J. Barrett Cooper is the founder of Savage Rose Classical Theatre Company, with whom he directed and/or acted in ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, Doctor Faustus, Much Ado About Nothing, Miss Julie, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, All’s Well That Ends Well, Krapp’s Last Tape, The Changeling, The Importance of Being Earnest, Macbeth, The Man with the Flower in His Mouth, The Taming of the Shrew, American One Acts, and King Lear.
He has worked as an actor, director, and fight director in NYC and regionally with Manhattan Stage, Quinapalus Theatre Co., Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Pioneer Theatre Company, Arkansas Rep., and Wayside Theatre to name a few. Locally, he has worked with Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, The Kentucky Opera, The Necessary Theatre, University of Louisville Theater Department, Itinerant Theatre Guild, The Rebel Theatre, and Kentucky Shakespeare.
For more than ten years, Barrett was the Curator of Historic Interpretations at the Frazier History Museum. He has taught and directed productions at Walden Theatre (15 years), Idyllwild Arts Academy in California, Wheaton College, IU Southeast, and lectured at Hanover College and for the English Speaking Union. He has served as fight director for over 50 productions, including those for Kentucky Shakespeare and Kentucky Opera. He holds an MFA from University of Alabama / Alabama Shakespeare Festival MFA / PAT program and a BFA from Southern Methodist University.
He is married to artist Kaylyn Taylor and they have two children, Imogen and Atticus.
