Melody Cooper
123 High Street
Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706
914-393-3309
xtrascents@aol.com website: www.melodyMcooper.com
Honors
Film
Winner, 2010 Woods Hole Film Festival
Finalist, 2010 Shriekfest
Finalist, 2010 Creative World Awards
Best Screenplay Nominee, 2010 Action On Film Festival
2nd Round Finalist, 2010 Austin Film Festival
Semi-Finalist, 2010 BlueCat Screenplay Competition
Gold Palm Award/Honorable Mention, 2009 Mexico International Film Festival
Finalist, 2009 International Filmmaker Screenwriting Competition
Finalist, 2009 Buffalo Niagara Film Festival
Theater
Winner – 2010 SheWrites Festival - Synchronicity Theatre ("Sweet Mercy")
Winner - Jane Chambers Playwriting Award (“Day of Reckoning” )
Winner - MultiStages New Works Competition (“Day of Reckoning” )
Finalist - Jane Chambers Playwriting Award for (“Sweet Mercy”)
Finalist - Magic Theater’s Sloan New Play Initiative (“Absolute Magnitude” proposal)
Grants
2006 Ford Foundation Travel Grant to work as a guest artist in Rwanda
2005 and 2007 New York Foundation of the Arts SOS Grant
Commissions
2006 Epic Rep – To create new work for the stage
2006 Committee to Protect Journalists and Labor Voices – To create a new play “Truth Be Told”
Residencies
2008 Leighton Studio Writer’s Residency, Banff Centre, Canada, to develop “Northern Cross”
2007 Atelier de la Rose Writer’s Residency, Montcabrier, France, to develop “Absolute Magnitude”
2005 Leighton Studio Writer’s Residency, Banff Centre, Canada, to develop “Sweet Mercy”
Special Projects
Guest playwright with Cal Arts Theater as Reconciliation Workshop in Rwanda, July-August 2006
Theater
“Truth Be Told” Off-Broadway
Ensemble Studio Theatre, Going to the River Festival 2009, Petronia Paley, director
(playwright series with Kia Corthron, Ruby Dee and Lynn Nottage)
“Sweet Mercy” Reading Workshop
New York Stage and Film 2005 Summer Reading Series, Powerhouse Theater, Michael Sexton, director
Staged Reading
August 2006: Antaeus Theatre, Los Angeles, Claudia Weill, director
February 2006: Primary Stages/Epic Rep (Equity Staged Reading), Claudia Weill, director
Melody Cooper
“Day of Reckoning” Off-Broadway/Off-Off Broadway/Regional
March 2006: New Theatre, Miami, Ricky J. Martinez, director
February 2005: Five Points, NYC production
April 2004: Kraine Theater, NYC/MultiStages showcase
“Reading Zimbabwe” Off-Broadway/Off-Off Broadway
October 2003: Epic Rep/DR2, NYC
April 2003: The Drilling Co., 78th Street Theatre Lab, NYC – Richard Harden, director
BIO
Melody’s dramatic thriller, NORTHERN CROSS, was in the top 15% in the 2010 Nicholl competition, a 2nd Round Finalist in the 2010 Austin Film Festival, a Finalist in International Filmmaker Competition, and a Golden Palm Award/Honorable Mention and Official Selection of the Mexico International Film Festival. NORTHERN CROSS is about a black Iraq war vet who takes a stand against vigilantes who **** an illegal immigrant at the California border. Based on research she did for NORTHERN CROSS, Melody is currently directing a documentary with Emmy Award winner Rob Tate about immigration detention centers.
Melody’s recent feature screenplay, BREAKING THE FOURTH, a sci fi / action / thriller, is a Winner of the 2010 Woods Hold Film Festival Screenplay Competition, a Feature Screenplay Finalist at 2010 Shriekfest Film Festival, and Best Screenplay nominee (top five) at the 2010 Action On Film Festival.
Melody’s most recent project is a high concept thriller about Somali pirates that she has co-written with Austin Film Fest Finalist Jim Stansberry.
Melody is also an award-winning, produced NY playwright. Her full-length play, SWEET MERCY, which deals with the genocides in Rwanda and Darfur, won the 2010 SheWrites Festival and will be produced in 2011 at Synchronicity Theater. SWEET MERCY was developed by NY Stage and Film in their Powerhouse series. She received a Ford Foundation grant to travel to Rwanda to develop the play.
Her short play TRUTH BE TOLD, a piece focusing on the tragic events surrounding a female Iraqi reporter, was produced by Ensemble Studio Theatre’s 2009 Going to the River Festival, along with work by that year's Pulitzer Prize winner, Lynn Nottage.
Other work: Recipient of the Jane Chambers Award for Playwriting for DAY OF RECKONING, a play about the forgotten 19th century black activist Lucy Parsons. DAY OF RECKONING was produced in NYC and at New Theatre in Miami. Her one-act, READING ZIMBABWE, was produced in NYC by Epic Rep at DR2 in an evening of premieres by Lee Blessing and Romulus Linney. Her play ABSOLUTE MAGNITUDE, about four unique female astronomers who clash under highly unusual circumstances, was a Sloan New Play Initiative proposal finalist.