Sara Cooper (Cycle 18 and Adjunct Faculty)
GMTWP Alum and Adjunct Faculty Member Sara Cooper (Cycle 18) had her new musical HoT presented as a live stream event as part of New York Theatre Barn's New Work Series in late March.
With music by Lynne Shankel (Postcard American Town, Altar Boyz, Allegiance) and words by Sara Cooper (The Memory Show, Elevator Heart), HoT is an all-women+ darkly comic through-composed feminist adaptation of Helen of Troy. It examines the commodification of women throughout our lifetimes as Helen is first sexualized, then held to unrealistic beauty and gender-based standards, and finally vilified and discarded—until she decides to stand up and take her power back. HoT has been developed at Dixon Place and in the Johnny Mercer Foundation Writers Colony residency at Goodspeed Musicals.
In an effort to keep theatre alive during the Covid-19 pandemic, New York Theatre Barn presented the piece as a 30-minute live stream presentation via Zoom. The performance was recorded and distributed with supertitles for deaf artists and patrons.