User:Paulkooperman

Paul Kooperman is a writer, arts manager and entrepreneur, beginning his professional writing career in Perth, Western Australia in 1992, when his first production The Ides of March, originally staged at Edith Cowan University in 1991, was funded to be produced at the prestigious Regal Theatre. He then had work produced with Effie Crump Theatre (Ernest, 1994), the Blue Room Theatre (Happy Endings, 1994), the Subiaco Theatre Centre (Sarah, 1996) and the Hole in the Wall Theatre (Dead But Immortal, 1997). Paul continued to write and produce theatre before moving to Sydney in 2002 to work in-house with Channel Seven, writing for Home and Away. His next jobs in television were with Wicked Science 2, Streetsmartz, a brief scriptwriting attachment in New Zealand on Shortland Street and a Script Coordinator role on The Wedge in 2005, the same year he wrote his first feature film, Wil. Wil was funded and produced within 12 months. It bombed immediately without even so much as a DVD release, but it led him to meet Stacey Testro (Executive Producer of SAW) who commissioned Paul to write several feature film treatments and scripts.

Paul then authored two screenwriting books for Insight Publications (2007)and a book on playscripts for Macmillan Education (2008) before taking a new path in Arts Management, whilst continuing to write. Paul became CEO of Australian Poetry Ltd in 2009 and developed numerous opportunities for Australian poets including tours to Ireland, festival engagement and commercial opportunities such as connecting poets to fashion designers to create a new brand, A Stitch in Rhyme, and selling poets to brides-and-grooms-to-be on wedding sites writing Wow Vows.

Paul coupled his role managing Australian Poetry with his writing, commissioned by the Queensland Music Festival to co-write DragQueensland with Christopher Gist, produced at the Festival in 2011. At the end of 20112, Paul also script edited and co-produced Chris Gist's short film, The Op Shop, which has been screened and won awards at several short film festivals around the world.

After attending the Australia Council's Emerging Leaders Program in March 2012, Paul left Australian Poetry to become National Development Manager for ArtsHub, the online arts news portal, before taking on the role of General Manager (and then CEO) of the Festival of Voices based in Hobart Tasmania. In 2013, Paul co-wrote The C-Side (the story of the third Minogue) with Christopher Gist for the Festival of Voices, which is touring to the Adelaide Cabaret Festival in 2014.

Paul is also the Founding Director of StripFest, a community arts festival which celebrates the strip, connecting business with the arts, community and creativity and people with each other. The inaugural StripFest was held on Acland Street in August 2013 and more are planned for 2014.