Continuing in the genre of the creative arts, I worked as an assistant to the theatre manager at the Theatre in The Mill in Bradford, helping the day to day running of the venue and learning the craft of stage theatre in all its varied aspects. Whilst there I also chaired the Youth Theatre Group, and in 1985, took two plays to the Edinburgh Fringe. One of them, ‘Action’, by Sam Shepard, was successful in pulling an audience in, after an appalling first night review in the Scotsman, with something written along the lines of “Who does Peter Cooper think he is? This play is a total waste of West Yorkshire Arts Council’s money.” Proof that, as is reputedly said, “there is no such thing as bad publicity”.
With creativity being an inherent part of who I am, playwriting has been one feature of this. One play I wrote, entitled ‘Bring me the head of my father’, was performed at the Theatre In The Mill to mixed reviews. The play addressed issues around patriarchy and gender roles within the set up of the traditional nuclear family. It covered a serious topic, but allowed a hint of absurdity and humour to diffuse through.
In 1983 I joined Word and Action Dorset Ltd as an actor manager. The company was non-profit making and ran along the lines of a cooperative. We worked and toured throughout Europe, doing Instant Theatre, a participatory form of theatre whereby the audience makes up a story and with our help, acts it out. I was lucky enough to be in Berlin the night the wall fell, both a momentous and unnerving event to see and experience, the results of which are still being played out.
