theatrical producer
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communi ...
and
television director
A television director is in charge of the activities involved in making a television program or section of a program. They are generally responsible for decisions about the editorial content and creative style of a program, and ensuring the prod ...
.
Directing and producing
She produced the original Broadway production of
Lanford Wilson
Lanford Wilson (April 13, 1937March 24, 2011) was an American playwright. His work, as described by ''The New York Times'', was "earthy, realist, greatly admired ndwidely performed". Fox, Margalit"Lanford Wilson, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Playwrigh ...
's Pulitzer-prize winning play -
Talley's Folly
''Talley's Folly'' is a 1980 play by American playwright Lanford Wilson. The play is the second in ''The Talley Trilogy'', between his plays '' Talley & Son'' and ''Fifth of July''. Set in a boathouse near rural Lebanon, Missouri in 1944, it is ...
- and the Emmy-nominated and Wilbur Award-winner - Snow in August - based on the book by Pete Hamil. She produced
Viet Rock
''Viet Rock'' is a rock musical by Megan Terry that served as inspiration to the musical ''Hair (musical), Hair''. A violent denunciation of the American involvement in the Vietnam War, the play was described by its author as a "folk war movie" co ...
, written by
Megan Terry
Marguerite Duffy (July 22, 1932 – April 12, 2023), known professionally as Megan Terry, was an American playwright, screenwriter, and theatre artist.
Terry produced over fifty works for theater, radio, and television, and is best known for her ...
in 1966, which was the first of the anti-Viet Nam plays produced in New York City. As a director of television, Cooperstein's work includes the LA Emmy award-winning film, Pioneer Women and the ABC Afternoon Special - UNDER THE LIMIT.
In 1992 she directed an episode of
The Wonder Years
''The Wonder Years'' is an American coming-of-age comedy television series created by Neal Marlens and Carol Black. It ran on ABC from January 31, 1988, until May 12, 1993. The series premiered immediately after ABC's coverage of Super Bowl X ...
titled "Carnal Knowledge". It was the 19th episode of the fifth series. Cooperstein Charney's film work includes the short film – Private Debts - that was featured at Sundance, London, Deauville and Toronto Film Festivals. It won the Chicago Film Festival's Golden Hugo Award, and was shown on SHOWTIME.
Cooperstein Charney is the producer and director of the feature-length documentary film WHO’S NEXT?
Life
Cooperstein Charney was born on July 8, 1939, to Grace and Harry Cooperstein. She was born and raised in
Fall River, Massachusetts
Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. Fall River's population was 94,000 at the 2020 United States census, making it the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, tenth-largest city in the state, and the second- ...
, where she began her professional acting career at age 11, appearing opposite Edward Arnold in The Apple of His Eye. She then went on to produce, direct and narrate the weekly radio program, Juniors Speak. Later in New York City, she continued her radio career on
WEVD
WEVD was the call sign held by three New York City commercial radio stations, with related ownership, from 1927 until 2003. This call sign was formed from the initials of recently deceased Socialist Party of America leader Eugene Victor Debs.
H ...
, where she wrote, directed and produced a weekly program called Women in the News.
Her acting credits include Elaine May's Name of a Soup and A New Leaf, Jean Claude Van Itallie's King of the United States and Mystery Play and Connie Kaiserman's My Little Girl. She was an acting member of Andre Gregory's Manhattan Project, and an acting/teaching member of The Working Theatre, a project of Joe Chaiken and Kristin Linklater. As such she was awarded the title of “Master Teacher” from the Rockefeller Foundation. Cooperstein Charney has taught acting to prisoners on Riker's Island and taught teachers how to use acting as an instructional tool through the Teachers and Writers Collaborative. A graduate of Bennington College, Cooperstein Charney continued her studies at The Neighborhood Playhouse, The Berghoff School and Columbia University.