JAC Publishing & Promotions

 

Super Cooper by Robert A. Eiland

ISBN #1-933159-62-6
JAC #2006-0012

Cast

  • CAL "COOP" COOPER: About to turn 30; a little schlumpy, paunchy, balding. Raised Jewish by his adoptive parents. Aspires to be above average. He has grown up thinking he suffers from a rare disease for which he takes weekly shots concocted by his Uncle Jack. Conflict-averse, likes to please others. Starting to go through huge physical (i.e. hormonal) and emotional changes, and is freaked out about them.

  • LANA LINCOFF: 30ish; Cal’s childhood sweetheart. Down-to-earth, warm, positive; a home body. Lost her parents and little sister in a car accident. (Since Cal thinks he lost his birth parents in an accident too, this has been a powerful bond between them.) She attends self-help support groups and workshops, and is always up on the latest trend and the jargon.

  • LOIS LANAGAN: 30s; the only other survivor from Cal’s real home. Cool, incredibly smart, overly confident, a little distant, athletic, beautiful, full of British charm, sometimes awkwardly straightforward. Adopted and home-schooled by a Russian astrophysicist, who moved to Great Britain so as not to work on Russia’s nuclear arsenal.

  • LEXIE LUTERMAN: Cal’s best friend since elementary school. Still a big kid at heart and Sherwood’s own Mr. Wiseguy. Always coming up with harebrained schemes to make money; always has a wisecrack at a tense moment - the perfect personality for his sales job at the steel mill. Give him an Iron City beer, a hot dog, a hot date and a Pittsburgh Pirates game, and he’s in heaven. Seems a simple, heart-on-his-sleeve type, but harbors depths and deviousness.

  • MA COOPER: 60s. A conventional, working Jewish woman who took on an extraordinary responsibility in her early 30s by adopting Cal. Unwilling to accept her child could be a "freak," she prevailed upon her brother Jack to develop a serum to suppress Cal’s special abilities. Has a rather black-and-white set of standards. Domineering in a charming kind of way, expert in the art of applying guilt to gain her ends. But her love, for all its burrs, is unrelenting in its loyalty.

  • POP COOPER: 60s-70s. Kind-hearted, dedicated, a stroke victim with a gentle wisdom and humor that belies his modesty and simple life. Never quite been able to stand up to his wife, but always has loved and respected her devotedly. Conveys nuances and depth with extremely limited vocabulary. Dignified, and a little melancholy.

  • UNCLE JACK: 60s. Wild card, maverick, nomad, hold-out quasi-hippie-scientist with offbeat humor and lifestyle. A lavish (incessant) storyteller and generous soul with adventures in his past that only the worst Philistine wouldn’t find fascinating. Wears the "Uncle" tag proudly, and takes family responsibilities seriously. His love for his sister is bordered by resentment.

  • SHANNON: Late teens-20s. Sweet, responsible, sprightly and romantic; can wisecrack with the best of ‘em, and take a stand when pushed too far. A classic small-town girl, former cheerleader and prom queen. An oldest child who would go to the ends of the earth for her friends. Has an unfortunate habit of picking Mr. Wrong with almost every boyfriend.

  • MATSON: 30-50. A consummate actor and master of a variety of accents and disguises, he plays his "roles" with relish, preparing back-stories, gestures and wardrobes for each. Fearless, witty, dependable, committed to his causes.

Synopsis

He put the lump in schlump. That’s Cal Cooper, small town man-boy always at the ready behind the counter of his dad’s butcher shop, a place where most folks aren’t what they seem. Lately Coop’s been getting the weirdest cravings: for toothpaste, cigarette butts, even ammonia! Not to mention for Lana, his fiancée. It all seems to correspond with the recent shortage of the peculiar green serum his adoptive parents have been giving him since he was a baby. And with the entrée onto the scene of the very British, sexy but not very kosher Lois Lanagan. Soon Coop, much to his wonderment and consternation, finds he is able to do things he could never do before. Like sense what people are thinking, hypnotize virtually anyone at will, perform inhuman feats of strength…Cal’s best friend Lexie loves watching him tear phone books in half. If only Cal could fly! Oh well. So what has he become? Not a bird. Not a plane. It’s Super Cooper. A warm comedy about family and social consciousness. For the hero inside of us all.

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If you like this play, consider Eiland's Star Bright or Philosophical Differences?

Author Biography
Bob EilandPhilosophical Differences was Bob’s second Honorable Mention for a script in the Writers Digest competition, along with Enemy Within. It was also selected as part of Stageloft Repertory Theater’s New Plays Festival and produced there in 1997. Other plays he has written include Super Cooper; All For One; The Lunatic, The Lover and the Poet and a variety of one-acts. His works in progress include Empty Sky. As a director, Bob has helmed The Miracle Worker twice, at Arlington Friends of the Drama and at the theater group he founded in Medfield (MA), The Gazebo Players. Other directorial efforts have included To Kill a Mockingbird, The Night of the Iguana, Murder Has Been Arranged, The Cocktail Hour, The Most Dangerous Woman (written by his late father Ted Eiland, published and produced Off-Broadway) and the children’s version of Androcles and the Lion.  As an actor in both repertory and community theater, Bob has performed as Charly in Flowers For Algernon, John Proctor in The Crucible, Ford in Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, Duke Orsino in Twelfth Night, Biff in Death of a Salesman, Mortimer in Arsenic and Old Lace, Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing, Zach in A Chorus Line, Applegate in Damn Yankees, Jud in Oklahoma, Bill Sikes in Oliver, and both Dick Christie and Bogart in different productions of Play It Again Sam. He played John Hammond, P.I., based on Humphrey Bogart’s Sam Spade, in Big City Blues, a United Way film, and has acted in several independent films produced and directed by Michael Legge. Bob lives with his wife Sharlotte, daughter Thea and son Charlie in Harvard, and runs an executive search business focusing on high tech executives and top software engineering talent. For more information, visit www.egselite.com.

BUZZ: JAC Playwright Robert Eiland Featured in the Harvard Post
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