co-Artistic Director, 2013-present
MinnesotaPlaylist.com Founding Partner, Jul. 2008-present
Toolbox Consultants Partner, Consultant, Sep. 2006-present • Arts administration consulting, including: strategic planning, marketing and PR, systems design, hiring, organizational development. • Clients include: Minnesota State Arts Board, Springboard for the Arts, Mixed Blood Theatre, Children’s Theatre Company, Southern Theater, Open Eye Figure Theater, Patrick’s Cabaret, History Theatre, Mu Performing Arts, Burning House Group, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Great River Shakespeare Festival, Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater, Theatre Unbound, Irwin Andrew Porter Foundation, Upstream Arts, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Minnesota Fringe Festival Executive Director, Sep. 2001 – Sep. 2006
VOLUNTEER COMMUNITY POSITIONS
Board member, California Institute of Contemporary Arts
Committee Member, Creative Minnesota
Board president, Live Action Set, 2011-2014
Commissioner, Minneapolis Arts Commission, 2007-2011
Grant Panels: National Endowment for the Arts, Minnesota State Arts Board, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, The Playwrights Center (Jerome Fellowships, Core Members), VSA Arts of Minnesota
EDUCATION
University of Redlands, Irvine, CA 1996 B.S., Information Systems
TRAINING
Viewpoints and Suzuki, SITI Company and Sandbox Theatre
2011 Cornerstone Institue, Cornerstone Theatre
2009 Wesley Balk Institute, Nautilus Music-Theater, 2008
