All posts by Scott Cooper

Why SPC Theater this fall?

July 21, 2020Arts, Humanities, and Design - AllScott Cooper

Times are strange and we know you have lots of options out there for your fall academics, but did you know:

Tuition at St. Petersburg College costs significantly less than state universities, so you spend less for a high-quality, fully accredited education. All classes in our program transfer to any university.
All classes (including production) will be online this fall. We are offering Acting I, Introduction to Theater Arts, Stage Management, and an opportunity to be in an online production.
We have produced multiple online (Zoom) productions this summer. We know how to do this. Auditions for productions will be online—easy. An online audition workshop will be offered in August. Our fall production title will be announced (along with our spring production) July 30 on our Facebook page.
Class sizes are smaller at SPC and there is more individual attention given to students. More chances to be involved with productions (which hopefully will be on stage in the spring). At SPC, you are in the spotlight.
Scholarships! We offer two $500 scholarships per semester to help with financing a theater degree!

At SPC Theater Department, we do care about your theater education and you. If you would like more information on SPC—or to just discuss your options with a theater educator—contact Scott Cooper at cooper.scott@spcollege.edu or visit us online!

Registration for fall classes is going on now. To learn more and snag your seat in class, visit now.spc.edu/fallatspc. The fall semester begins on August 17.

Theater Online for the Summer

June 3, 2020TheaterScott Cooper

Summer with the SPC Theater Department usually means one thing—bring on the musical! After three very successful summers of musical theater, the SPC Theater Department has adjusted to a new normal and will be presenting three plays over the summer with a cast of 18 and tech support of nine.

These students—representing five local high schools, three colleges, and SPC—have been working hard to get ready for their first Zoom performance on Thursday, June 11, at 7:00 pm. The cast has met daily on Zoom to rehearse the plays under the direction of Scott Cooper and Katrina Stevenson.

“Rehearsals have been very educational”, Cooper stated. “The acting has been very good, but we are realizing that wifi speed is not something you can do without when you are performing online. This is not something we usually have to worry about when we do a play on stage. This is theater at its most basic in one way, Actor/Audience/Story, and at its most technical in other ways.”

Everything about these plays has been done virtually—auditions, tech interviews, rehearsals, and, finally, performances. The plays will have live sound effects provided by students.

Performance Dates

Click the dates for links to the scheduled performances. Links for The Rimers of Eldritch will be posted at a later time.

Shakespeare’s Ladies Meet by Charles George | June 11, 12, 13 @ 7:00 pm
Ladies from Shakespeare’s plays, Portia, Katherine, Ophelia, Desdemona, and Cleopatra come to Juliet’s garden to talk her out of falling in love with Romeo.
The Actor’s Nightmare by Christopher Durang | June 11, 12, 13 @ 7:00 pm
George wakes up backstage and is thrown onstage even though he doesn’t remember which play they are doing or if he has ever rehearsed any of them.
The Rimers of Eldritch by Lanford Wilson | June 26 @ 7:00 pm followed by a “Talk Back” session after the performance

*Please note that The Rimers of Eldritch contains mature themes and content including discussions of sexual violence. Not recommended for children under 16.*

There will be a short intermission between the performances of Shakespeare’s Ladies Meet and The Actor’s Nightmare. For more information about the performances, please contact Scott Cooper at cooper.scott@spcollege.edu.

Summer Actors rehearse online for the summer.

Summer Theater at St. Petersburg College

April 28, 2020Arts, Humanities, and Design - All, TheaterScott Cooper

Welcome to the summer of 2020, the year of technology and physical distancing. But the SPC Theater Department is determined to have a “the show must go on” mentality!

Instead of doing its usual summer production, the Theater Department is going to tackle three plays by casting an ensemble of 20–22 actors, stage managers, and techs who will be involved in each of the plays in some way. The approach is going to be more like a “radio” play with an emphasis on the voice and sound. The Theater Department will also need stage managers for each of the plays and one or two “Foley” (live sound effect) artists. The current breakdown is actors (10 female/7 male, 3 stage managers, and 2 techs).

The plays that have been chosen are:

When Shakespeare’s Ladies Meet by Charles George (directed by Katrina Stevenson)
The Actor’s Nightmare by Christopher Durang (directed by Scott Cooper)
The Rimers of Eldritch* by Lanford Wilson (directed by Scott Cooper)

*This play is adult in nature, to be expected at the college level. Parents of high school students, please be aware of this before you sign on for the play.

When Shakespeare’s Ladies Meet and The Actor’s Nightmare are both one-acts and will be “performed” the evenings of June 11–13, three performances each. The Rimers of Eldritch will be “performed” on the evenings of June 25-27, three performances. All performances will take place on ZOOM.

