Tuesday, October 3,1978
Pages
Guy Payne checks out basketball to student Chuck
Miner.
Claire Cope: Needle
and Thread Magic
By Jon Young
In a small room cozily situated almost directly beneath the big stage
in Dunham Auditorium lives a lady who works eighty-five hours a
week during the theater season at Brevard College. And in a sense this
really is her home, if you realize that she arrives at BC by 8:15 every
morning and doesn’t retire until almost half past midnight, only to
start again early the next day.
“I take home a bag of homework every night,” laughs Mrs. Claire
Cope, referring to the materials she designs and sews herself in the
creation of almost lOO-odd costumes this year for the musical
production, “ Finian’s Rainbow.”
As the wife of Sam Cope, Professor of Music and Theater Arts at
Brevard, Mrs. Cope has been making costumes for plays since before
her marriage. She began by making her own clothes at age 14 in
Hampton, Virginia, and then transferring her skill at the sewing
machine to the theater program at Catawba College in Salisbury, N.C.
There she met her husband as a member of the Blue Masque Club,
when he portrayed Teddy Roosevelt in the black comedy, “Arsenic
and Old Lace.”
The rest is “Copian” history. Brevard College has enjoyed the
wondersome ballroom gowns and the early-century attire of Mrs.
Cope since about 1969 in such productions as “The King and I,” “The
Miracle Worker,” and “L’il Abner.”
One problem that often arises is that there are no patterns or
imitatable designs automatically provided for use in the creation of
pre-20th century apparel. So Mrs. Cope skims through many books and
magazines searching for the appropriate-style dress.
Mrs. Cope, of course, has a favorite kind of costume that she prefers
overall to compose. “I love the antebellum-style hoopskirts like in
“The King and I,” she confesses. Mrs. Cope had a difficulty in that
musical, however, with a below-the-shoulder gown the character o
Anna was to wear. “Everytime she (the actress) moved, the dress
would tend to creep down her shoulders and it could have been very
embarassing for her. ’ ’
One of the more difficult pieces to make was that of the lion in last
semester’s “Androcles and the Lion.” Brushed nylon (bathrobe
material) was used in the creation of this masterpiece. It had to be
seen to be believed, as Mike Capps growled his way through the play.
Costumes are bound to get dirty from constant use in two or three
performances, so how does this collection of almost 1200 uniform^
gowns, tuxedos and the like get cleaned? As a sampler, t e
costumes used in “Showboat” cost $600 to be purified by a drycleaner
who offers the Copes a discount price of half off.
Unfortunately, Mrs. Cope will not be designing costumes at Brevard
College forever. The creation of over a hundred costumes in w
inonths is a very hectic and demanding job. She says that a musica
will probably not be done every year and that will be the time or e
retire as the theater program expands and more people a ®
the department. She will miss knowing' the students on a first
basis as she has done each school year.
But one thing is for certain. No one who has been
theater at Brevard College can ever forget the elec nc .
tnunicated by Mrs. Cope when she sits down at her sewing
preparation for another glorious theater season.
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Guy Payne:
A Part Of It All
By Tom Snyder
Guy Payne’s trademark is his smile. It’s a quick, bright,
recognizable smile that distinguishes and sets him apart, much the
same as a matador’s cape or the top hat of a magician. Easily
aroused, it serves as evidence that Guy Payne, general manager of
Boshamer Gymnasium and staple of Brevard College, is quite content
with life.
Born and raised on a farm in Henderson County, Guy graduated
from 9th Avenue School in the spring of 1957, and entered the Air Force
as a heavy equipment operator that fall. Upon the completion of his
military service some Vk years later, he returned to Henderson
County where he found a job operating heavy equipment for a private
company. Buy Guy’s roots beckoned him, and in January of 1961 he
began working for the Skybrook Farm in Etowah; Skybrook proved
the springboard which catapulted him to his present position: “I was
working at Skybrook and Quentin Cantrell, (the Athletic Director at
Brevard College at that time) came by the farm and told me he had a
job for me at the school. You see, Mr. Cantrell was a former foreman
of the farm. I came to Brevard in August of 1961, and I’ve been here
ever since.”
Upon his arrival, Guy immediately showed he hadn’t come here to
go unnoticed. “I ran track when I first came here; I ran the two-mile.
And I used to scrimmage with the varsity basketball team — that was
the team of ’64, that went to the Nationals.
