YouMedia @ Chicago Public Library

ladiesdoitall:

The Workshop: Coco will lead an hour session of voice over technique and the basics of auditioning for Radio, TV and Animation.  Students will read from scripts in YOUmedia’s Recording Studio and receive a critique from Coco.  Sounds like a great situation for not just actors, but also poets.

BIOGRAPHY:

Coco Elysses hails from Robbins, Illinois and has been performing since the age of eight.  Coco began her musical studies with clarinet and viola. During her matriculation at Saint Augustine’s College in Raleigh, North Carolina, she turned down an opportunity to run track and opted for a scholarship with the concert band where she was introduced to classical percussion.

Coco is a an actress, writer, percussionist, vocalist, arranger, lyricist and songwriter.
Coco was a member of Samana (a musical ensemble), who was the first all female
ensemble to perform at the famed Chicago Jazz Festival. Samana was featured in
Chicago’s Steppenwolf’s Traffic series and performed for First Lady Hillary Rodham
Clinton at her 50th birthday celebration in Chicago.

Her stage credits include several “Showfolk” productions at ETA, where she also
made her main stage debut in Food for the Gods (directed by Paul Carter Harrison),
Bailiwick Theatre, Chicago Dramatists Workshop, Heathworks, and MPAACT’s
production of Other World Lovers, Continuum-Visions from Yetunde, and Vital Signs.
Coco work as a voice-over artist and can be heard at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago
in the Skywatchers of Africa exhibit. Coco provided narration for the award-winning
documentary entitled, “A Doula Story”. Coco’s voice can also be heard on spots for
BET, BlackVoices.com, McDonald’s, Nike, IN and OUT Burger, Saint’s Row video
game and EverQuest II. Coco can be seen in the independent film, Severed Ties,
available at Blockbuster Video.

Coco’s last theatrical appearance was in Hydraulics Phat Like Mean, written by
Ntozake Shange and directed by Chuck Smith. She also appeared at Organic Theatre in
The Old Settler, where she received a Black Theatre Alliance Award nomination for
Best Featured actress in a drama. That same production moved to The New American
Theatre in Rockford, Illinois. Coco also appeared in the Chicago Theatre Company,
Black Theatre Alliance Award-winning, and Jeff Nominated production of Shakin the
Mess Outta Misery. Coco’s Sound Design credits include Having Our Say, Pill Hill, at
CTC and Doo Lister’s Blues for The New Onyx Theatre.

Coco is a member of the AACM-The Association for the Advancement of Creative
Musicians. Coco was also a featured musician in the book, Black Women and
Music: More than The Blues, documenting historical female musicians and Jazz- A
Documentary featuring several Chicago musician and their unique contributions to this
classic American music. Coco performed with the Great Black Music Ensemble of the
AACM in Pisa, Italy for the Insolent Noise Festival, at Millennium Park Chicago for
A Tribute to Fred Anderson, and George Lewis at the University of Chicago Artspeaks
Festival. She has also performed with Renee Baker’s Chicago Modern Orchestra
Project. She was a featured artist in Taiko Legacy 8 at the Museum of Contemporary
Art with Tatsu Aoki, Tsukasa Taiko and Amy Homma. She also performed with Tatsu

Aoki’s Miyumi Project at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival. Coco’s poetry is featured in 99
New Poems: A Contemporary Anthology. She is also a featured essayist in, America
is…Personal Essays for Social Justice. A few of her noted recordings were in Chile,
South America, with Raiza, on their CD, Latin Soul-EMI and Nicole Mitchell’s Africa
Rising. Coco is a member of SAG, AFTRA and the AFM.

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