Gerard Cooke
Versatile actor based in Bristol. Please visit my website which has photos, video and radio clips, spotlight link, a full CV as well as details of previous work and current projects.
JANET WELCH PERSONAL MANAGEMENT
Old Orchard, The Street, Ubley, Bristol BS40 6PJ
Tel: 01761 463238
Fax: 01761 462449
E-mail: info@janetwelchpm.co.uk
I was born in Bristol and have lived here for most of my life. I have been a professional actor since 2004 and during that period I have been involved in a diverse range of performance projects.
Work includes primary school panto, secondary school TIE, corporate training and roleplay, children’s and family theatre tours, several rehearsed readings, outdoor summer touring, new writing, in-house and touring Shakespeare.
More information can be found at www.gerardcooke.com or find my Spotlight CV at www.spotlight.com/interactive/cv/1971-1273-2615
REVIEWS:
“All three performers excel here... Gerard Cooke does his best work this reviewer has seen as James, a febrile, frightened creature who has been trying to suppress his own gifts and the dark memories they bring back.”
THE DARKROOM - Theatre West. Venue Magazine
"The four-strong cast – all on top form here – ensure that each of these variously delusional and in-denial characters comes fully to life ...
Gerard Cooke portrays Rupert as a boy-man who, like a fly that’s fallen into a jar of jam, struggles to escape his claustrophobic family" ****
WATER'S NOT SO THICK - Butterfly Psyche Theatre. Venue Magazine
"a piece of tender parody in which what could have been a paranoid, on-the-run escapee from an early Pinter play ... (played by) local pro stalwart Gerard Cooke ... pitched up in the strange world of the Eighth Day Adventists Of The Wind" ****
THE 24 HOUR PLAYS - Theatre Royal Bath. Venue Magazine
"The colourful character of Whit played by Gerard Cooke was skilfully drawn”
OF MICE AND MEN – Playing Up Theatre Company. The Bath Chronicle.
“Excellently performed by Gerard Cooke”
THE HIGHER GROUND – Stroud Theatre Company. thisisgloucestershire.co.uk
"The Belch-centred sub-plot dominates - thanks to snappy interaction between Belch, Maria, Feste
and Gerard Cooke's long-wristed, 'Mr Bean'-recalling Aguecheek”
TWELFTH NIGHT – RoughHouse Theatre. Venue Magazine.
"All the actors performed brilliantly, but I would like to commend the very talented Gerard Cooke, who appeared as a bereaved son in a carpet shop, a Victorian railway labourer, and a washing machine - in a performance seen to be believed!"
TRADING LOCAL: THEATRE IN SHOPS - Show of Strength. Bristol Evening Post.
Facebook: /gerardcooke.actor
Twitter: @Mr_GerardCooke
Key Projects
- Twelfth Night
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Twelfth Night
- The Higher Ground
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Written by Mike Akers and directed by Chris Garner,
The Higher Ground was inspired by the floods of 2007 and toured a selection of schools, village halls and Art Centres throughout Gloucestershire in the summer of 2008.
In this highly original piece, Gerard played two separate characters. One was a ‘Mythmaker' –
an apprentice storyteller, who learns that the secret to his craft is to give his audience hope.
The other character was a young boy called Ali, a creation of the mythmaker's imagination, who struggles for friendship and survival whilst his home is lost to the floodwaters.
REVIEW: "The play, using a minimum of props and excellently performed by Georgina Stamp and Gerard Cooke, left us in no doubt about the gravity and dangers of rapid flooding" -
thisisgloucestershire.co.uk
- Richard III
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Gerard played the role of George, Duke of Clarence in Theatre Raconteurs production of Richard III at the Alma Tavern, which enjoyed a 2 week sold-out run in November-December 2009. "Pacy, effervesecent, populous, and nicely irreverent... Rich, inventive, atmospheric stuff." **** Steve Wright, VENUE
"Your kingdom for a ticket" 9/10 - Amy Oliver, Bristol Evening Post
- Eddie King's Non Refundable Tour of the Lost Souls
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A closed theatre, no audience, no staff, just an empty space and one very deranged tour guide....
With a set of stolen keys in his pocket and a Gin habit to maintain Eddie King took his vitims on a once in a life-time tour of lost souls at the Tobacco Factory; around his weird and wonderful world of washed up comics, stage struck actors, serial daters, unrepentant smokers and the clinically insane.
Eddie King's Non-Refundable Tour of the Lost Souls was a unique event by the New Writing Company which used the whole of the Tobacco Factory Theatre building as a performance space for six new monologues by Joanne Lancastle, Phil John, Matt Grinter, Jasper Larsen,
Dom Rowe & Simon Harvey - Williams.
The event was directed by Sam Berger, artistic director of Plain Clothes Theatre Productions.
Gerard performed in Cimarron by Jasper Larsen,
which finds a mental health support worker describing the downfall of one of his patients. Meanwhile, the state of his own sanity is in question.
- Pills, Thrills and Belly Aching - Eddie King and the Death of Rave
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Produced by Darkstuff Productions at the Tobacco Factory Theatre.
REVIEW: "The hubbub of hotly vibrant conversations in the bar was powerfully curtailed
by Gerard Cooke's undeniable voice performing as 'Eddie King'...
A distinctly northern accent boasts King's pride in his Everyman ancestry and joy in his spirited defence of the controversial Rave phenomenon...
King's other persona, alternately delivered by Cooke in his natural,
well-educated tone, gives us maturer reflections on the achievements of Rave ... Gerard Cooke carries the responsibility of his role admirably."
- Arthur Duncan REMOTEGOAT.CO.UK
- The Darkroom
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2011. THEATRE WEST AT THE ALMA TAVERN. ~~~~~~~~~
Early post-war England and a wife is trying to return to the normal civility of life with a husband haunted by the dark memories of battle. 1949; make do and mend.~~~~~~~~~~~
"All three performers excel here... Gerard Cooke does his best work this reviewer has seen as James, a febrile, frightened creature who has been
trying to suppress his own gifts and the dark memories they bring back" - VENUE