My latest piece, the 50 minute feminist Ke$ha-meets-Sophocles remix play “Zeus,” just won the 2012 SEBATA for Best New Script! I was super-surprised and flattered, especially by what award founder Stuart Bousel had to say about my work:
Oh, Megan Cohen. So good. So prolific. ZEUS is probably my favorite script ever to come from Meg’s crazy, fabulous mind.
For me, it strikes a balance of all her trademarks, namely intellectual postulation on the meaning of life, quirky turns of phrases, and bottomless pop culture allusions and thefts. By turns very funny and very sad, there is an emotional and intellectual maturity to this script that set it apart, for me, from all the scripts at this year’s Olympians festival, and the many many great new scripts I encountered in the broader scene over the course of the year.
Threading her dialogue together from mis-quoted song lyrics to chronicle mankind’s separation from the divine consciousness, she managed to make what in reality is a theological discussion, into a compelling tragi-comedic character portrait of both GOD and HUMANITY. What is perhaps the greatest accomplishment, she may be the only playwright to ask not only, “What does it mean to live in a world where there is no God?” but also, “What does it mean to be a God in a world where there is no Mankind?”
Truly pushing intellectual and aesthetic boundaries, this piece is perfect for a festival or black box production, and should be snatched up and performed wherever and whenever it can be.
It’s the presence of scripts like this, and writers like Meg Cohen, that make the case for why the Bay Area should be perceived as the hotbed of creative talent that it is.
– Stuart Bousel
In his leadership roles at the SF Olympians Festival and SF Theater Pub, Stuart has shown support for my work many times already, but I promise that knowing him personally didn’t make me blush any less at reading the above quote. Aw shucks, what a flattering start to the year!
(If you’ve got the hunger burning deep inside you, check out my Zeus page for more about the play itself.)
– xoxo Megan