Trish Cooke

Last updated
Born1962 (age 62–63)
Bradford, England
Alma materLeeds Polytechnic

Trish Cooke (born 1962) is a British playwright, actress, television presenter, scriptwriter and children's author. She was a presenter on the children's series Playdays. [1] She also wrote under the pseudonym Roselia John Baptiste. [2]

Contents

Life

Cooke was born in Bradford. [1] Her parents were from Dominica, part of the Windrush generation. [3] She gained a BA in Performing Arts from Leeds Polytechnic before moving to London in 1984 to pursue an acting career. She worked as a stage manager for the Black Theatre Co-operative (now NitroBeat) for six months, and after receiving her Equity card worked as an actor in London. In 1988 she received a Thames Television Writers Bursary and began a writing residency at the Liverpool Playhouse. [4] Between 1988 and 1996 she was a presenter and scriptwriter for Playdays on Children's BBC. [5] She also write scripts for EastEnders , Doctors , The Real McCoy and Brothers and Sisters . [4] In 1989 the company Temba staged her play Back Street Mammy, [6] which explored adolescent sexuality and the dilemmas of unplanned pregnancy. In Running Dream a woman returns to Dominica to find both differences and close ties between her and the sisters she left behind there. Both plays use a chorus to comment on the action. [7] Trish was the Writer in Residence at the Bush Theatre from 2019 to 2021 and is a Royal Literary Fund fellow.

Cooke's children's book So Much (1994) won the 0–5 category of the Nestle Smarties Book Prize, the She/WH Smith’s Under-Fives Book Prize and the Kurt Maschler Award. It was also Highly Commended for the Kate Greenaway Medal and was shortlisted for both the Sheffield Children’s Book Award and the Nottinghamshire Children’s Book Award. [8]

Her series of inter-racial .....adaptations of children's fairy tales have been popular at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. [4] Cinderella (2007) was the first pantomime to be nominated for an Olivier Award. [5]

Personal life

Her brother is retired professional footballer Joe Cooke (footballer).

Her 2nd cousin is professional footballer, Tyler Magloire

Works

Plays

Children's books

References

  1. 1 2 Trevor R. Griffiths (2014). The Theatre Guide: A Comprehensive A-Z of the World's Best Plays and Playwrights. A&C Black. pp. 61–2. ISBN   978-1-4081-0313-5.
  2. ↑ Denise L. Montgomery (2011). Ottemiller's Index to Plays in Collections: An Author and Title Index to Plays Appearing in Collections Published since 1900. Scarecrow Press. p. 719. ISBN   978-0-8108-7721-4.
  3. ↑ Katherine Johnston, Black History Month 2018: An interview with writer Trish Cooke, Southwark News , 15 October 2018. Accessed 1 July 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 Simeilia Hodge-Dallaway (2013). The Oberon Book of Monologues for Black Actors: Classical and Contemporary Speeches from Black British Plays: Monologues for Women – Volume 1. Oberon Books. pp. 33–4. ISBN   978-1-78319-555-8.
  5. 1 2 Royal Literary Fund: Trish Cooke, Royal Literary Fund.
  6. ↑ Jane Milling (2013). Modern British Playwriting: The 1980s: Voices, Documents, New Interpretations. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 65. ISBN   978-1-4081-2960-9.
  7. ↑ Susan Croft (2002). "Cooke, Trish". In Alison Donnell (ed.). Companion to Contemporary Black British Culture. Routledge. pp. 82–3. ISBN   978-1-134-70025-7.
  8. ↑ Trish Cooke - Walker Books. Accessed 1 July 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.