BIO
Cecilia Copeland is an Athena List FINALIST for THE COPELAND CASE 2023, a Member of New York Women in Film and Television, the League of Professional Theatre Women, an inductee into the Indie Theater Hall of Fame, National New Play Network Featured Writer, recipient of the Lennis J. Holm Scholarship at the Writers Workshop and Screenplay Special Effects Grant from MetroScreen Australia. Her TV Pilot TALTRIX is a Winner of New York Women in Film and Television’s New Works Lab and Winner Best TV Pilot Screenplay at LA Femme International Film Festival. TALTRIX honors include Finalist for Geneva International Science in Film Screenplay Awards and LA INDIE FILM FESTIVAL, and Semi-Finalist MADE IN NY WRITERS ROOM.
Her script based on the true story of the Copeland kidnappings, THE COPELAND CASE is a Finalist for the Athena List, the Winner Best Dramatic Screenplay Female Eye Film Festival, Van Gogh Award Amsterdam Film Festival, SIDEWRITE SIDEWALK Film Festival and Inroads Screenwriting Fellowship Finalist, Screencraft Public Domain Finalist, Winner Queen Supreme Best Feature Script Queen Palm International Film Festival.
Cecilia's most recent screenplay 13TH ST SCARE was just named Semi-Finalist NYC Horror Film Festival, Winner Best Screenwriter Toronto Int. Women Film Festival, Official Selection HorrorHaus and Underground Indie Film Festival, and Semi-Finalist Renegade Film Festival among others.
Her TV Pilot comedy WOMG won Best New TV Pilot at Boom! Productions. She is a credited contributing writer on INDIAN BILLY ICE winner best screenplay Royal Wolf Film Awards, Queen Palm Film Awards, Los Angeles Film Awards, LA Live Best Historical Screenplay, the European Independent Film Festival, Finalist Moondance Film Festival among others.
Cecilia is a Kilroy’s List Nominee and Honorable mention for her plays, Light of Night and “R Culture.” Her play, THE NEXT TIME has been produced around the world and published in the Gun Control Plays Collection on Amazon. Her trans rights activist play, One Woman won Best Premiere at United Solo. Her plays have been produced Off-Broadway, regionally and internationally. She is the Founding Artistic Director of New York Madness, producing over two hundred and fifty short plays in over thirty “madness” festivals all over New York from 2010-2017. Before stepping down as Artistic Director, Copeland oversaw NYMadness’s transition to company-in-residence at The Kraine Theater. She remains part of the company as an artistic advisory board member.
Her plays have been presented in New York at Daryl Roth's DR2, the Cherry Lane Theatre, Culture Project, Ensemble Studios Theatre, The Lower East Side Festival of the Arts, HERE Arts Center, Open Hydrant Theatre Co, IRT Theater, Planet Connections Festivity, and IATI Theatre among others. Regionally her works have been presented at The William Inge Center, Carnegie Mellon University, UT Dallas, Bishop Arts Theatre Center, Cara Mia Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Company Susanne Robert's Theatre, Venus Theatre, University of Iowa and Ohio University. Internationally her works have been presented at Theatre Royal Stratford East London, Finborough Theatre London, The Anarchist Theatre Festival Montreal, Sydney, and featured in the Verlag Textbook on American Drama in Germany. She has been published by the Playwrights Center for Women Writers, NoPassport Press, Indie Theatre Now, and Amazon.
Cecilia has contributed articles to WIT online, HowlRound, Theaterspeak, and TCG. She has been an invited guest speaker on the topic of gender in theatre for Letter of Marque Theatre Company, The Neo-Political Cowgirls Theatre Company, and Planet Connections Festivity Playwrights for a Cause. She was also a panelist for the League of Professional Theatre Women Producers Forum. Cecilia’s work has been covered by The Washington Post, Huffington Post, Playbill, BroadwayWorld, and American Theatre Magazine. She has been interviewed by The Native Society Inspiring Female Filmmakers, Visible Soul, People You Should Know, UndergroundZero, Theaterspeak, Indie Theater New, and Works by Women.
A graduate of University of Iowa BA with Honors in Theatre-Playwriting and a Minor in Dance, Cecilia received her MFA in Playwriting from Ohio University. She is a graduate of Stella Adler Studio where she was welcomed back to teach play script analysis for actors. Other teaching credits include in The Performing Arts High School, Ohio University, and the Actor’s Center Sydney. She interned with The Women’s Project, Seven Devil’s and New Dramatists.
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Full Length Plays Include: "R Culture" (Kilroy’s List Honorable Mention, Workshop Production IRT Theater), Light of Night (Kilroy’s List Nominee, Best Of Plays and Playwrights 2015 Anthology Indie Theater Now, Rolling World Premier IATI Theater and Venus Theatre), Tiene Duende -It Has Soul (semifinalist MultiStages New Works Competition), COURTING (semifinalist O’Neill Playwrights Conference and Winner of Best New Play Stage Left Productions), BIOLIFE (semifinalist O’Neill Playwrights Conference and The Emerging Playwrights Prize at The Marin Theatre, Finalist for Mabou Mines Residency, Workshop Production The Chain Theatre), “The Wicked Son” (Top Three Best New Jewish Plays, Jewish Plays Project) among others.
One Act Plays include SMASHING THE PATRIARCHY world premier at National New Play Network Theatre, Bishop Arts Center Austin and produced in New York by MultiStages. BETWEEN HERE AND THERE produced at New Perspectives Theatre and Open Hydrant Theatre. BILLBOARDS GREATEST HITS commissioned for the High School of Performing arts and additionally produced by Open Hydrant Theatre. PLAYING was named a Kennedy Center Regional Finalist and produced at University of Iowa. Moontanner Girls and Unicorn Published by International Center for Women Playwrights, Words of a Revolutionary Produced in the Anarchist Theatre Festival Montreal, Scars, WHERE THE HOPE GOES part of "After Orlando Collection" Produced in New York, Philadelphia, London, Chicago, Orlando, The Next Time- Published in the "Gun Control Plays Collection" and RaabitzTextbook on American Drama in Germany.
