- Dominic Cooke
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Dominic Cooke File:DominicCooke.jpg Born 1966 (age 44–45)England Nationality British Occupation Theatre director, Playwright Dominic Cooke (born 1966) is an English theatre director and playwright.[1] He won the 2007 Laurence Olivier Award for best director for his revival of The Crucible while working at the RSC. He took over as the Artistic Director of the Royal Court Theatre in London in 2006, a position which he still holds, and his tenure has been widely hailed a success staging much new work and refocusing the aims of the theatre. Apart from being a successful director he has also adapted Malorie Blackman's novel Noughts and Crosses for stage and wrote a version of Arabian Nights.
Contents
Early life
Born in Wimbledon, London Cooke's mother was an NHS receptionist who had once wanted to be an actress and his father a film editor. He was brought up seeing a lot of theatre as a teenager from free theatre tickets provided by London Education Authority. He studied at Warwick University. He moved into television after university with his first job being a runner.[2]
Career
He started up his own theatre company Pan Optic[3] which he ran for two years before becoming an assistant director at the RSC in the 1990s and worked as a freelance director. He started writing at the Royal Court under Stephen Daldry in 1995 before becoming an associate director at the Royal Court for Ian Rickson in 1999. In 2003 he left the Court returning to the RSC for Michael Boyd where he directed his acclaimed version of The Crucible starring Iain Glen[4] which won him the 2007 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director.
Royal Court
In 2006 Cooke became the Artistic Director of the Royal Court Theatre in London.[5] He came to Royal Court at a time where the theatre had been criticised for softening its political agenda and having 'lost its way'. Cooke promised to refocus the theatre and famously promised to stage plays that would
"explore what it means to be middle class, what it means to have power, and what it means to have wealth...plays seem to be about the dispossessed, which is important, but you can't really understand a world if you're only looking at one corner of it, and that kind of theatre is really just as reactionary in its way as the theatre pre-George Devine all french windows and all that."
As well as staging some successful revivals Cooke has also pioneered new writing promoting the Royal Court's Young Writers' Programme and writers such as Polly Stenham and Bola Agbaje have had their debut plays staged during his time. It was during his tenure that the massive successes of Jerusalem, Clybourne Park (directed by himself) and Enron were staged which both transferred to the West End.
Writing
In 2007 he wrote the stage adaptation of Malorie Blackman's Noughts and Crosses which he directed and produced at the RSC.[6] He also wrote an adaptation of Arabian Nights for Young Vic in 1998. He directed a revised version for the RSC in 2009.
Private Life
Cooke is openly gay. He has been with his partner, the actor and award-winning playwright Alexi Kaye Campbell since 1997.[7].
Work
Year Play Production Notes 2010 Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris Royal Court Theatre transferred to Wyndham's Theatre nominated Best Director Evening Standard Award and Laurence Olivier Award
won best New Play Evening Standard Award and Critics' Circle Theatre Award, nominated Laurence Olivier Award2009 Aunt Dan and Lemon by Wallace Shawn Royal Court Theatre 2009 The Fever by Wallace Shawn Royal Court Theatre 2009 Seven Jewish Children by Caryl Churchill Royal Court Theatre 2008 Wig Out! by Tarell Alvin McCraney Royal Court Theatre 2008 Noughts and Crosses based on the book by Malorie Blackman RSC 2008 Now Or Later by Christopher Shinn Royal Court Theatre South Bank Show Award Nomination 2007 Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco Royal Court Theatre 2007 The Pain and the Itch by Bruce Norris Royal Court Theatre 2006 The Crucible by Arthur Miller RSC This won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director and for Best Revival in 2007, it also was the first play to be given 6 stars by Time Out 2006 Pericles by William Shakespeare RSC 2006 The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare RSC 2005 As You Like It by William Shakespeare RSC Whatsonstage.com Award for Best Shakespeare Production 2005 Postcards from America by David Adjmi RSC 2005 The Magic Flute Welsh National Opera 2004 Macbeth by William Shakespeare RSC 2004 By Bog of Cats by Marina Carr Wyndham's Theatre 2003 Cymbeline by William Shakespeare RSC 2003 The Eccentricities of a Nightingale by Tennessee Williams Dublin Gate 2003 La Boheme Grange Park Opera 2002 Plasticine by Vassily Sigarev Royal Court Theatre Evening Standard Theatre Awards Nomination for Best Director 2002 The People Are Friendly by Michael Wynne Royal Court Theatre 2002 Caryl Churchill Events;This is a Chair and Identical Twins Royal Court Theatre This is a Chair was co-directed with Ian Rickson 2002 The Malcontentby John Marston RSC 2001 Spinning into Butter by Rebecca Gilman Royal Court Theatre 2001 Redundant by Leo Butler Royal Court Theatre 2001 Fucking Games by Grae Cleugh Royal Court Theatre 2001 I Capuleti E I Monetecchi Grange Park Opera 2000 Other People by Christopher Shinn Royal Court Theatre 2000 Fireface by Marius von Mayenburg Royal Court Theatre 1998 Arabian Nights The Young Vic this went on to go on a UK and world tour and was staged at the New Victory Theatre in New York and won the TMA Award 1998 The Bullet by Joe Penhall Donmar Warehouse 1997 The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde Atlantic Theatre Festival 1997 My Mother Said I Never Should by Charlotte Keatley Oxford Stage Company it then transferred to the Young Vic 1996 The Weavers by Gerhart Hauptmann The Gate 1995 Hunting Scenes From Lower Bavaria by Martin Sperr The Gate Afore Night Come, Entertaining Mr Sloane Clwyd Caravan National Theatre of Norway Kiss of the Spider Woman Bolton Octagon Of Mice and Men Nottingham Playhouse 1991 Autogeddon by Heathcote Williams Assembly Rooms Fringe First Award References
- ^ "Dominic Cooke Biography". Contemporary Writers. British Council. 2008. http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth02D2K271012627162. Retrieved 2008-09-02.
- ^ "Behind the scenes at the Royal Court: Dominic Cooke's year of living dangerously". The Guardian (London). 2010-01-03. http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/jan/03/dominic-cooke-royal-court-interview.
- ^ <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/3613518/Evil-is-not-enough.html
- ^ Costa, Maddy (2006-04-20). "Shakespeare was daring - why aren't new writers?". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2006/feb/23/theatre.rsc.
- ^ http://www.royalcourttheatre.com/about-us/artistic-directors/dominic-cooke/
- ^ http://www.rsc.org.uk/explore/plays/noughtsandcrosses.htm
- ^ Dominic Cooke http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/theatre/article-23384457-courting-controversy.do
External links
Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director (2001–2025) Howard Davies (2001) · Michael Boyd (2002) · Sam Mendes (2003) · Michael Grandage (2004) · Nicholas Hytner (2005) · Richard Eyre (2006) · Dominic Cooke (2007) · Rupert Goold (2008) · John Tiffany (2009) · Rupert Goold (2010) · Howard Davies (2011)
Complete list · (1976–2000) · (2001–2025) Separate awards for play and musical between 1991 and 1995 depicted by (p) and (m)Categories:- 1966 births
- Living people
- English theatre directors
- Laurence Olivier Award winners
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