ABOUT
OUT OF GRIEF COMES ART
Join a massive community conversation about all things death, dying, and grief-related.
We learn by engaging in theatre. The main goal is to feel what another is feeling, whether you are an actor on the stage, or a member of the audience sitting in a dark theatre.
At Grief Dialogues, we use theatre as the artistic expression most likely to reach an audience on a personal level. Theatre and art are the ultimate empathy generators. The productions allow us, as individuals and as a society, to face the untold, unheard, and often misunderstood tales of life and death.
ELIZABETH COPLAN
Elizabeth Coplan is a 40+ year marketing and public relations veteran whose career began as a struggling actor in New York City in 1972. After realizing that she could either eat or pay rent but not both, Elizabeth completed college and then became the managing editor of Chief Executive Magazine in New York. She later moved to California where, for the next six years, she worked her way from technical writer to Director of Corporate Communications for Collins Foods International, a Fortune 500 company in Los Angeles.
Elizabeth’s next career move was to Seattle, Washington. Considered one of the pioneers in professional services marketing by the Puget Sound Business Journal, Elizabeth served as the first Northwest marketing director for the Big 8 accounting firm Touché Ross (now Deloitte), followed by a position as the Director of Client Service and Development for the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine. When Elizabeth joined Davis Wright, the firm had three offices. Six years later the firm had expanded to 10 offices across the country. During this time, Elizabeth developed the concept of strategic sponsorships for law firms, and Davis Wright was rated the most respected law firm in the Pacific Northwest the year she left to start her own consulting firm.
For the next 20+ years Elizabeth advised clients such as Merrill Lynch, Green Diamond Resource Company, Laird Norton Wealth Management, and the University of Washington School of Law. Elizabeth also served on several boards in the Seattle area including the founding board of the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art and on the Intiman Theatre board where she served as Strategic Planning Chair.
After tragedy struck in 2013, Elizabeth turned to writing to express her personal grief. She wrote many published essays, and later, after experiencing three losses in less than a year, she turned to writing plays focused on this global experience known as death. In 2016, Elizabeth developed the groundbreaking play, Grief Dialogues, and built the nonprofit Grief Dialogues, a theatrical movement creating new conversations about dying, death, and grief.
Her other playwriting credits include the award-winning Hospice: A Love Story, as well as Untold, Independence Day, and The Choice which she co-wrote with her husband, Scott.
Her stage play, Honoring Choices, commissioned by Honoring Choices PNW, has had numerous performances since 2020. The universality of the story lent itself to successful productions with BIPOC and multilingual casts. In 2022, due to demand for performances, development began on a film with Elizabeth writing the screenplay. The world premiere took place in Leimert Park, Los Angeles at the Reimagine: Life, Loss, Love Conference September 2022. It is an official selection of the Legacy Film Festival on Aging and won awards at the Doc Without Borders International Film Festival, International Film Arts and Hearts Film Festival, and the Awareness Film Festival. Honoring Choices is now available for licensing.
Elizabeth is the script consultant, director, and producer for Juntos Nos Ayudamos/Better Together, a film about a Hispanic family surviving suicide. She is also the creator and the co-host of the podcast, Out of Grief Comes Art, and the Executive Producer of 8 AM, an award-winning short film on traumatic loss.
Elizabeth is a published essayist. Her research and interviews form a chapter titled Out of Grief Comes Art in the upcoming book Seasons of Grief: Creative Interventions to Support Bereaved People, edited by Claudia Coenen, CGC, FT, MTP and published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Previously her research is found in the chapter Grief Dialogues — Using Theatre in Grief Therapy, published in New Techniques of Grief Therapy, Bereavement and Beyond, edited by Dr. Robert A. Neimeyer, Portland Institute for Loss and Transition.
’Til Death, Elizabeth’s full-length play about one mother’s choice that unveils a family’s long-buried secrets, opened Off-Broadway in November 2023 under the direction of Chad Austin, Producing Director of the Abingdon Theatre. The play starred Two-Time Tony Award Winner Judy Kaye, Tony Award Nominee Robert Cuccioli, with Whitney Morse, Dominick LaRuffa Jr., Michael Lee Brown, TV and film star Amy Hargreaves.
In addition to an updated production of Grief Dialogues scheduled to open in New York City 2024, Elizabeth is currently working on The Book Club, a new play highlighting the lives of five senior women.
2016
Elizabeth Coplan, the playwright of Hospice: A Love Story, showcased her stage performances on dying, death, and grief in Sedona, AZ, Portland, OR, and Los Angeles, CA.
Elizabeth served as a presenter at the University of Memphis, TN, and Antioch University, Seattle, WA, where she delivered a presentation titled Using Theatre to Start the Conversation. This presentation focused on how to use theatre to discuss difficult topics such as dying, death, and grief.
Elizabeth is the Executive Producer of the film 8 AM: The Moment When Everything Changes, a film on sudden, traumatic loss, based on the play by Mark Harvey Levine. 8 AM won several awards for selection including Celluloid Bainbridge (Bainbridge Island, WA), Seattle International Film Festival (Seattle, WA), Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival (Traverse City, MI), Anchorage Film Festival, Byron Bay Festival (Australia), Cleveland International Film Festival (Cleveland, OH), and YES Film Festival (Columbus, IN).
Elizabeth Coplan turned her personal loss and grief into the groundbreaking play, Grief Dialogues—as chief playwright—and founded the nonprofit Grief Dialogues, a theatrical movement to create new conversations about dying, death, and grief among grievers, those with terminal and chronic illness, and the health care providers who serve them.
2017
Elizabeth workshopped her play Hospice (now titled Over My Dead Body) at 18th & Union theatre (Seattle) in 2017.
