Actor and director Barrett Cooper, first introduced to Mixed Media viewers through his association with Walden Theatre, made a return visit to give us a little taste of how the Frazier Historical Arms Museum plans to educate its visitors through historic interpretation. The Frazier opened in May 2004, and Barrett traveled to England for some specialized training in staging authentic re-creations of how some of the items in its collection of historical armor and weapons were used.

An associate director, production coordinator, and instructor, Barrett has been teaching dramatics since he was in high school himself and has worked with Walden since 1981. One season, he directed The Sea, several works in the Young Playwrights Festival, and The Winter’s Tale—and played drums for The Boyfriend.

A graduate of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Barrett also holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in acting from the Alabama Shakespeare Festival/University of Alabama Professional Actor Training Program. He has worked with Performing and Visual Arts Northeast in Winchester, VA and with Camp Shakespeare in Montgomery, AL.

Barrett’s other directing credits include Dracula for Walden Theatre, The Two Gentlemen of Verona at Manhattan Stage in New York City, The Backchannel Adios with The Necessary Theatre, and The Tangled Snare. He also has been fight director at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Arkansas Rep, Wayside Theatre, Itinerant Theatre Guild, and Walden, directing fight scenes for The Winter’s Tale, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Corpse, I Hate Hamlet, Dracula, Burn This, Prelude, Macbeth, Richard III, and The Tangled Snare.

As an actor, his credits include Bus Stop at the University of Findley; The Winter’s Tale, Romeo and Juliet, The Sea, The Beggar’s Opera, Titus Andronicus, Hamlet, and The Playboy of the Western World with the Alabama Shakespeare Festival; Burn This at the Itinerant Theatre Guild of Chicago; Much Ado About Nothing at the Pioneer Theatre Company in Salt Lake City; The Nerd and The Lion in Winter with the Wayside Theatre in Virginia; and A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Broadway Bound with the Arkansas Rep in Little Rock. His Off-Broadway credits include Macbeth, The Golden Silence, and Rattlesnake.

For more about the job of stage fight director, see Barrett’s profile in the Kentuckians in Theater section of KET’s Drama Arts Toolkit.

Program 207

Gil Hibben, Custom Knife Maker & Artist in Steel; Barrett Cooper, Walden Theatre; Nada Loutfi, Concert Pianist. (#207)

Program 320

Artist Justine Denis, soundscapes from Gareth Jones, Barrett Cooper of Walden Theatre, and a sneak peek at a new show headed to the Kentucky Center for the Arts. (#320)

Program 335

Teaching through the arts with Judy Miller and Barrett Cooper of the Filson Historical Society, Debbie Shannon and David Thurmond of the Kentucky Center for the Arts, and school artist-in-residence Gregory Acker, plus music by Tom Flood. (#335)

Program 617

The Jefferson County Public Schools’ Youth Performing Arts School, director and actor Barrett Cooper, and a musical performance by Louisville rock band Ultratone. (#617)

Program 632

The Jefferson County Public Schools’ Youth Performing Arts School, director and actor Barrett Cooper, and a musical performance by Louisville rock band Ultratone. (#632)