Biography
J. Barrett Cooper was born James Barrett Cooper to Dr. Robert G. Cooper and Irma Lucille (Huber) in Louisville, Kentucky on April 24, 1962. He is the fourth of five children. As a child he frequently went to the movies with his older sister Connie and watched his older brother Bob perform in college plays. He got the acting bug in the sixth grade production of Mrs. Fischer's A Christmas Carol taking on the role of Ebenezer Scrooge. He began training with Walden Theatre, under Nancy Niles Sexton, where he developed his love of Shakespeare, appearing in seven full Shakespearean productions and two shortened versions, directing another (Macbeth) through out high school. He graduated from Southern Methodist University (84') with a BFA in Acting. He arrived in NYC in 1985 and after two years, left to attend the MFA/PAT program at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery, Alabama. After two seasons in the program and receiving his MFA, he returned to NYC for four more futile years before returning to Louisville for a rest and recharge. While there he gave up on acting, bartending and working on a horse farm, but still appeared in local productions, before marrying his first wife which ended in divorce. He had begun teaching back at Walden Theatre during this time, where he was also directed over 50 plays and designed sets for all the productions. In 2004 he left to be the Curator of Interpretations at the Frazier History Museum. He was the Founding Producing Artistic Director of Savage Rose Classical Theatre Company in 2009. He married artist Kaylyn Taylor in 2000 and they have two children, Imogen and Atticus. 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, Dark and Bloody Ground, 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 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.
