(Pic by Val Adamson: Neil Coppen)Standard Bank Young Artist Winner For Theatre 2011
Neil Coppen’s (29) obsession with theatre grew like a tempest at the age of six when his mother first took him along to the NAPAC production of Singing in the Rain.
“I was totally enthralled when it started to pour with rain on stage. I think my father told me that the director had a hotline to some celestial being that made it pour on cue. I had seen magic before but this took things to a whole new level,” Coppen recalls. “I suppose it made me realise that anything was possible. This was the beginning of a very long and involved love affair, and I think after that I dragged my mother to the theatre on a regular basis.”
After matriculating from Durban High School in 1999, he attended Robert Mackee’s Story Workshop in London in 2004, completed the South African Script Writing Institute (level 6) at the Bat Centre in 2007, and recently obtained a Creative Writing Degree through UNISA.
“My education, you could say, has been formed over the decades by watching and learning from the greats,” said Coppen who has not been formally trained in theatre. “From an early age I was exposed to a wide range of performing arts styles including children’s theatre, opera, pantomime, contemporary and classical dance, William Shakespeare, Athol Fugard and the Mbongeni Ngema musicals.”
Inspired by what he experienced in the theatre, Neil found the need to create and tell his own stories. “I would sit for hours writing plays, and then build miniature sets using my father’s jenga blocks and brothers screen-printing screens as gauzes. At the same time my passion for literature and cinema was developed and all these mediums began to fuel my ambitions.”
Neil began his acting career performing in productions of Twelfth Night, Compleat Wks of William Shakespeare, Oedipus Rex, Dangerous Liaisons, King Lear and Wit, which premiered at the National Arts Festival in 2009. He has won leading actor awards for his performances in Hamlet, Proof and Dracula.
Coppen currently works as a writer/director and designer in Durban, as well as a playwright and freelance journalist for various South African publications including the Sunday Times Lifestyle, Mail & Guardian, Sunday Independent and City Press. His work centres on a wide range of historical and cultural interests, while his travel writing has seen him traverse the awe-inspiring landscapes of India, Nepal, Madagascar and South America, where he tracked the life and fiction of Noble prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez in Colombia. His various collaborations include works with visual artists, writers, community groups, sound designers, film- makers, authors, animators, choreographers and musicians.
“I admire artists and visionaries who have refused to compromise and have sustained careers by constantly challenging themselves and their audiences,” said Coppen.
Since 2005, Neil has served as artistic director for the Think Theatre Productions company where he has written several educational and children’s theatre programmes, including the much loved Marvellous Mixtures.
His first grown-up play, Suicidal Pigeons, premiered at the Red Eye Art exhibition in 2005. In 2007 he completed seasons of two acclaimed new works, namely Two ...The Beginning of the End (co -written and performed alongside Clare Mortimer), as well as the multi-award winning Tin Bucket Drum (directed by Karen Logan), which has toured extensively throughout the country and in 2011 will visit New York as part of the Ibewu theatre festival.
Coppen’s latest work Tree Boy, which he wrote and designed (directed by Libby Allen), saw him initiating a three year creative process alongside a team of actors, animators, editors and musicians in an attempt to distort the boundaries between live performance and filmic conventions and projections. It won the Durban Theatre Award for best new South African Script (2009) and had sell-out performances at the 2010 National Arts Festival, Grahamstown Main Theatre Program and Hilton Theatre festival.
He is currently developing several new plays and screenplay ideas while collaborating with the Umsindo Community group in Umlazi as a script writer on the Twist Development project.
“This award offers a significant moment to stop and take a deep breath. It’s a welcome point to reflect on the past decade, a chance to look back over my work while at the same time prepare myself for a future of exciting new challenges,” said Coppen. “Most of all I am so grateful that I get to continue doing what I love, crafting stories and creating experiences alongside a group of people who care as deeply about the things that I do.”
Coppen is currently teamed up with visual artist Vaughn Sadie for the Two Thousand And Ten Reasons To Live In A Small Town (Reimagining Space-Place-Process) residency facilitated by the Visual Arts Network of South Africa. Coppen and Sadie have taken up a residency in the historic KZN battle field town of Dundee for three months to implement their project.
“While I love working in different provinces, there are so many stories/complexities in KZN that interest me right now, so many significant talents who remain unrecognized, and I feel a sense of duty to base myself here (in Durban) and do what I can to tap into the abundance of talent and possibilities,”. says Coppen. “I am also in awe of the many talents, on stage and off with whom I have had the fortune of collaborating with over the years. This award would not be possible without their considerable inputs. So I share it with dozens of artists, collaborators and friends who make what I do possible. My parents, family and partner have also been hugely supportive and patient with me along my creative journey.”
Posts