A few details, with exact information TBD:

Rehearsals and performances will happen on ZOOM, with rehearsals taking place from 10:00AM–12:00PM, Monday through Friday.
Participants will need to have access to a mic, web camera, and Wi-fi/internet.
Auditions will be virtual, and you will record two contrasting monologues and submit them.

To audition as an actor, please fill out the online web survey. Anyone interested in signing up for Technical Theater Students ZOOM Interviews (stage managers/Foley Artists/tech) can also register online for an available time slot.

If you are cast as part of the ensemble, you will be required to take on the roles assigned.
At this time, we are not sure if things will need to be completely memorized—but fully acted. We will also play around with some virtual blocking, which could be fun!

This is going to be open to high school students and college students who are not SPC students. You will need to sign up for a class and the fee will be $115.00 (for both SPC students and non-students).

Is this theater? Perhaps. Is this something you can learn to grow as a performer or a theater collaborator? Absolutely.

If you have any questions, please email Scott Cooper at cooper.scott@spcollege.edu, and don’t forget to follow the SPC Theater Department on Facebook!

Set Design for Jobsite Production Done by SPC Students, Staff

May 10, 2019Arts, Humanities, and Design - All, Featured, TheaterScott Cooper

Hedda set design: Scott Cooper
Scenery built and painted by SPC Students

Jobsite Theater Company is producing Lucy Kirkwood’s adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler (renamed Hedda) opening Friday, May 10 at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa. Set design for the production was done by myself, SPC Faculty member Scott Cooper, and was built and painted by SPC Theater Department Students under the direction of Technical Director Eric Haak.

This is the second collaboration between SPC Theater Department and Jobsite Theater after last fall’s Edgar and Emily was a great success on both sides of the bay. The mutually beneficial partnership allows SPC students a chance to work for, and in, a professional theater company, and Jobsite Theater gets many talented people working on their productions.

Jobsite Artistic Director David Jenkins and I came up with the plan for the collaboration on this project with students in hopes that this would become a yearly internship opportunity. It has worked well, and the collaboration will continue on next fall for Jobsite’s production of The Thanksgiving Play.

According to Jobsite, Hedda is an updated version of Ibsen’s classic by young British playwright Lucy Kirkwood. Set in modern Notting Hill, the play tells the story of a woman who feels trapped by her past and terrified by her future, bored by her life but afraid to make changes. Ultimately, something has to give.

SPC Theater Sets Audition and Tech Interview Dates for Summer Musical PIPPIN

January 31, 2019Performing Arts, TheaterScott Cooper

SPC Theater is excited to announce its high school/college summer musical – PIPPIN.

Written by Stephen Schwartz and Roger O. Hirson, this musical follows the journey of Charlemagne’s son, Pippin, in his quest for the extraordinary life he believes he deserves (don’t we all?). Along the way a troupe of players help him find out what works and what doesn’t– leading to the players big “finale” for Pippin.

Originally produced on Broadway in 1972 and later successfully revived in 2013, PIPPIN has been wowing audiences for decades. Previously set in a traveling theater troupe (and in 2013 at a circus), SPC’s production will be slightly different. The musical will be set in a run-down museum exhibit about Charlemagne and his life with the exhibit coming to life to tell the story of Pippin.

This musical is open to all high school and college students in the area for both acting and technical theater positions.

After successful runs of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF and URINETOWN (a Top 10 production in the Tampa Bay area), SPC is looking forward to producing another successful summer musical.

Interview, audition and production details:

Technical Theater Interviews: Monday, May 13 from 4:30-6:30 p.m.

All students who want to be a part of our tech team should interview on this day (with a portfolio or pictures of productions you have worked on).

Tech times will be 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. (M-F) starting May 30 in the Arts Auditorium.

Auditions: Tuesday, May 14, and Wednesday, May 15, from 5 – 8 p.m.

Students should prepare a 32 bar cutting from a musical theater song. Please be prepared to dance after the singing audition.

Callbacks will be held on Thursday, May 16, from 5 – 8 p.m.

Rehearsals: Will be from 12 – 4 p.m. daily (M-F) starting May 30 in the Arts Auditorium. Rehearsals on May 28/20 will be from 5-9 p.m.

Performances: Will be June 28 – 29 at 7:30 p.m. and June 29 – 30 at 2 p.m.

The fee for this event is $15 general admission, and tickets are only available at the door.

Want more information?

Contact Scott Cooper at cooper.scott@spcollege.edu.

SPC Theater Presents Medea

January 14, 2019Performing Arts, TheaterScott Cooper

This spring, St. Petersburg College‘s Theater Department presents its production of Euripides’ Medea, in a new translation by Nicholas Rudall. Medea is a Greek tragedy about a woman who has been scorned by her husband and takes very extreme measures to get her revenge on him. Written in 431 B.C., this play is both lyrical and horrific in content.

