Age: 35
Occupation: Artistic producer, Jupiter Theatre and Solaris Productions
When Andrew G. Cooper moved to Calgary seven years ago, the variety of theatre companies in the city was a big part of the draw. Having founded Jupiter Theatre in 2019 and the film company Solaris Productions in 2021, Cooper builds upon the city’s scene by uplifting others.
Across Jupiter and Solaris, Cooper has hired nearly 700 queer, BIPOC, neurodiverse and/or disabled Calgarian artists (including production and crew), and paid them more than half a million dollars in wages and honorariums. Under Cooper’s mentorship, many of these artists have gone on to work on Broadway and with world-renowned entertainment companies like Cirque du Soleil.
Solaris and Jupiter have a focus on fantastical film and live theatre, including sci-fi, fantasy and horror, and practical effects like puppetry, masks and circus. Many of Cooper’s projects also spotlight 2SLGBTQIA+ characters and stories.
“Centring queerness is very exciting to me, particularly queer characters that are just people who exist in the world,” says Cooper. “Unfortunately, the fact that queer people exist is something that is still debated, and, until it’s not, I will continue to tell those kinds of stories.”
In addition to volunteering in various fine-arts education and mentorship programs, Cooper produces award-winning work. They were a puppeteer for the Emmy Award-winning show, Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock (2022), and plays Cooper created have been produced more than 45 times in Canada, the United States, Australia and the United Arab Emirates. While Calgary is often used in film as a double for other major centres like New York or Toronto, Cooper makes it a priority to showcase what the city has to offer. Cooper has created 14 stage productions and four films in Calgary. Plus, there’s the upcoming cosmic-horror feature film, Below the Silent Sky, to be shot in Calgary and surrounding areas.
“I’m going to show the Alberta Rockies as Alberta, because people travel from all over the world to come here,” says Cooper. “This is a really beautiful, vibrant place, and people should know that.”
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