professional portfolio - bruce cohen, mfa sdc

15 Years of Postgraduate Production Experience as a Director and Producer.

Over 60 Theatrical Productions Directed &/or Produced.

Experience with Nonprofit and Commercial Production; Amateur Volunteers and Union Contractors; Academic ,

Community and Professional Venues.

14 Professional/Actors Equity Contract Shows.

12 Regional or State Premieres.

6 New Work, National, and World Premieres.

Ghosts

The Merry Wives of Windsor

Wiley and the Hairy Man

The Rocky Horror Show

The Who’s Tommy

Ubu Roi

The Merchant of Venice

Beautiful Untrue Things (New Work)

The Fantasticks

To the Chicago Abyss

The Veldt

Optophobia (New Work)

Richard the Third

My Three Angels

Titus Andronicus

The Underpants

A Christmas Carol

Curio (New Work)

Moby Dick, Rehearsed

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Resort 76 (Regional Premiere)

Private Lives

Fools

Measure for Measure

Ruthless! The Musical

Play it Again, Sam

Stephanie Hero

The Desk Set

Julius Caesar

Two Rooms

Art

Songs for a New World

Dames at Sea

Two by Two

Wicked City Blues (New Work & Regional Premiere)

Side by Side by Sondheim

Kiss Me, Kate

Pal Joey

Triumph of Love

Zorro

Annie, Get Your Gun

Honk

Galileo

The Diary of Anne Frank

Unexpected Tenderness

God’s Favorite

Joeseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Lady Windermere’s Fan

Consumption (New Work)

Woman of the House (New Work)

I am a Camera

Rouge et Noir (New Work)

The Misanthrope

The Love Talker

Orphans

The Devil and Billy Markham

Spike Heels

One for the Road

A Place with the Pigs

Total Eclipse

The Wager

I directed and produced this staging of Tommy and it was a first for the state of

Arkansas. We mounted the show with live instrumentation and an energetic student

and community ensemble. The show was quite well received!

Attendance records were

set for this production and

we attribute much of the

spike to very aggressive

social networking and

guerilla marketing.

Additionally, our version of

this classic rock opera

attracted a much younger

and broader demographic.

Tommy! Producer & Director: Bruce Cohen Musical Director: Timothy Bartlett Choreographer: Michelle Dutasaca

Scenic/Lighting Light and Set Design: Don Eller Costume Design: Stacey Johnson Graphic Design: Bruce Cohen

I enjoyed my role as director. I also enjoyed two other areas of significant involvement with the show. I

designed the graphic art for our marketing, promotion and advertising. I also was pressed into service at the

last minute when a cast member dropped out and ended up playing Uncle Ernie for the run of the show!

Resort 76 was also an Arkansas, regional

and American collegiate first for this play.

To acquire rights to perform Resort 76 I first located

and then negotiated permissions directly from

Shimon Wincelberg’s widow. The play had only been

produced once before, by a small theatre company

out of Chicago. We were successful, also, in

introducing subject matter heretofore unfamiliar to

our audiences and student base. Outreach and

education efforts were offered in conjunction and our

talkbacks were actively and well attended.

Director

& Producer:

Bruce Cohen

Scenic

Design:

Don Eller

Lighting

Design:

Kristi Smith

Costume

Design:

Leslie

Thurman

Sound

Design:

Bruce

Cohen

Graphic

Design:

Bruce

Cohen

Regional

Premiere

This was a fully professional show produced in association with Actors’ Equity performers and

United Scenic Artist designers. It was also a departure from the more traditionalist fare that Utah

Musical Theatre audiences had grown used to. Nonetheless, we received rave reviews.

Songs for a New World Director & Producer: Bruce Cohen Choreographer: BP Mendoza

Scenic Design: Joshua Madsen Music Direction: Mary Anderson

Lighting Design: Michael Foster Costume Design: Phillip Lowe Regional Premiere AEA Production

I made the artistic decision to expand the original cast requirements from a trio ensemble to

twelve performers. This allowed complimentary diversity, stunning production numbers and a

richer, fuller sound.

Moby Dick was one of my favorite directing

experiences. This was a show that satisfied

on a very sensual level. The design of lights

and sound along with choreographic

blocking and imagistic use of bodies in

space lent an immersive expressionistic air

to the whole event.

Moby Dick: Rehearsed Director & Producer: Bruce Cohen Scenic & Light Design: Don Eller Costume Design: Sandra Williams

Sound Design: Bruce Cohen (w/apprentice) Graphic Design: Bruce Cohen Held by the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Selection Team for Regional Competition.

The cast truly came together as a

tight and collaborative ensemble.

For young students, which all of them

were, they took to the spirit of the

thing and painted the theater with

their voices and energy.

Producer:

Bruce Cohen

Director:

Don Eller

Scenic Design:

Don Eller

Lighting Design:

Cory Wray

Costume Design:

Chelsea Watson

Sound Design:

Bruce Cohen

Graphic Design:

Bruce Cohen

Regional

Premiere

2010 Contestant

for the David

Mark

Cohen Award

Curio is a play I’d written, and for

this production, newly revised.

The story concerns the commodification

of the “Third-World” by American media

and popular culture. It is a black comedy

set at the time of the first Gulf War.

Titus Andronicus was the most ambitious production I had tackled at ASU Beebe to that

point and, given its narrative requirements, gave me some sleepless nights.

