Cooper partners with alumni to bring ‘Rag Doll’ to the stage

Augustana’s Shelley Cooper tapped into the skills of her former students to help create and produce her new solo musical, "Rag Doll on a Bomb Site." She will perform the show at Augustana’s Brunner Main Stage Theatre at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 9.

“Rag Doll” premiered in Bangkok, Thailand, in February 2025, and has since been nominated at the Hollywood Fringe Festival for Best Dance and Physical Theatre Show, Best Musical and Best Solo Show. Cooper also made her recording debut with its original soundtrack.

An associate professor of musical theatre, Cooper is a two-time Off-Broadway award-winning solo actor/playwright. Prior to writing “Rag Doll,” she wrote, composed, choreographed and performed the shows “Jenny Lind Presents P.T. Barnum” as well as “La Divina: The Last Interview of Maria Callas.”

Set in 1928 Berlin, “Rag Doll” recreates the moments before Lotte Lenya is set to take the stage in the premiere of The Threepenny Opera when she learns her name has been omitted from the playbill. Her husband, Kurt Weill, is furious and demands opening night be canceled. Lenya, who escaped an abusive past, refuses to let something so trite in comparison get in the way of the musical debut.

To help with various aspects of the show’s development and staging, Cooper called on Roger Pavey Jr. ’24, Kelsey Miller ’13 and Kasia Olechno ’21.

Pavey, a theatre arts and graphic design major, took on video projections and graphic design.

“At Augustana, Roger became a multi-hyphenated theatre artist,” Cooper said. “He came in wanting to be a dramaturgy student, and he was, but on top of directing and set design and lighting design, graphic design, performing.”  

A triple major (theatre; psychology; and women, gender and sexuality studies), Miller helped direct and develop “Rag Doll,” and proved pivotal with writing and composition.

“She understands the history of gender norms and how to uplift female stories,” Cooper said, “which is essentially my artist statement — to uplift women in history whose stories have been overshadowed by men.”  

Miller says her gender studies major has been helpful because she can dive deeper and have a better understanding of what it meant to be a woman during that time vs. today and how much of their experiences are unfortunately still relevant.

“Because they are able to double or triple major in the sciences and humanities at Augustana, students are not just becoming theatre artists,” Cooper explained. “They are able to pull from these different sources, and good theatre is a reflection of human nature.”

Upon hearing of Cooper’s success in Hollywood, Olechno ‘21 reached out to discuss bringing "Rag Doll" to the Trap Door Theatre in Chicago, where she works. Mission accomplished. Olechno will be the stage manager for "Rag Doll," scheduled for Dec. 11-13 at the Trap Door Theatre.

Cooper says in the end “Rag Doll” was pulled together with the assistance of her mentor, Jessica Lynn Johnson, who runs Soaring Solo Studios in Los Angeles.

“Our alumni got to have production meetings via Zoom with Jessica,” Cooper said. “They got to network with a prominent L.A. producer/director/writing teacher and get feedback in the moment on their material, either directing, projecting or graphics.”

Beyond these alumni partnerships, Cooper found strong support on campus and all around the Quad Cities in developing “Rag Doll.”  

“Faculty outside of my discipline coming to performances is pretty cool, too,” she said.

Tickets for the Oct. 9 show at Augustana are “pay what you can.” Proceeds will benefit The Penguin Project Quad Cities and Day Spring in Louisville, Ky., where Cooper’s brother lives.

Next month Cooper will take "Rag Doll" to the West Coast for a Nov. 1 performance at the Binge Fringe Festival at the Santa Monica Playhouse.  

Learn more about Cooper and her original one-woman shows, which have received national and international acclaim.