J. Barrett Cooper has over 30 years experience in teaching and mentoring young actors, from elementary school age to University training. Known nationally for his work with young people while working ...Show More
J. Barrett Cooper has over 30 years experience in teaching and mentoring young actors, from elementary school age to University training. Known nationally for his work with young people while working for two of the nations preeminent training programs for young adults, Walden Theatre in Louisville, Ky. and Idyllwild Arts Academy and Summer Programs, his students have gone on to appear in Motion Pictures, Television, on Broadway and Off-Broadway, Broadway Tours, at major Regional Theatres across the country, and have attended the most prestigious training programs in the English Speaking world: Julliard School, NYU, PACE, DePaul, Carnegie-Mellon, Southern Methodist University, Boston University, Northwestern, USC, UCLA, LIPA, AADA, AAMDA, LAMDA, Central School in London, to name a few. Known for his work with young people in the study and performance of Shakespeare, he is also well-heeled in the study of modern acting using the Stanislavki and Boleslavski Systems. In addition to acting, Mr. Cooper has taught Voice, Diction, Movement, Theatre History, Period Styles, and Stage Combat. Mr. Cooper is also known as an actor, director, voice over actor and fight director. As an actor, he has appeared in NYC and in regional theatre with Manhattan Stage, Theatre 1010, Walker St. Theatre, Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Pioneer Playhouse in Salt Lake City, Arkansas Rep, Shakespeare Festival of Dallas, Wayside Theatre, Findlay Summer Stock, and locally with Savage Rose Classical Theatre Company (Founding Producing Artistic Director). Featured Roles include: Falstaff in Henry IV part I & II, Macbeth, King Lear, Mark Rothko in RED, Polonius in Hamlet, Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest, Jean in Miss Julie, and Krapp in Krapp's Last Tape. He has appeared on national television in Chicago Fire (NBC) and Bob Hope Goes to College (NBC Special) and The Way I Heard It as Alan Hale Jr.; in Commercials for Ohio Lottery, Kentucky Lottery, Kentucky Farm Bureau Insurance amongst others. He has appeared in films: The Good Journey: A Gift of Christmas, Perception, Pinball, A Wish for the Dead, Presidents Day. After years of teaching Voice & Speech and Dialects at various institutions, he added Dialect Coach in films to his list of "hats" working with Fionn Whitehead (Dunkirk) and Rainn Wilson (The Office) on Don't Tell a Soul. His Voice-Over work can be heard at Gettysburg Visitor Center, National Constitution Center, Fort Benning Army Museum, Lewis and Clark Exhibit in Cahokia, Ill. and he can be seen at the Evan Williams Experience in downtown Louisville, He was also the voice of John Howard Griffin in Morgan Atkinson's "Black Like Me: The life and times of John Howard Griffin" His Directing credits include over 25 productions of the works of Shakespeare and other classical authors including King Lear, Macbeth, All's Well That Ends Well, Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, Romeo & Juliet, Volpone, The Duchess of Malfi, The School for Scandal, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, The Changeling,The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Passion of Dracula, Backchannel Adios(Premier), Creep (Premier ATL), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Cinderella, Coyote Ugly and Greetings!. He has over 75 directing credits with Walden Theatre, Bellarmine University and Idyllwild Arts Academy and Summer Programs ranging from the Greeks to Contemporary plays and New Works. As a Fight Director, his over 30 credits include work with Kentucky Opera, Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville's Intern Company, Wayside Theatre, Arkansas Rep, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Savage Rose Classical Theatre Company, Theatre 502, Globe Players KSF, University of Louisville, Itinerant Theatre Guild (Chicago) Theatre 1010 in NYC. He has trained and worked with Mr. John Waller and Keith Ducklin of the European Historic Combat Guild in Leeds, England as well as David Bouchey, Drew Frascher, K. Jenny Jones, and Jeffrey Norton. For ten years he was the Curator of Historic Interpretations at the Frazier History Museum over seeing the historically accurate combat that included Sword & Shield, Sword & Buckler, Rapier & Dagger, Small Sword, 15th Century Armoured Combat, Bartitsu, Single Stick, Transitional Rapier among others. Hide
