Cofield is heavily influenced by music and hip-hop culture, citing the poetry and rhythm of Public Enemy as a key influence.[3]
Television and film
Cofield was a child actor in commercials, television series, and films. He was in almost a dozen Burger King commercials starting at age four and in several Wise Cheez Doodles commercials.[4] He was on Miami Vice in 1986 and 1988, and Law & Order in 1993 and 1994, in both cases playing different characters on different episodes. He had roles on Tyler Perry's House of Payne, Mama, I Want to Sing!, and several other films and television series.
He directed the world premiere of One Night in Miami at Rogue Machine in Los Angeles in 2013.[10] He directed the play again at Denver Center in 2015[11] and at Miami New Drama in 2018.[12]
His 2019 Twelfth Night at Yale Rep was staged with an Afrofuturistic aesthetic.[14] In 2021, he directed King Lear at St. Louis Shakespeare Festival with André De Shields in the lead role and set in Africa.
Classical Theatre of Harlem
In 2018, Cofield was appointed Associate Artistic Director of Classical Theatre of Harlem.[15]
In 2014, Cofield directed the 50th anniversary production of Amiri Baraka's Dutchman, as a joint venture with National Black Theatre and Classical Theatre of Harlem.[16] His 2015 production of The Tempest was set in Hispaniola.[17]
Cofield directed a production of Macbeth in 2016,[18]Antigone in 2018,[19] and for his 2019 production of The Bacchae Cofield was described as taking advantage "of the outdoor setting with an electrifying staging that constantly breaks the fourth wall, bringing us mortals closer to the deities onstage."[20]
In 2021, Cofield directed Will Power's Seize the King, a re-writing of Richard III, that was described as "both monumental and minimalist."[21] Cofield's 2022 production of Twelfth Night was hailed by The New York Times as one of the best productions that year[22] and for its direction.[23]
Service to the arts
Cofield has been involved in the development of numerous theatrical projects. In 2014, he was a director for the play festival, 48 Hours in Harlem, through the National Black Theatre. In 2017, he directed a series of six plays commissioned by the McCarter Theatre at Princeton, for the program, the "Princeton and Slavery Plays."[24] In 2019, he directed The Kept Private, a documentary theatre play, at Jeremy Davidson Storyhorse Theatre.[25]