Artist Spotlight: Katy Copeland … actor, dancer/choreographer and now … playwright
Katy Copeland Interview by Jen Bush
Meet Katy Copeland. She’s the playwright and star of Meet You Downstairs which is the opening piece at the 2023 Fresh Fruit Festival
The Fresh Fruit Festival is NYC’s most inclusive celebration of LGBTQ arts. It encompasses theater, performance, poetry, comedy, spoken word, music, dance, visual arts and some talents that defy categorization.



Meet You Downstairs is a one act play divided into four scenes that follows Kit; our young, queer, flailing heroine as she navigates three very different yet crucial relationships over the course of ten years. Ferociously trying to come up with any label that appropriately defines her sexuality, Kit stumbles through her 20s attempting to unpack the integral complexities of love, sex, relationships, infidelity, gender and what it means to be queer in a heteronormative world.
Katy Copeland is a multi-hyphenate artist residing in New York City. She is an actor, dancer and choreographer who is now also a playwright. Meet You Downstairs has the distinction of being Ms. Copeland’s first play. Ms. Copeland is a certified yoga, fitness and dance instructor who has won awards for her choreography. She was recently seen on Fleishman is in Trouble streaming on Hulu. It was a pleasure to learn more about this talented artist and her exciting new work.
Katie Copeland put on her dancing shoes even before she entered kindergarten and she never looked back. Dancing is her greatest passion. In high school she branched out into other artforms. “First and foremost, I am a huge dance fan. I have been dancing since I was three years old, and I will continue to dance and choreograph for as long as my body allows. Growing up in dance studios I would describe my early artistic self as spastic and wild with lots of ridiculous facial expressions and full-out-over-the-top tendencies. That may still be true. When I started doing theatre in high school, I wanted to be the greatest dramatic actress of all time and would memorize favorite performances in the mirror and use that to audition. Most of my acting was just copying what I liked. I continued to study acting and dance in college and tried to hone as many skills as I could and eventually hit a massive burnout when I graduated and first moved to NYC. I hit the ground pacing back and forth. I was fearful, insecure, overly self-critical, always making excuses to never really go for it and put myself out there. I was too afraid to fail. It was not until I began therapy when I truly started to believe in myself as an artist. I was able to verbalize goals, imagine a real future in the industry and speak to myself in a healthy more constructive way. Therapy is helping me mobilize, put plans into action and move past a lot of doubt and shame that ultimately does nothing helpful. Currently, I am itching to tell my own stories, so a lot of inspiration comes from my life experiences and relationships. Depending on how this goes, that could very quickly shift. Lol be careful what you wish for. I do look forward to many more projects where I get to act, write, direct and/or produce queer stories with other queer artists.”
Ms. Copeland has a big list of wonderful people who inspire her. “Mae Martin, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Michaela Coel, Greta Gerwig, Issa Rae, Lena Dunham, Mindy Kaling, Aidy Bryant, Abbi Jacobson, Ilana Glazer, Ally Pankiw, Ru-Paul, Jinkx Monsoon, Dan Levy, Taylor Swift, MUNA, Bowen Yang, Matt Rogers, Spice Girls, Barney, Mom, my Grams, my sibs, my BFFL’s… I could keep going.”
It makes sense to have a different creative process for choreography than for playwrighting. “When I choreograph, I tend to work from story, plot, structure first and then fill in movement, tone, characters later. When I first started writing this play, I began by writing down moments in my life that held serious weight. You know the ones that shift your center of gravity. I wrote down moments that did not make a whole lot of sense, moments that I maybe had a hard time letting go of or just moments that meant a great deal to me. By writing dialogue, characters formed and then a story started to weave a thematic through line that I just tried to keep feeding. There is also a lot of procrastination and constant rushing to meet deadlines in the process.”
Sometimes when writing a semi-autobiographical piece such as Meet You Downstairs, some playwrights might find their creative flow more challenging. This was not the case for Ms. Copeland. “Initially, I found it easier to write because a good portion of the script is based on my experience. In the beginning, there wasn’t much to dig for since most of what I was writing happened in plain sight. I began writing fact and over the course of time it evolved into a fictional story. Elements such as time and space are manipulated to enhance the script. Characters are broadened to represent more than one-person, all-in essence to give the audience the drama/humor they deserve. In my world, all of it is true and none of it is exactly what happened. However, because it is deeply personal it is very nerve-wracking and scary as more people read it, hear it and see it. It is a vulnerable space to sit in but can be freeing as well. Ru Paul says that is when true connection starts to form. When you let it all hang out so to speak. I have never been a closed booked. I have always enjoyed self-expression. But never on this scale. It’s terrifying and liberating all at once.”
Being a first time playwright with a produced play is a thrilling prospect that comes with a whole host of emotions. “Since I received the email that my show was selected for this festival, not a day, nor hour goes by where I am not thinking about it in some capacity. I am thrilled, nervous, grounded, nauseated, calm, anxious, “on top of it” and “way behind” all at the same time. I care deeply about my creative work and actors know: roles/projects come few and far between for most and the industry is not always super lucrative, friendly or easy. It is a lot of grind and a lot of rejection. Therefore, when I got this opportunity all my focus was: “Bitch, do not fuck this up.” On the one hand I feel like I have no idea what I am doing. On the other hand, I feel like I have been training for this my whole life. Just because I have never done something doesn’t mean I can’t. Right? But obviously I also want it to be a damn good piece of theatre. As I navigate the process, I am finding it is definitely a constant balancing act of control vs. letting go, hard work vs. rest and logical reasoning vs. guttural instinct. All the feels are present but mostly I feel like I am doing something I was meant to do.”
In the world we live in where things are inequitable for people from all walks of life, being a woman and being queer could be difficult depending on the situation. Ms. Copeland has a positive outlook on this. “I could sit on my soap box and tell you all the reasons why being queer is challenging and why being a woman is hard and why one is worse than the other. To be honest, that sounds boring, somewhat whiney and I have no intention in being a victim of my own life. Meghann Fahy’s character told us to do whatever we can not to in White Lotus, Season 2. But if you want to take a deep dive into what being a queer woman means to me, I discuss some of those obstacles in my play. Come see.”
Ms. Copeland is hoping to move the audience emotionally and give them something to think about. “I want people to cry who don’t normally cry and for people to laugh at something that is funny, ridiculous or a little uncomfortable and maybe to leave the theatre with a buzz in their body and new questions in their head.”
It’s a beautiful thing that Ms. Copeland has achieved such a level of professional satisfaction. “What’s next? Dreams have been made. Maybe retirement?” Ms. Copeland will probably be dancing her way into another project in no time. Till then, she would love it if you would meet her downstairs.
Meet You Downstairs
Playing at The Fresh Fruit Festival
Mon 4/24 at 8:00, Wed 4/26 at 8:30, Sun 4/30 at 1:00
The Wild Project
195 E. 3rd Street
NYC
