Mindy Cooper is an award-winning Director and Choreographer. She is comfortable in many venues, from Broadway to Corporate, and has created stage shows, industrials and events around the world for over 25 years.
Her early career in the concert dance world has helped shape her work today. She is highly influenced by rhythm, cadence, musicality and how the visual dynamics affect and inform a piece. Her work marries innovative and traditional stagecraft with creative thinking. As a collaborator, she loves to bring together teams of artists with ideas and vision. Her passion for new works and bringing new voices to the forefront in theater, keeps her busy developing projects, and also breathing exciting life into the tried and true. She is Co-Founder/Co-Director of Catalyst: A Theatre Think Tank (C3T), on the campus of Southern Utah University.
As a Director, Choreographer and Performer in the Broadway community for over 4 decades, her passion for new works has always steered her career. Starting as a performer on Broadway in CHICAGO (Original Revival Cast), TITANIC (Original Cast), BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, SONG & DANCE, and TENDERLOIN, she segued to creating works early in her career. As Director and/or Choreographer For Broadway- DRACULA-THE MUSICAL, WRONG MOUNTAIN. For Off-Broadway-50 SHADES-THE MUSICAL PARODY, THE ETERNAL SPACE, MARS/VENUS LIVE, SOUL DOCTOR, FIVE COURSE LOVE, HOI POLLOI (World Premiere of a lost Noel Coward), BEING SEEN (FringeNYC), DEPLOYED (NYMF), and multiple BROADWAY BY THE YEARS (Town Hall). Readings and Commissions- OPEN, STAY; OCEAN IN A TEACUP; MOTHERS (NNPN); MY FRIEND HAFIZ (SF Mission); MOJAVE THE MUSICAL; SOCIAL LIFE THE MUSICAL; AMERICAN MONKEY (American Premiere); THE THING ABOUT TIME; and THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO TAMMY FAYE. Regionally, she has directed ME AND MY GIRL, A GRAND NIGHT FOR SINGING (Sac Music Circus), CABARET, (CenterRep), MUSICAL OF MUSICALS THE MUSICAL (CenterRep), ON THE TOWN (Diablo Theater Co), THE NEW BOZENA (Hudson Theater, LA), FIDDLER ON THE ROOF,
Mindy Cooper
THE MAGIC FISH (Mondavi Center), and National Tours of MARS/VENUS LIVE and TITANIC. She is Stage Director of RANKED THE MUSICAL, whose creation and trajectory is followed in MY SO-CALLED HIGH SCHOOL RANK, an HBO Documentary. Her Multi-Media works include LONG TIME COMING, TOMORROW I MAY BE FAR AWAY (with Rita Dove) both collaborations with Recording Artist/NPR host Lara Downes, STILL WILL BE HEARD with recording artist Liz Queler (commissioned by Peak Performances), SONGS FROM EAGLE POND with composer Graham Sobelman, and JULIET AND ROMEO with Writers/Composers Paul Gordon and Curtis Moore. Other work includes NBC’s Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and numerous commercials, benefits and corporate shows around the world.
From 2017-2023, she was a faculty member at UC Davis’ Theatre and Dance Department, after having been a Granada Artist In Residence multiple times, directing OPEN, STAY (Mondavi Center); PETER AND THE STARCATCHER; THE 39 STEPS; VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE; MR. BURNS- A POST ELECTRIC PLAY; THE WHO’S TOMMY; OKLAHOMA (Mondavi Center); URINETOWN; and THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE. She is Co-Founder/Director of CATALYST: A THEATRE THINK TANK (C3T), a national new works festival, proudly producing and directing new plays and musicals in all stages of development. (catalyst3t.com) She is now Professor Emeritus, and teaches master classes around the world, most recently her series DANCE AS NARRATIVE- moving the storyline forward through dance and movement.
Her work has won multiple Broadway World Awards, Bay Area Theater Critics Awards,Theatre Bay Area Awards, and was a Finalist for the Women in The Arts & Media Coalition Collaboration Award (NY).
