TIMELINE
The ten-year journey of art from grief.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Over My Dead Body was performed on Zoom by Create Theater in New York City
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 Coplan authored Chapter 53: “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
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
“Grief Dialogues: The Experience” production workshop debuted in October 2024 in New York City
2025
The original “Grief Dialogues: The Experience” production was renamed “In the Wake of Life: an immersive experience” and performed at the historic Frank E. Campbell The Funeral Chapel in New York City.
“In Honor: an immersive experience” was performed at the Hyannis Arts Hall in Hyannis, MA
My Guardian Angel, a Grief Dialogues film, achieves numerous laurels with success at festivals all over the country.
“Let’s Write a Musical” opened at Hudson Theatre in Los Angeles, CA
2026