R.S. Cooper

R.S. Cooper (fl 1860s) 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 names A. Cooper also occurs for a set designer/builder, probably referring to the same person.

Biography

Though his involvement in theatre is recorded, little is known about his personal biography, beyond the fact that he was married to Mrs Cooper

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

Among the sets he did were for: Ali Baba and The Forty Thieves, or The Fairy Brilliantina and Harlequin and the Magic Donkey (1878);

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

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. He also served in the same capacity for his own company, in association with Alfred Ray and later also assisted on productions by Disney Roebuck.

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.

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