Neil Pankhurst, Winnipesaukee Playhouse co-founder and director, to step down

MEREDITH — After nearly 20 years at the helm of the Winnipesaukee Playhouse, Producing Artistic Director Neil Pankhurst believes he has  overstayed his welcome. 

“With artist endeavors,” he said, “Established and older voices should shift out and allow new voices to step in.” 

“There’s a 10-year cycle for me,” he said. “For that reason alone I feel like I’ve run my course.” Though the playhouse was founded almost 20 years ago, it’s been nearly 10 years since its new location opened in Meredith.

In a letter announcing that he would step down, Pankhurst also described personal reasons for doing so, including helping care for his mother and managing his own health. Pankhurst was diagnosed with cancer 10 years ago, and while he remains in remission, managing the internal costs of his treatment is a daily strain.

“I simply cannot give the same energy to my work that I did 10 years ago and if I can’t give this job my all, I do not feel I should continue,” he wrote. 

To succeed Pankhurst, the board of directors appointed Timothy L’Ecuyer as the next artistic director and Thom Beaulieu as managing director. This leadership structure, with one director leading the creative side of the organization and the other the financial and business side, is common in theater organizations.

Pankhurst intends to leave behind a legacy rather than a shadow. He hopes the team that follows him is able to take the theater in their own, new direction. 

“There are commercial pressures to only do shows that make a lot of money. My philosophy has been that I won’t put anything on our stage that I’m not excited to see there,” Pankhurst said. “Fortunately, I have very broad tastes.” 

Over the years, this has included everything from big-name shows like “Chicago” and “Mamma Mia!” to classics like “Miss Julie,” international films from across Europe and “a good bit of murder mysteries” inspired by Pankhurst’s childhood love of British television detective programs. 

“I hope that, while some of all that might continue, the theater goes in whatever direction they see fit to take it,” Pankhurst continued.

Beaulieu moved to the area 10 years ago and started doing some lighting and scene design at the playhouse part time in 2015. In 2019 he joined the full-time staff as director of finance and fundraising.

Beaulieu worked closely with Pankhurst on the challenging task of keeping the playhouse afloat financially through the difficulties of the pandemic, and his new role will be quite similar to the work he currently does.

“My priority is to ensure that we can fulfill the creative vision and protect the longevity of the playhouse,” he said. 

Beaulieu’s financial vision is guided by the playhouse’s values. 

“Another thing Neil and I share that I will continue to pursue is to ensure our artists are properly compensated, which can be a difficult task for a nonprofit," Beaulieu said.

“We are built on people,” he continued. “We offer a product, but that product is essentially people. We want to provide for that.”  

L’Ecuyer, who became a fan of the playhouse in its early days, has been education director since 2014.

“I’m in awe of all that Neil has built and I’m deeply honored the board selected me to be the next steward of it,” he said. “It’s a daunting thing, on some level, to take over from the founding artistic director.”

L’Ecuyer said that his artistic priorities, in addition to upholding Pankhurst’s legacy, are to continue to increase the diversity of the artists the playhouse works with and to take the transition as an opportunity for introspection.

“We have an organic opportunity to take stock of why we do what we do,” L’Ecuyer said. “In this moment for the field we’re asking audiences to come back, to trust us with their precious time. I think it’s up to us to answer the question of ‘why should they?’”

One answer, he believes, lies in the kind of buy-in theater asks of its audience. 

“There’s a level of engagement in live theater because, unlike film or television, it’s not hyper realistic,” he said. “There are gaps, and you as an audience member have to fill those gaps with your imagination.”

As to his artistic priorities, L’Ecuyer said, “I want to do theater that speaks to the moment in some way, that is in conversation with the moment we’re having.” He believes that this cultural conversation can be found in shows from most genres.

Pankhurst is excited, if somewhat wistful, about passing the torch.

He and his wife Leslie, alongside Bryan and Johanna Halperin, founded the playhouse in 2004 at its original location in Weirs Beach. In 2013, they built a new facility in Meredith, more than tripling the size of the audience they could host. 

“This organization has grown to something unrecognizable from where we started,” Pankhurst said. “There were only four of us. We hardly had enough money to pay ourselves — in fact there was quite a while when we didn’t pay ourselves. Now this organization supports over 100 people a year, including more full-time staff than ever before.”

While being able to maintain a growth trajectory is something Pankhurst is quite proud of, he hopes that the effect of that growth has been to establish the playhouse, and local, live theater, in the community. 

“When we started this, we sort of imposed ourselves on a community,” he chuckled. “But I hope that people have come to see it not as ‘ours’ but as ‘theirs’ and part of their community.”

Though, as noted in his letter, Pankhurst will return from time to time to direct certain shows, he is looking forward to a more relaxed pace of life. He even hopes to return to gardening, a pandemic hobby that has gone to the back burner recently. 

That doesn’t mean he won’t miss it.

“There’s mixed emotions,” Pankhurst said. “There’s a great passion in my work right now, and that part will probably leave a gigantic hole in me, but it will mend with time.”