Recent Grads Have All-Access Pass at the Palace Theatre

By John Clayton  Photography by Dick Shelton

Jennifer Coburn doesn't smoke cigars and she doesn't wear a painted mustache. Ordinarily, the 1999 graduate doesn't walk with a pronounced stoop nor does she speak in the comically studied syntax of S.J. Perelman, but Jennifer—a proud member of the Saint Anselm Abbey Players—does have one thing in common with Groucho Marx.

They've both played the Palace Theatre.

And they're in good company. It's an experience Brian Kennedy '99 shares with Jimmy Durante and Louis Armstrong, and it's one that Brian's wife, Rachel (Follien) Kennedy '01 shares with Marcel Marceau and Edward Villella.

Likewise, Matthew Cahoon '99 can tell folks he's trod upon the same boards as Katherine Hepburn and Henry Fonda and when Matt's wife—Carey (Winslow) Cahoon '98—gets the urge to name-drop, she can let it slip that she's played the samestage as George Burns, Ray Charles and many other 20th century icons.

Even Bob Hope—who received an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Saint Anselm in 1977—has played The Palace.

For all of Mr. Hope's acclaim, however, the future of The Palace is, in many ways, tied to the fortunes of six recent Saint Anselm graduates: the aforementioned five and yet another—think of him as an Abbey Player to-be-named-later-who are helping to usher Manchester's only remaining Vaudeville house into the 21st Century.

Normally, their roles are played out backstage, but whether they're making an entrance, building sets or staffing the box office window, their contributions are pivotal.

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