Charles Hutchinson pays tribute to John Cooper, who has died aged 70

John passed away on Christmas Day, having suffered failing health for several years that eventually left him immobile.

“As you can imagine, for such a feisty character, this was immensely frustrating,” says his daughter, Felicity. “And so I like to think he is now in peace and back to his old self, wherever that may be.”

The Press last covered John’s pioneering work in March 2011 when he directed A1 Theatre Productions, the company set up by his most talented protégés, in At Home and At The Zoo, at 41 Monkgate.

“John Cooper’s mind is quicker than his legs these days, but he continues to challenge young actors with bold, difficult material, just as he did in his groundbreaking days with Stagecoach Youth Theatre York,” said the review.

“No matter what the health gods throw at him, Cooper will find a way to work, in this instance rehearsing in his sitting room, where Edward Albee’s brace of disturbing, damning, darkly humorous two-handers could be easily accommodated.”

This determination to work, whatever the odds against him, typified John Cooper. The cast of Luke Dunford, Cordelia Grierson and Jonny Holbek were grateful that he did so, just as so many other budding actors had been before them.

John was born in Eastbourne in 1943 and was an only child.

“I’m not sure what drew him to theatre – his dad was a pharmacist – but he went to East 15 Acting School in London,” says Felicity.

“After this he did move to Worcester for a brief spell, where he set up his first youth theatre, but that was intermediate to establishing his own professional theatre company, called Flying Tortoise, in London.”

John wrote and directed children’s shows that toured the country.

“My earliest memories of him are of the noise coming from his study, either the tap, tap, tap of the typewriter as he bashed out another script, or the tinkling of the piano as he tried a new tune,” says Felicity.

“All his shows were musicals and I was always in awe of the way he could play any tune on the piano, by ear, with no need for a manuscript. He would also test out character names and scenarios on me and my sister to see if we found them appealing and amusing enough.”

At their peak, his shows sold out in theatres throughout England and Scotland. However, much of the audience was made up of school parties, so when the Conservative government cut Arts Council funding in the mid-1980s, Flying Tortoise had neither the funds nor the diverse audiences to continue.

John and his family duly moved to York in 1987 and he first came on to the radar of the York theatre scene when he set up BYTES, the snappy acronym for the self-explanatory Barbican Youth Theatre Every Sunday, at York Barbican Centre in 1990.

Three years later, the former professional actor established Stagecoach Youth Theatre York, his company for eight to 18 year olds that John was to run until 2007. By 1998, he was staging seven productions in one year, typically rehearsing no fewer than four of them at one time in April with 100 youngsters involved.

That year was to be the most significant of John’s theatrical career in York. His youth theatre applied to the Arts Council for £260,000 of National Lottery funding to convert the church hall and offices at Trinity Methodist Church, Monkgate, into a 144-seat theatre and rehearsal space. John and his committee had to find £70,000 in partnership funding.

John’s vision came to fruition and the black-box theatre of 41 Monkgate duly emerged, providing a home not only to Stagecoach but other visiting companies too. The John Cooper Studio Theatre was named in his honour, but subsequently the name has fallen by the wayside.

John’s methods, pushing young talents to the maximum with his choice of plays and subject matters, from HIV to workhouse poverty in York, ultimately led to discomfiture within the committee, but to this day it remains a hurtful decision to York’s premier guiding light of youth theatre that Stagecoach came to an awkward end in 2007, to be replaced by Upstage Centre Youth Theatre.

“Dad always said that he worked no differently with members of BYTES and Stagecoach than he did with his professional companies and so, although to many he came across as a hard task master, it was only ever because he was always striving for perfection,” says Felicity, recalling the “cantankerous old director, frazzled with pre-show nerves”.

A perfectionist he was, and The Press will remember with admiration the shuffling, lugubrious, mop-haired figure in the rainbow baggy jumper. More than one generation of young actors are indebted to his inspirational leadership, creativity, passion and encouragement. To misquote the line from the film Field Of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come.”

John Cooper built both a theatre and the framework for so many fledgling careers. It would be wholly apt if the John Cooper Studio Theatre were to be reinstated in his memory.

• John Cooper’s funeral will be held at Trinity Methodist Church, Monkgate, on Monday at 1.45pm.