“There have been so many changes since I’ve been here. The first
year I was here we were still in the old gym. It was located beside the
Science building, with its entrance where the little pools are now, and
it ran back toward French Broad Street. It only had 3 dressing rooms
— men and women’s P.E., and a varsity basketball dressing room.
“The new gym was built in 1962. I can remember (Coach) Chick
Margin and Mr. Cary Boshamer sitting out under the tree in front of
Dunham and talking. They met there on Trustee’s day and decided to
build it. Mr. Boshamer’s nephew, Wilson, is Chairman of the Athletic
Committee now. He’s a great man and person and very respected.
“The new gym received an addition in 1969 with the installment of
the auxiliary gym, classrooms and offices. And the sport’s program
benefitted from the move. We picked up soccer, women’s basketball
and women’s volleyball with the move in ’62, whereas we’d only had
tennis, track, baseball, and men’s basketball before.
Coming
Events
at
B.C.
WED., OCT. 4
10 a.m., Urgent Day Students Meeting, SU
Conference Room
9 p.m.. Student Association, MG 118
MON, OCT. 9
5:30 p.m.. Phi Theta Kappa, Rutherford
Room
TUES.,OCT. 10
6-8 p.m.. Art Series ■ Secret Sharer,
Library Seminar Room
WED., OCT. 11
9 p.m., Student Association, MG 118
FRI.,OCT. 13
8a.m., Trustee’s Meeting
SAT., OCT. 14
2 p.m.. Soccer Game With Abraham
Baldwin College, here
8:30p.m., Homecoming Dance, Cafeteria
MON., OCT, 16
5:30 p.m.. Phi Theta Kappa, Rutherford
Room
7-8 p.m., Spanish Club, Library Seminar
Room
TUES, OCT. 17
6-8 p.m.. Art Series: Bernie Casey, John
Autorbridge-Black Artists
8:15 p.m.. Life And Culture Series
PresenU Franklin Conley On Andrew
Jackson, Dunham Aud.
WED, OCT. 18
2:30 p.m., Fall Break Begins
“I feel like a part of it all. I’ve grown up with the gym, and I feel like
we’re old friends.”
Guy acts as the general manager for Boshamer gymnasium, and his
skills and duties require versatility. Besides serving as a sort of “all
encompassing co-ordinator” for Boshamer, he also manages and
maintains the pool and is an experienced trainer, having worked at
that position for twelve years under Coach Chick Martin, and two
summers under Fred Hoover, the head trainer for Clemson Univer
sity. Never one to take his work lightly, Guy even lived in the training
room for two years:
“I had me a bed, a television, a lounge chair and a hot-plate. I was
doin’alright.”
“I’ve known personally every Brevard All-American who has been
here since I’ve arrived - twenty-nine of them. And I can remember
when the freshmen weren’t allowed to have cars and I drove one of the
two buses we had to take to athletic events. We had some good times
on those bus trips. That’s what I enjoy most about my job - the
students. The students today are more co-operative and easy to get
along with than they used to be.”
Guv’s love for people is rivaled only by his love for his favorite
nasttime - trading. “I’ll trade anything. I got started one winter
sitting around a service station with a bunch of traders and I’ve been
hooked ever since. You make some good trades and you make some
bad trades - but it seems like it’s on the unusual trades that I always
eet burned Once I traded a battery, a car, and a piece of wire for a
lawnmower. I used to grade guns all the time before the prices went up
so bad and I’ve traded for every car I’ve owned since 1970.
perhaps the most interesting item which arose in interviewing Guy
was his reaction to the seemingly innocent enough question. When
were you married?
“Let’s see,” he said, grinning. “I wrecked my car in 1964 ... hold on
for a minute.”
He then proceeded to call his wife, who didn’t know exactly either,
and a business friend, who unfortunately was away at the time. Guy
believes it to be around 1%5 - I never did find out for sure. He is
positive though, that he has two sons and a daughter.
I asked him somehwat hesitantly then, about his plans for the future.
“Well I’ve bought 6 acres of land and have a small farm (his
present residence). I have pigs, chickens, a horse and a goat, and I’m
comfortable there for now.”
I asked him what had happened to the little T.V. set I sometimes saw
^™irbroke buy hey, you’re gonna get me in trouble. They’re gonna
think I’m sittin’ down here doing nothing,” and then he chuckled.
For Guy Payne, nothing could be farther from the truth. The
likeable man who’s been a pillar of friendship and service to Brevard
students and staff for almost two decades is never idle for long - and
perhaps that’s just what keeps him smiling.
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