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Dominic Cooke (born 1966) is an English director and writer.
He started his relationship with the Royal Court Theatre under Stephen Daldry in 1995. He became an associate director at the Royal Court for Ian Rickson in 1999. During this time, he directed Fireface by Marius von Mayenburg, Other People by Christopher Shinn, and Redundant by Leo Butler. In 2003, he left the Royal Court and returned to the RSC for Michael Boyd, where he directed his acclaimed version of The Crucible starring Iain Glen, which won him the 2007 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director; the play also won the Olivier for Best Revival.
He has won five Olivier Awards. In addition to Best Director and Best Revival for The Crucible in 2007, he won Best Revival for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom in 2016, Best Musical Revival for Follies in 2018, and, in 2013, his final season in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs at the Royal Court won Achievement In An Affiliate Theatre.
In 2013, he won the International Theatre Institute Award for Excellence in International Theatre, and in the same year, was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by his alma mater, Warwick University. Cooke was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to drama.
During his tenure at the Royal Court Cooke staged Jez Butterworth’s multi-award winning Jerusalem which Ian Rickson directed; and which transferred to the West End, Broadway, and San Francisco; Lucy Prebble’s 2009 Enron, which was directed by Rupert Goold; and Bruce Norris’ Clybourne Park, which Cooke directed himself. All three were transferred to the West End amid critical acclaim and box office success.
Cooke's time at the Royal Court was a huge success; he staged numerous new plays and refocused the theatre's aims. Of the 130+ plays, 94 were full productions of new plays, with public readings and productions of old plays making up the remainder. The theatre was nominated for 210 major awards and won 59. Cooke was also credited with bringing a new dynamism and excitement to the Royal Court Theatre with his eclectic programming: "What makes Cooke’s reign unique is that he has used the Royal Court’s young writers programme as a way of finding and cultivating new talent, often by precariously young writers...for Cooke, if a play was good enough, that was enough: he would put it on…Polly Stenham’s ‘That Face’, staged when she was only 19, bowled over its audiences. Anya Reiss was younger still – 18 – when her assured debut ‘Spur of the Moment’ opened. Bola Agbaje won an Olivier with her first play ‘Gone Too Far!’"
Writing
In 2007, Cooke wrote the stage adaptation of Malorie Blackman's Noughts and Crosses, which he directed and produced at the RSC. He wrote an adaptation of Arabian Nights for the Young Vic in 1998 and directed a revised version for the RSC in 2009. With scriptwriter Ben Power, Cooke co-wrote the scripts for Shakespeare's Henry VI Parts 1 and 2 for BBC TV's (May 2016).
National Theatre
Cooke is a National Theatre Associate Director; he made his directing debut there in November 2011 with Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors, which he set in modern-day London. The cast included Lenny Henry and Claudie Blakley, and was broadcast worldwide in March 2012 as part of the NT Live programme. Cooke directed Caryl Churchill's Here We Go at the National in 2015. He directed the critically acclaimed production of August Wilson's Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom in 2016, which won the 2015 Olivier Award for Best Revival. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom nationaltheatre.org.uk, retrieved 13 June 2019 "Reviews Round Up" westendtheatre.com, retrieved 13, 2019 His 2017 production of Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman's Follies starring Imelda Staunton, Janie Dee, and Tracie Bennett was nominated for ten Olivier Awards, winning Best Musical Revival.Laurence Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival Cooke received the Critics' Circle Best Director Award.
Television
Cooke's TV directorial debut was in May 2016 with the second BBC TV series of . The series was televised in three parts: Henry VI, Part 1, Henry VI, Part 2, and Richard III. It was produced by Sam Mendes' company, Neal Street Productions, and starred Benedict Cumberbatch, Judi Dench, Sophie Okonedo, Tom Sturridge, and Hugh Bonneville.
Film
Cooke's feature directorial debut, On Chesil Beach, starring Saoirse Ronan and Billy Howle, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 7 September 2017. It is based on the novel of the same name by Booker Prize winning novelist Ian McEwan. The film received a wide release in 2018 and was chosen by Variety as one of the ten best films at the Toronto International Film Festival 2017. "Best Movies" Variety, 2017 His latest film, The Courier, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Merab Ninidze, Rachel Brosnahan, and Jessie Buckley, premiered at Sundance in January 2020. It was released in the US by Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions. He is slated to direct a movie of Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman's musical Follies.
Private life
Cooke's civil partner is the actor and playwright Alexi Kaye Campbell. They have been together since 1997.
Work
Theatre
starring Imelda Staunton, Tracie Bennett, Philip Quast, Janie Dee, Dame Josephine Barstow, Nominated Evening Standard Award Best Director, Winner Critic's Circle Theatre Award Best Director, Nominated for 10 Laurence Olivier Awards, including Best Director & winning Best Musical Revival Royal Court Theatre Winner Best Revival Laurence Olivier Awards, Nominated Best Director Evening Standard Awards Royal National Theatre Donmar Warehouse nominated for Best Director Evening Standard Award Nominated for Best Director Evening Standard Award and Laurence Olivier Award, Won South Bank Show Award,
Won the best New Play Evening Standard Award, Critics' Circle Theatre Award, and Laurence Olivier Award South Bank Show Award Nomination Cooke won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director and for Best Revival in 2007; it was also the first play to be given 6 stars by Time Out WhatsOnStage Award for Best Shakespeare Production Evening Standard Theatre Awards Nomination for Best Director This is a Chair was co-directed with Ian Rickson Later had a UK and world tour, was staged at the New Victory Theater in New York and won the TMA Award it then transferred to the Young Vic Bolton Octagon Fringe First Award
Film
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!Ref 2017 On Chesil Beach director 2020 The Courier director, executive producer
Television
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!Ref 2016 The Hollow Crown director 3 episodes
Awards and nominations
Theatre
2017 Critics’ Circle Theatre Award Best Director Follies
External links
Categories: 1966 Births, Living People, Commanders Of The Order Of The British Empire, English Film Directors, English Theatre Directors, Laurence Olivier Award Winners, Lgbtq Theatre Directors, English Lgbtq Dramatists And Playwrights, 20th-century English Lgbtq People, 21st-century English Lgbtq People, Date Of Birth Missing, Place Of Birth Missing, Shakespearean Directors
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