Coyote America

Dan Flores Performance and conversation with playwright and urban wildlife chronicler Melissa Cooper and actor Inger Tudor
Monday, Jan 30, 2017 | 7:15pm Mark Taper Auditorium-Central Library

With a brilliant blend of environmental and natural history, Dan Flores’ Coyote America traces the five-million-year-long biological story of an animal that has become the “wolf” in our backyards. The journey of the coyote to the American West and beyond isn’t just the story of an animal’s survival—it is one of the great epics of our time. Illuminating this legendary creature, Flores will be joined on stage for a conversation with playwright and chronicler of urban wildlife Melissa Cooper, who will also perform an excerpt from her play, New York City Coyote Existential.

Dan Flores

Dan Flores is the A. B. Hammond Professor Emeritus of Western History at the University of Montana and the author of ten books on aspects of western US history. His previous works include American Serengeti: The Last Big Animals of the Great Plains, and Caprock Canyonlands: Journeys into the Heart of the Southern Plains. He lives just outside Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Melissa Cooper

Melissa Cooper’s award-winning plays have been produced at theaters around the country, including Dallas Theater Center, Cincinnati Playhouse, Coterie Theatre, Asolo Rep, and San Diego Rep. Melissa lives in NYC, where she really did meet a coyote in Central Park. She writes about urban wildlife on her blog, Out Walking the Dog, which The New York Times called  “poetic … part ecological journal, part personal meditation.” She is currently writing a play for an ensemble of formerly incarcerated men, exploring the challenges of reentering society after years of imprisonment.

Inger Tudor

Inger Tudor is a graduate of Harvard (college and law school) and London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Recent credits include: Honky (Ovation nomination – Best Production), Antigone, Diet of Worms, Going to St. Ives (LA Stage Scene Award, Stage Raw and NAACP nominations for Best Lead Actress), What May Fall, The Exorcist, Stop Kiss, Stuff Happens, The Maids, and Romeo and Juliet (NAACP nomination – Best Supporting Actress).  Television and film credits include: Goliath, On Time (on HBO this February) Doubt, Aquarius, Hand of God, Elizabeth Blue, Lemon, The Social Network, and The Making of “Grits” (Mockumentary Festival – Best Actress Award).

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Main image:  Coyote at Yellowstone National Park     Credit: Yathin Krishnappa

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