With a cast of 18, this production marks my return to the stage in the role of Creon, which is also double cast with a student. My last foray onto the stage was at SPC in 2001 in Bus Stop. I am not really one to be on stage any more, but students are always asking me when they would get to see me act, and this play just seemed a good time to take the chance and get back out there. I will also be designing the set for Medea, which will include thousands of candles onstage.

This production also marks the return of Betty Jane Parks as director. Park’s last directed our production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and students are excited to work with her again.

SPC Theater will perform Medea March 27-31 at the Arts Auditorium on the Clearwater Campus. My performances will be March 27 – 30 at 7:30 p.m. as well as March 30 – 31 at 2 p.m. An open dress rehearsal also will be held on March 26 at 7:30 p.m. SPC students, faculty and staff are free; general admission is $10.

SPC and Jobsite Theater Join for Fall Production

September 20, 2018Performing Arts, TheaterScott Cooper

This fall, 10 St. Petersburg College theater students are working every Friday to build a set for Jobsite Theater‘s production of Edgar & Emily.

On Sept. 28, they will move the set to the Shimburg Theater in the Straz Center for the Performing Arts and work on finalizing the show with the actors, designers and director.

This collaboration came about from a conversation between Jobsite’s Artistic Director David Jenkins and Theater Professor Scott Cooper (who also happens to be a union set designer).

“Jobsite is a theater company I have worked with in the past, and David came to me with an idea of using my designs and the building skills of my students for two shows for their upcoming season (Edgar & Emilyin the fall and Hedda in the spring),” Cooper said. “I thought it was a great way to get students out working in the professional theater world but also be able to educate them on how to work in professional theater without being thrown in the deep end. The students have worked hard and quickly (quicker than usual for us), and I think they have learned just how fast this all goes.”

Katrina Stevenson, who is an adjunct faculty member at SPC and a member of the Jobsite Acting Ensemble, will star in the production.

About the Jobsite Theater production:

In January 1864, reclusive poet Emily Dickinson (Katrina Stevenson) receives a surprise guest – Edgar Allan Poe (Paul J. Potenza). Although Poe died 15 years prior, he arrives quite alive and just as energized by death as ever before—one could say death kindly stopped for Emily, after all. Though the evening pits the pendulum of both poets’ personalities against the other in this comic fantasia, Emily and Edgar find they have a lot in common despite their differences. The heart tells the tale, you know.

Edgar & Emily is directed by David Jenkins (who also provides sound) with a scenic design courtesy Scott Cooper, lights by Jo Averill-Snell, and costumes by Katrina Stevenson. The set for this show is part of a special collaboration between Jobsite and St. Petersburg College’s Theater Department that allowed students to learn while working on a professional production. Edgar & Emily is written by Joseph McDonough.

SPC Theater Audition Schedule Set for Noises Off

August 10, 2018Arts, Arts, Humanities, and Design - All, Performing Arts, TheaterScott Cooper

Mark your calendar. The SPC Theater audition schedule has been announced for the department’s fall production, Noises Off.

Noises Off is a 1982 play by the English playwright Michael Frayn, who got the idea for it while watching a disastrous play performance from the wings. Door slamming, missed cues, and romantic intrigue will have you roaring with laughter as the cast’s collective sanity slowly unravels. Yet, the show must go on despite the catastrophe being played out on stage and the vicious antics among the actors backstage. Most famous for its revolving set, this is truly one of the funniest plays ever written, and I, SPC Theater Professor Scott Cooper, will be directing the production.

“Bumper car brilliance…If laughter is indeed the best medicine, Noises Off is worth it’s weight in Cipro.” – New York Daily News

“The funniest farce ever written! Never before has side-splitting taken on a meaning dangerously close to the non-metaphorically medical.” – New York Post.

“The most dexterously realized comedy ever about putting on a comedy. A spectacularly funny, peerless backstage farce. This dizzy, well-known romp is a festival of delirium.” – The New York Times

Audition details

I am looking for actors who can do British accents and are comfortable with physical comedy. Students who audition should prepare a one-minute comic monologue from a play. There will also be readings from the script.

SPC Theater audition schedule, rehearsal times, performance dates

Auditions will be held in the Arts Auditorium on the Clearwater Campus on Aug. 21 and 22 from 5-8 p.m.
Rehearsals will be Wednesdays and Thursdays from 5-8 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. weekly.
Performances will be Oct. 17-21.

Theater at SPC

From acting, stage production, costume and set design to house management, the theater arts program at SPC empowers students to explore their creativity and hone their stagecraft.

With two productions a year, you can audition for roles that empower you to perfect your craft and build your resume.

