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Cope Murray Laid The Groundwork for NEC Theatre

I love history and in today’s society where history doesn’t seem as important, I feel it’s the past is important.   This is the story of my Dad, Cope Murray, but more important, it’s the story how one man built a small college theatre department.

New England College is nestled in the small town of Henniker New Hampshire.  The town goes by the slogan, the only Henniker on earth.  The campus was started way back in 1946.  Now they are building a new theatre.  To pay for it, they have started a capitol campaign called A Bridge to the Future.  The theatre arts building is one of many projects that NEC has planned.  In order to fund a building that costs 13 million dollars, they are offering to name parts of the building as a gift.  One of those rooms is the dressing room at a cost of $25, 000.

Cope Murray’s long road tenure at NEC took him from Henniker to England and back to Henniker.  The story of NEC would not be complete if my Dad was not honored in the new Performing Arts Center.  The story of NEC theatre is how my father laid the groundwork for a college theatre department.  

When my Dad drove into a sleepy New Hampshire college town in 1962, he wasn’t sure he came to a college. It didn’t look like a college town. He interviewed with Dr. Robert Elinor. It was a laid back interview from a laid back man, with an interesting sense of humor.  Dr. Elinor hired my Dad as a Humanties Professor, who would also teach Public Speaking. NEC’S theatre department was almost non existent.  Paul Eisler was the man producing theatre.  However; there was no building.  All productions were put together in the Henniker High Gym.  My Dad loved theatre and wanted to help, so he started as the make up man.  

A few years later my Father got his chance at directing his first show, Bus Stop.  The rest is history.  

In the early years my Dad, had a thin talent pool, but slowly but surely talent like Jack Carpenter came along. Then Dennis Metnick, Charlie Potter, Debbie Meeker, Moira Whalen, Valerie Staal, Jennifer Coyne and David Brown. There would be another David Brown in the late 70’s early 80’s just as talented from Maine.  I saw my first NEC production with David Brown in a musical called Johnny Johnson and it turned me on to theatre.  Not the David Brown students from the early 80’s would remember. The David Brown from the 60’s who treated me to my first NEC production, Johnny Johnson.

Dad molded a lot of this talent and enhanced what they knew and gave them great confidence in their ability as an actor. Suddenly through my Dad, he became a full fledged theatre professor and built a productive theatre department. You can imagine he might have been satisfied with that right? No, there is more here and it’s a big part of the NEC recruitment story.

When the early 1970’s hit, my Dad was invited to England to meet another one of his bosses, Gordon Bennett. The man was a visionary and he wanted to show him something. He took him to a small sleepy village just outside Arundel England called Ford. There was a park there called Tortington where an old girls school was.  The building had seen better days and was now for sale.   Gordon’s vision was to set up an England Campus for New England College students. The chance to study abroad would bring prestige to a small college in New Hampshire.  Gordon’s vision include my Dad.  He wanted a theatre department and a curriculum that would allow them to see English and Irish theatre.   My Dad readily agreed and we moved to England and spent five of the most wonderful years there.

Back in Henniker NEC had done a small touring company called the New England College players.  Rich Rice, was now leading the department in Henniker and his idea was to take that concept and tour England.  My Dad worked with Rich to put the concept together.  The idea was pretty interesting. Put three shows together with an acting troupe of about 8-10 students and go out with a tour director.  This was putting what you learned in the classroom into practice.   Shows would be performed all across the British Isles and in some cases some of the most remote places you would ever find.  Who wouldn’t jump at a chance to do this.

The new tour idea, sold New England college.  Tuition went up and broadened the theatre department talent pool.  Once word got out that you could go to a college and perform theatre abroad, enrollment went up and New England College was attracting plenty of theatre talent.  The tour ran from 1972-1989

When Dad returned from England, he went back to teaching and directing. I spent my high school years in awe of the stuff he did. Zigger Zagger, a musical about Soccer Hooliganism. I had seen it on BBC TV and it dealt with a topic no one seemed to want to touch in England. As You Like stands out to me for many reasons. I learned my Dad wasn’t such a square when it came to music after all. He incorporated music into the scene changes and what was wild is he used this really funky Swedish rock band I knew well called Focus.

There was a lot of great theatre at NEC in the 1980’s, from the Resistible Rise of Artuo Ui to NF Simpson’s the Hole, I was there and I saw it.

Dad likes to call the 80’s NEC’S Golden Years. It was a group of talent that included Tabitha Eagle, Pam Demoulis, June Pusbach, Penny Purcell, Jack Milewski, Niel Maurer, Wally Caswell, Jim Williams, the other David Brown and many more.

My Dad is a humble man. Sometimes he feels too much fuss is made over him. He wasn’t upset about the building being named after him, but we did talk and there was a tinge of him that was hoping maybe he would be honored some way in the new NEC performing arts center.

If you are interested in donating to the cause.  You can go to this link.  https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiB8Jva95fmAhVE11kKHbI0DzQQFjABegQIAxAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.alumni.nec.edu%2Fs%2F1712%2Fbp18%2Finterior.aspx%3Fsid%3D1712%26gid%3D2%26pgid%3D838%26content_id%3D761&usg=AOvVaw1XpMFVR7cAJ7fTKv3h9dFg

Or if a check is your preferred method, please send it to

Office of Advancement

New England College

98 Bridge Street

Henniker New Hampshire 03242

Thanks for reading this and supporting a worthy cause for a worthy man.

Peter C. Murray