R.S. Cooper

R.S. Cooper (fl 1860s and 1870s) was an actor, scene painter and set designer.

Also listed as as Richard Cooper in some pogrammes, particularly when listed as actor, he was more often referred to as Richard Cooper, Mr Cooper, in the convention of the times or simply as Cooper. The name A. Cooper also occurs for a set designer/builder, but as far as can be ascertained, this was most probably a misspelling and refers to the same person.

Biography

Though his involvement in theatre is recorded, little is known about his personal biography, beyond the fact that he appears to have brought out from England (where he had been with the Royal Britannia Theatre), by Sefton Parry in March 1861 as part of a large new company. had originally begun his career in South Africa in Port Elizabeth, later moving to Cape Town, and was married to actress and choreographer Mrs Cooper.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

Referred to as a "veteran artist", Cooper was probably the most prominent set designer, builder and painter of the 1860s-1870s in Cape Town.

He worked for Sefton Parry in his first fully professional season (1861), inter alia as actor (billed as Mr Richard Cooper) and as the set designer (listed as "Cooper") for The Lonely Man of the Ocean at the Royal Theatre in May 1861.

In 1865 he decorated the revamped Sefton Parry's original Theatre Royal in Harrington Street, Cape Town for J.H. le Roy, who had hired the theatre and for whom he also worked as set designer and scene painter on productions by the Le Roy-Duret company in that period. For two years (1966-1967) he also served in the same capacity for the Ray and Cooper Company, founded by him, in association with performers Alfred Ray, Mrs Ray and Mrs Cooper.

Cooper later also assisted on productions by Disney Roebuck.

Among the sets he did over his active period have been:

Our Volunteers (ca. 1863), The Excursionist (a "world diorama" created by Cooper himself (1867), followed by another diorama, The Cosmorama in 1868.

Ali Baba and The Forty Thieves, or The Fairy Brilliantina and Harlequin and the Magic Donkey (1878)

Sources

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1916. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp. 53, 96-117, 175, 184-195, 200-260, 290-296, 299-300, 320, 328, 364-367, 449.

Go to the ESAT Bibliography