Andrew G. Cooper

Andrew G. Cooper is a Canadian theatre creator, filmmaker, director, and playwright. They hold their Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts from Thompson Rivers University and are the recipient of the Kamloops Mayor's Emerging Artist Award and a nominee of the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Award. They are the founding Artistic Managing Director of Chimera Theatre in Kamloops, BC and the founding Artistic Producer of Jupiter Theatre in Calgary, AB. Andrew began working as the Producer of Ghost River Theatre, a renowned devised theatre creation company, in 2020. Before relocating to Alberta, Andrew was commissioned to write and direct five site-specific productions for Tranquille Tunnel Theatre and has been fortunate to work with other incredible companies such as The Jim Henson Company, Citadel Theatre, Catalyst Theatre, and Theatre: Calgary, Cirque Nuit, and Western Canada Theatre. As a playwright, they have won multiple awards and their work has been seen across Canada from British Columbia to Ontario and around the world in Sydney, Chicago, and Dubai. Andrew was a co-director and co-creator of FOUR (Jupiter Theatre), a devised movement and mask creation, and Lights Out! (Kit & the Kaboodles), a TYA puppet musical. Perseus & Andromeda, which Andrew wrote and directed, won the Best Design and Best of Fest awards at the 2018 Hydra Performing Arts Festival and Andrew's play The Untold Tales of the Brothers Grimm was nominated for Best New Play and Best Comedy at the 2015 Victoria Fringe Festival. They also created a puppet adaptation of The Robber Bridegroom, which toured across Western Canada to critical acclaim in 2019. Their short parody film Star Bars: A Brew Hope was produced by Chimera Multimedia in association with Mastermind Studios in 2015. They are the creator and producer of (exp)lore, a site-specific podcast anthology with Jupiter Theatre and Media Lab YYC, which was nominated for ten Audio Verse Awards in 2020. As an artist, Andrew's focus is on the creation of new Canadian works with a particular emphasis on interdisciplinary art and storytelling through physical mediums such as puppetry, movement, mask, and stage combat. Andrew is a lover of astronomy and animals and lives in Calgary, AB.