Specialty: Story Theatre
https://www.facebook.com/storieswithspirit
Cooper Braun was raised by granola eating coyotes in Boulder Colorado and grew up without a television. Lacking the traditional American form of child pacification, he found a love of storytelling from records and cassette tapes. Cooper started performing as an actor (what do you do with a BA in Theater?) and has worked as a professional theater technician for the last fifteen years.
In 2013, he returned to the world of live storytelling. He performs regularly with Rachel Ann Harding as Stories with Spirit. Together they have produced numerous storytelling events in Colorado, and worldwide via Zoom. In 2015, at the Rocky Mountain Storytelling Festival, he performed on his first festival stage. Cooper competed in the story slam at the National Storytelling Festival in 2015 and 2016, and in 2017 returned to perform on the Exchange Place Stage. He was awarded the 2018 JJ Reneaux Emerging Artist Award and the 2022 Regional Excellence Award by the National Storytelling Network.
Cooper’s stories remind us that fairy tales were never just for children. That traditional stories can be funny, dark, poignant, and anything but dry. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Stories with Spirit has become one of the leading producers of virtual storytelling shows. Cooper has personally produced over 40 virtual shows. His series Fairy Tale Variations has proved wildly successful, regularly attracting audiences of over 200 from around the world.