Nathan Coppens
Playwright/Actor/Producer
In The Headlights
Nathan is an actor, songwriter, playwright, and producer with ADHD. His play, I Have No Idea, tackles adult ADHD through a neurodivergent lens. Created and performed entirely by a team of neurodivergent artists, I Have No Idea has played to rave reviews and sold out audiences in Saskatoon and Regina, and has led to numerous people getting diagnosed, getting the help they needed, and feeling seen, validated, understood, and represented in ways that had never happened before. He has received countless messages from neurodivergent people thanking him for this play, and from neurotypical people thanking him for helping them to understand their neurodivergent friends and loved ones.
Nathan has worked with many arts organizations across the province, and has performed on stages from Victoria to Toronto. He has recently been working extensively with Listen To Dis' Community Arts Organization, Saskatchewan's first and only disability-led arts company, and just completed a tour of select Saskatchewan communities with their music group The Dripping Honeys. In the Saskatoon area, he has worked with Dancing Sky Theatre, the Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre, Wide Open Children's Theatre, Persephone Theatre, Live Five, and Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan. He is the recipient of grants from SK Arts, Creative Saskatchewan, the Canada Council for the Arts, a winner of the Colleen Bailey Memorial Fund from the Saskatchewan Foundation for the Arts, a Saskatoon Area Theatre Award nominee for Original Music Composition, and has received sponsorship from the Entrepreneurs With Disabilities Program through The Ability Hub YXE.
I Have No Idea will be touring Saskatchewan in the fall, including another run in Saskatoon, and a documentary about the play and the process of creating it will be released by Accessible Media Inc. around the same time. He also gigs as a keyboardist and singer, both solo and with other musicians. He has recently done several dueling pianos shows with Terry Hoknes, and can be seen and heard at this year's Saskatoon Fringe Festival.
Nathan is a passionate advocate for Mad/Crip art and artists (reclamations of the terms "madness" and "cripple"), and is actively working to change practices, environments, mindsets, and institutions to make them more accessible.
Nathan has worked with many arts organizations across the province, and has performed on stages from Victoria to Toronto. He has recently been working extensively with Listen To Dis' Community Arts Organization, Saskatchewan's first and only disability-led arts company, and just completed a tour of select Saskatchewan communities with their music group The Dripping Honeys. In the Saskatoon area, he has worked with Dancing Sky Theatre, the Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre, Wide Open Children's Theatre, Persephone Theatre, Live Five, and Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan. He is the recipient of grants from SK Arts, Creative Saskatchewan, the Canada Council for the Arts, a winner of the Colleen Bailey Memorial Fund from the Saskatchewan Foundation for the Arts, a Saskatoon Area Theatre Award nominee for Original Music Composition, and has received sponsorship from the Entrepreneurs With Disabilities Program through The Ability Hub YXE.
I Have No Idea will be touring Saskatchewan in the fall, including another run in Saskatoon, and a documentary about the play and the process of creating it will be released by Accessible Media Inc. around the same time. He also gigs as a keyboardist and singer, both solo and with other musicians. He has recently done several dueling pianos shows with Terry Hoknes, and can be seen and heard at this year's Saskatoon Fringe Festival.
Nathan is a passionate advocate for Mad/Crip art and artists (reclamations of the terms "madness" and "cripple"), and is actively working to change practices, environments, mindsets, and institutions to make them more accessible.