SPC Theater Summer Camp 2018 Launches in May

April 20, 2018Arts, Humanities, and Design - All, TheaterScott Cooper

Be part of the action in producing a musical at the SPC Theater Summer Camp 2018 for high school and college students.

This year’s production will be Urinetown: The Musical, a satirical comedy that skewers the legal system, capitalism, bureaucracy, and corporate management – to name just a few.

SPC’s Associate Theater Professor Scott Cooper will direct. The production’s music director will be Tom Guthrie from Humanities and Fine Arts at the college.

Summer Musical Theater program

This summer-intensive program started in 2017 when the SPC Theater Department produced Fiddler on the Roof. High school and college students took part in the technical and performance side of the show. Both showings of the production sold out.

This program is open to ALL local students in both high school and college. You do not have to be a registered SPC student to sign up for this course.

“I ended up casting 32 students in the production and was able to use all 14 technical students. In five weeks, we put on a highly professional production of FIDDLER – built, painted, sewn, performed and put together by students,” Cooper said about the 2017 production.

Haley Groth, a student who took part in the 2017 camp as a technician, said, “I urge everyone, technical students and actors alike, to foray into the world of technical theater in the SPC summer theater program. I will apply what I learned here to the rest of my life, inside and outside of the theater.”

Theater Summer Camp 2018 details

Auditions: 4:30 – 8 p.m., May 22 & 23 with callback May 24 at 4:30 p.m.
TECH Interviews: 4:30 – 5:30 p.m. May 22 & 23
Rehearsals: May 29 -June 28 (12 -4 p.m. Monday-Friday)
Tech Hours: May 29 -June 28 (9 a.m. – 1 p.m. Monday-Friday)
Performances: June 29 & 30 at 7:30 p.m. and June 30 & July 1 at 2 p.m.

Cost: $115. Scholarships are available.

Where: Arts Auditorium, SPC Clearwater Campus

Auditions and interviews

ACTORS: 16-32 bars of a contemporary musical theater song (after 2000). Accompaniment will be provided. Please bring sheet music.

TECH: Bring pictures of shows you have worked on.

Have questions?

Please contact Professor Cooper, who heads the college’s theater department, at cooper.scott@spcollege.edu.

SPC Theater Auditions for Spring Production Start Nov. 28

November 21, 2017Performing Arts, TheaterScott Cooper

The St. Petersburg College Theater Department has announced theater auditions for its upcoming play, LAUGHING STOCK, by Charles Morey.

Theater auditions will be held Tuesday, Nov. 28, and Wednesday, Nov. 29, at 5 pm in the Arts Auditorium on the Clearwater Campus.

What’s it all about?

LAUGHING STOCK is a hilarious backstage farce and genuinely affectionate look into the world of the theatre.

When The Playhouse, a rustic New England summer theatre, schedules a repertory season of Dracula, Hamlet and Charley’s Aunt, comic mayhem ensues. We follow the well-intentioned but over-matched company from outrageous auditions to ego-driven rehearsals, through opening nights gone disastrously awry to the elation of a great play well told and the comic and nostalgic season close.

Details for theater auditions

Students who wish to audition will need to prepare a 1-minute, comic monologue. (If you don’t have one prepared, readings will be done from the script of the play.)
Rehearsals for the play start the week of Jan 22.
If cast in the play, you will need to sign up for the Acting Repertory class at the college (1 credit).

If you have questions about the play, please contact Scott Cooper at cooper.scott@spcollege.edu.

Available roles

Gordon Page, 40’s-50’s. Artistic Director. (Leader of the pack. He’s in most scenes.)
Jack Morris, 20’s. Actor. (The Juvenile. Should he quit acting, and go to law school?)
Susannah Huntsman, 30’s. Director. (We’ve all had directors like this one, unfortunately.)
Mary Pierre, 20’s. Actor. (The ingénue. Earnest to a fault.)
Tyler Taylor, 30’s-40’s. Actor. (Leading roles only, please.)
Vernon Volker, 40’s-50’s, Actor. (Summer stock may be beneath him.)
Richfield Hawksley, 70’s. Actor. (Done it all, played them all, if he could only remember.)
Daisy Coates, 60’s-70’s. Actor. (Has been ready to play Ophelia for 40 years.)
Craig Conlin (could be man or woman), 30’s-50’s. Business Manager. (Someone has to watch the money.)
Sarah McKay, 40’s-50’s. Stage Manager. (Efficient, acerbic, never without her drink mug.)
Henry Mills, (could be man or woman) 30’s-40’s. Designer. (Must he really create it all with paper and scissors?)
And the inexperienced, overworked, and faithful apprentices:
- Karma Schneider
- Braun Oakes
- Ian Milliken
- possibly more?