But, unlike the hero of the play, all turned out very well.

We brought in a guest performer to play the doomed

general and assist in staging the copious theatrical

violence. A student designer focused simply on the blood

and gore effects (she received a commendation from the

Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival

respondent for her design and technical execution).

Titus Andronicus

Director & Producer:

Bruce Cohen

Scenic & Light Design:

Don Eller

Costume Design:

Leslie Thurman

Sound Design:

Bruce Cohen

Combat Choreography:

Don J. Eller & Brett Ihler

Blood/Gore Effects:

Sarah Eden

Graphic Design:

Bruce Cohen

Pal Joey was the first show I directed for

Utah Musical Theatre.

This was also a departure from canon and

served to expand our audience’s cultural

palate. The historical value of this show, as

one of the first instances in musical theater

of the use of an anti-hero, unsettled some

in our conservative area.

But, we received many more

commendations for our forward-thinking

choice.

Pal Joey Director & Producer: Bruce Cohen Choreographer: Mary Tinsley Lighting Design: Jim Craig Costume Design: Jennifer McGrew Musical Direction: Christopher Lavely AEA Production

As it all turned out, Pal Joey was a critical success and the roughest of

the comments we heard about were related to exposed midriffs.

These two plays were a great deal of fun and presented a number of design

challenges. We were able to create an immersive experience for our audiences

that, I felt, put them in the world of the play.

The Veldt & To the Chicago Abyss Director & Producer: Bruce Cohen Scenic & Light Design: Don Eller Costume Design: Sandra Williams Sound Design: Bruce Cohen (w/apprentice) Graphic Design: Bruce Cohen Held by the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Selection Team for Regional Competition.

The Fantasticks was a step forward for us

in musical theatre production.

In the seven years I ran ASUB’s theater

program we grew from no musical theater

to shows that perform competitively with

the four year and graduate programs in

the region.

Portions of this show were invited to

perform at the regional ACTF festival and

garnered two Music Theatre Initiative

nominees.

The Fantasticks Director & Producer: Bruce Cohen Musical Director: Shauna Haslip Choreographer: Michelle Dutasaca Scenic & Light Design: Don Eller Costume Design: Sandra Williams Sound Design: Bruce Cohen (w/apprentice) Graphic Design: Bruce Cohen Held by the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Selection Team for Regional Competition.

Our Matt and Luisa sang their hearts out at the ACTF Fringe

and our home performance tickled an expanding audience base.

Our student designers also brought home commendations for honorable and exemplary work.

Beautiful Untrue Things is another of my plays and received its first mounting

at ASUB under my direction.

Producer & Director:

Bruce Cohen

Scenic/Lighting

Design:

Don Eller

Costume Design:

Elizabeth Ulsperger

Sound Design:

Bruce Cohen

Graphic Design:

Bruce Cohen

2012 Contestant for the

KCACTF

David Mark Cohen Award

The show is a reconceptualization of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.

As with many of the productions here at

ASUB, in addition to directing I also

designed the graphics for marketing and

advertising of this show.

The Merchant of Venice Director & Producer: Bruce Cohen Scenic Design: Elizabeth Ulsperger

Lighting Design: Zachary Rhodes Costume Design: Michelle Setcer

Sound Design: Jacob Stillman Graphic Design: Bruce Cohen

My concept for Merchant set the world of the play in the mid 70’s on the Jersey shore.

Of special note was the student who played Portia;

she also designed a terrific set.

The Rocky Horror Show was my last here at ASUB. It was also the show that

broke all attendance records we have set over the prior ten years.

The Rocky Horror Show Producer/Director: Bruce Cohen Musical Director: Shauna Haslip

Choreographer: Michelle Dutasaca Scenic/Lighting Design: Don Eller

Costume Design: Angel McDaniel Invited to present at the 2014 Region 6 Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Fringe

For a finale, Rocky certainly wowed an entirely sold-out run and was also invited to perform

at the KCACTF Region 6 festival fringe.

Three Decades of Professional Experience.

Performed in a Wide Variety of Venue for Dozens of Companies

(from Outdoor Drama to Off-off Broadway) Including:

The Pioneer Theatre Company

The Grove Street Playhouse

MadLab

Looking Glass Theatre

The Sage Theatre at Raw Space

The Kraine

Oberon Theatre Ensemble

Women at Play

Actors’ Theatre Company

Fort Harrod Drama Productions

Time Warner

Ozone Studios

PAX TV

Gargaro Productions

Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre

The Progressive Era journalist Elizabeth Jane Cochrane;

known famously as Nellie Bly.

My research is targeted toward the creation of a docudrama I have titled

“Will Indomitable.” I focus on the two landmark achievements of her

career. Cochrane’s record-breaking, seventy-two day trip around the world

and “Ten Days in a Mad-House,” her daring exposé of the sordid

conditions in a turn of the century mental asylum.

An examination of parallels between the contemporary

phenomenon of Protestant fundamentalist “Hell Houses,” and the Medieval Catholic Church’s use of theatricalized Hell

and damnation within the auspices of liturgical tropes, vernacular dramas, and cycle plays.

Immersive Aesthetic Distance in Theatrical Production.

I am targeting an understanding of design and performance elements that best contribute to an enveloping fictional reality for an audience. I am specifically looking to examples from the world of theme park entertainment and highly immersive “dark-

rides.” I hope to develop a survey of best-practices that can effectively cross-over into traditional theatrical production.