R.S. Cooper

R.S. Cooper (fl 1860s and 1870s) was a scene painter and set designer resident in Cape Town.

Seemingly he was often referred to simply as Mr Cooper, in the convention of the times. The name A. Cooper also occurs for a set designer/builder, but as far as can be ascertained, this most probably 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 originally began his career in South Africa in Port Elizabeth, later moving to Cape Town, 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 and painter of the 1860s-1870s in Cape Town. He worked for Sefton Parry in his first fully professional season (1861) and in 1865 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)

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