Hospice, now known as Over My Dead Body, in October 2017 at 18th & Union.
Grief Dialogues: The Play opened the Seattle Death Salon in September 2017. Elizabeth also delivered a presentation at the event titled “Using Theatre to Start the Conversation,” which focused on utilizing theatre as a medium to discuss themes of dying, death, and grief.
2017, Seattle Death Salon opening night of Grief Dialogues: The Play
2018
In June 2018, the original cast performed Grief Dialogues: The Play to sold-out crowds in Pittsburgh, OH, Seattle, WA, Portland, OR, and Las Vegas, NV to honor the First Responders on the anniversary of the Las Vegas shooting.
2019
Grief Dialogues was a featured in an article in Seattle Magazine titled “Seattle, It’s Time to Talk about Death“
Elizabeth Coplan joined forces with Virginia Mason Palliative Care Program to create an evening of short plays followed by a moderated discussion.
The stage play Honoring Choices was first commissioned for Honoring Choices PNW in late 2019.
Grief Dialogues: The Book, edited by Elizabeth Coplan, was a finalist in the 2019 Pacific Northwest Book Award.
Elizabeth Coplan was Master of Ceremonies and Presenter in End Game, an Academy Award-nominated documentary to change our approach to life and death and discussion with the University of Washington School of Social Work.
Hospice: A Love Story on dying, death, and grief was performed on stage in Los Angeles, CA, and Chester, England
Grief Dialogues the play was performed in New York, NY for the Dramatists Guild National Conference and in the Pacific Northwest.
2020
Grief Dialogues Presents Live Well Die Well Tour. Live performance of four plays on dying, death and grief for hospice professionals, Los Angeles, CA
Virginia Mason Health System Presents Grief Dialogues. Live performance of six plays on dying, death and grief and post-performance discussion for health care professionals, Seattle, WA
Untold. Live performance play on stillbirth and child loss followed by moderated discussion presented to graduate students at University of Washington Center for Health Sciences Interprofessional Education, Research & Practice.
Motherless Mother’s Day. A Zoom Reading from Grief Dialogues: The Book and moderated discussion at Reimagine; Life, Loss, & Love.
Fatherless Father’s Day. A Zoom Reading from Grief Dialogues: The Book and moderated discussion at Reimagine; Life, Loss, & Love.
Interfaith Panel on Deathcare in the Time of COVID. Zoom Moderated Discussion hosted by People’s Memorial Association for Reimagine: Life, Loss & Love.
Untold: Creating Space to Talk about Stillbirth and Child Loss. Live Zoom performance with Dr. Jillian Tullis for Reimagine: Creating Space.
What Happened to You? Creating Space to Talk about Child Sexual Abuse. Live Zoom conversation with comedian Sebastian Scales and Dr. Darcy Harris for Reimagine: Creating Space.
Elizabeth Coplan was commissioned by Honoring Choices PNW to write the play Honoring Choices. It was performed live in February 2020.
As COVID-19 developed, we noticed a massive increase in demand for caregivers and medical providers. We transitioned our performances to online platforms to provide our content in a safe and accessible way.
Honoring Choices was produced on Zoom throughout the COVID lockdown with the original cast, an African-American cast, and a Latinx cast in Spanish.
Honoring Choices African American cast
Honoring Choices Original cast
Elizabeth produced the Overcoming Womxn Play Festival in Seattle 2019 where she debuted her short play Untold. Untold has since been performed for the University of Washington Center for Health Sciences, for Reimagine, and at the Beautiful Dying Expo in 2020.
Untold, UW Center for Health Sciences, 2020
2021
Honoring Choices continued to be produced on Zoom with the original cast, an African-American cast, and a Latinx cast in Spanish.
Hospice received a 2021 Writer’s Digest Award in the Script Category.
Independence Day, a collaboration with playwright/actor Jeffrey Grover, was filmed and screened at the Western Region Aging Life Care Conference.
Independence Day, Short Play
Over My Dead Body was performed on Zoom by Create Theater in New York City
Elizabeth Coplan authored “Grief Dialogues — Using Theatre in Grief Therapy” published in New Techniques of Grief Therapy, Bereavement and Beyond, edited by Dr. Robert A. Neimeyer, Portland Institute for Loss and Transition
2022
The demand for performances of Honoring Choices expanded into the necessity to develop a film. The screenplay adaptation of the play was filmed in New York City. Honoring Choices (the film) became available for licensing and is an official selection of the Legacy Film Festival on Aging presentation in 2023.
Elizabeth Coplan and Halle Williams created and co-hosted the podcast Out of Grief Comes Art.
Elizabeth was featured in a chapter of Robert A Neimeyer’s book, New Techniques of Grief Therapy, Environment and Beyond.
2023
Honoring Choices (the film) became an official selection of the Legacy Film Festival on Aging presentation.
Honoring Choices received Exceptional Merit Award in the Viewer Impact category for Motivational/Inspiration Content/Message Delivery at the Docs Without Borders International Film Festival.
Honoring Choices was an official selection in the Awareness Film Festival and the International Arts and Hearts Film Festival
‘Til Death, directed by Chad Austin for the Abingdon Theatre Company, premiered Off-Broadway
“Out of Grief Comes Art” published in Seasons of Grief: Creative Interventions for Bereaved People, edited by Claudia Coenen, CGC, FT, MTP and published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers
“The Art of Making Art” published in The Dramatist magazine, Dramatists Guild July/August 2023
2024
Podcast guest on Something Rather Than Nothing, February 2024
My Guardian Angel, a Grief Dialogues film, begins production March 2024