Her script based on the true story of the Copeland kidnappings, THE COPELAND CASE is a Finalist for the Athena List, the Winner Best Dramatic Screenplay Female Eye Film Festival, Van Gogh Award Amsterdam Film Festival, SIDEWRITE SIDEWALK Film Festival and Inroads Screenwriting Fellowship Finalist, Screencraft Public Domain Finalist, Winner Queen Supreme Best Feature Script Queen Palm International Film Festival.
Cecilia's most recent screenplay 13TH ST SCARE was just named Semi-Finalist NYC Horror Film Festival, Winner Best Screenwriter Toronto Int. Women Film Festival, Official Selection HorrorHaus and Underground Indie Film Festival, and Semi-Finalist Renegade Film Festival among others.
Her TV Pilot comedy WOMG won Best New TV Pilot at Boom! Productions. She is a credited contributing writer on INDIAN BILLY ICE winner best screenplay Royal Wolf Film Awards, Queen Palm Film Awards, Los Angeles Film Awards, LA Live Best Historical Screenplay, the European Independent Film Festival, Finalist Moondance Film Festival among others.
Cecilia is a Kilroy’s List Nominee and Honorable mention for her plays, Light of Night and “R Culture.” Her play, THE NEXT TIME has been produced around the world and published in the Gun Control Plays Collection on Amazon. Her trans rights activist play, One Woman won Best Premiere at United Solo. Her plays have been produced Off-Broadway, regionally and internationally. She is the Founding Artistic Director of New York Madness, producing over two hundred and fifty short plays in over thirty “madness” festivals all over New York from 2010-2017. Before stepping down as Artistic Director, Copeland oversaw NYMadness’s transition to company-in-residence at The Kraine Theater. She remains part of the company as an artistic advisory board member.
Her plays have been presented in New York at Daryl Roth's DR2, the Cherry Lane Theatre, Culture Project, Ensemble Studios Theatre, The Lower East Side Festival of the Arts, HERE Arts Center, Open Hydrant Theatre Co, IRT Theater, Planet Connections Festivity, and IATI Theatre among others. Regionally her works have been presented at The William Inge Center, Carnegie Mellon University, UT Dallas, Bishop Arts Theatre Center, Cara Mia Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Company Susanne Robert's Theatre, Venus Theatre, University of Iowa and Ohio University. Internationally her works have been presented at Theatre Royal Stratford East London, Finborough Theatre London, The Anarchist Theatre Festival Montreal, Sydney, and featured in the Verlag Textbook on American Drama in Germany. She has been published by the Playwrights Center for Women Writers, NoPassport Press, Indie Theatre Now, and Amazon.
Cecilia has contributed articles to WIT online, HowlRound, Theaterspeak, and TCG. She has been an invited guest speaker on the topic of gender in theatre for Letter of Marque Theatre Company, The Neo-Political Cowgirls Theatre Company, and Planet Connections Festivity Playwrights for a Cause. She was also a panelist for the League of Professional Theatre Women Producers Forum. Cecilia’s work has been covered by The Washington Post, Huffington Post, Playbill, BroadwayWorld, and American Theatre Magazine. She has been interviewed by The Native Society Inspiring Female Filmmakers, Visible Soul, People You Should Know, UndergroundZero, Theaterspeak, Indie Theater New, and Works by Women.
A graduate of University of Iowa BA with Honors in Theatre-Playwriting and a Minor in Dance, Cecilia received her MFA in Playwriting from Ohio University. She is a graduate of Stella Adler Studio where she was welcomed back to teach play script analysis for actors. Other teaching credits include in The Performing Arts High School, Ohio University, and the Actor’s Center Sydney. She interned with The Women’s Project, Seven Devil’s and New Dramatists.
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Full Length Plays Include: "R Culture" (Kilroy’s List Honorable Mention, Workshop Production IRT Theater), Light of Night (Kilroy’s List Nominee, Best Of Plays and Playwrights 2015 Anthology Indie Theater Now, Rolling World Premier IATI Theater and Venus Theatre), Tiene Duende -It Has Soul (semifinalist MultiStages New Works Competition), COURTING (semifinalist O’Neill Playwrights Conference and Winner of Best New Play Stage Left Productions), BIOLIFE (semifinalist O’Neill Playwrights Conference and The Emerging Playwrights Prize at The Marin Theatre, Finalist for Mabou Mines Residency, Workshop Production The Chain Theatre), “The Wicked Son” (Top Three Best New Jewish Plays, Jewish Plays Project) among others.
One Act Plays include SMASHING THE PATRIARCHY world premier at National New Play Network Theatre, Bishop Arts Center Austin and produced in New York by MultiStages. BETWEEN HERE AND THERE produced at New Perspectives Theatre and Open Hydrant Theatre. BILLBOARDS GREATEST HITS commissioned for the High School of Performing arts and additionally produced by Open Hydrant Theatre. PLAYING was named a Kennedy Center Regional Finalist and produced at University of Iowa. Moontanner Girls and Unicorn Published by International Center for Women Playwrights, Words of a Revolutionary Produced in the Anarchist Theatre Festival Montreal, Scars, WHERE THE HOPE GOES part of "After Orlando Collection" Produced in New York, Philadelphia, London, Chicago, Orlando, The Next Time- Published in the "Gun Control Plays Collection" and RaabitzTextbook on American Drama in Germany.