Archive: Arts & Entertainment

The Parrot, written and performed by internationally acclaimed theatre artist and master storyteller Alice Eve Cohen, is an opera, a puppet show, a musical and a storytelling extravaganza!

The Parrot is based on a fascinating and unusual Italian folk-tale. It combines acting, puppetry, music, comedy and drama to tell a twisty "story within a story". A romantic parrot, with a mind of his own, befriends a peasant girl and outwits the evil king through his brilliant storytelling. The parrot's remarkable story is of a courageous girl who travels the world performing courageous deeds, saving princes and bringing joy to every kingdom she visits. The play moves fluidly between two fantastic stories: the story about the parrot, and the incredible story the parrot tells.

The Parrot has been performed across the US and as one young audience member said, "It was the best play I ever seen in my whole life. I bet it was even harder to do than our math papers. In fact, it was so funny, I hit my head on the floor" (John, 3rd grade).

Alice EveCohen's plays and solo theatre pieces have been produced at theatres, colleges, and schools throughout the U.S., and at international theatre festivals in Scotland, Ireland, Norway, Israel and Trinidad. She has written children's television shows for CBS, CTW, Nickelodeon and Nick Junior, and her fiction has been published by Simon and Schuster and Heinenmann Press. She has received fellowships, grants and commissionsfrom New York State Council on the Arts, Dance Theatre Workshop, the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as an Emmy Award Commendation and awards from Poets and Writers, Meet the Composer and ASCAP.

She received a BA from Princeton University and an MFA in creative writing from The New School University, where she teaches courses in solo theatre. She is the program manager for Lincoln Center Institute's Focus Schools Collaborative and the Artistic Director of Practical Cats Theatre Company. Practical Cats Theatre has created over 30 original works,which have been produced on four continents. The Company has been honored with grants and awards for artistic excellence for the NYS Council on the Arts and National Endowment for the Arts. Venues include: New York Theatre Workshop,Dance Theatre Workshop, Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, L.A. Women's Theatre Festival, Edinburgh Festival, Theatre Bama (Jerusalem), Galway and Oslo International Theatre Festivals.

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