Michael Cooper is Leading the Way in Texarkana USA

In his dual roles for thirty-two years as Artistic Director of the community’s Texarkana Repertory Company and Head of the Drama Department at Texarkana College, Michael Cooper has had a unique and indelible impact on many hundreds of Texarkana thespians, along with the thousands of Texarkana audience members who have witnessed one or another of the hundreds of theatrical performances he has directed and staged here. 

With his official retirement as Head of Texarkana College’s Drama Department, the gratitude of many of the individuals he has touched have been posted on TexRep’s facebook page.

Among the many posts, Vicki Raney’s captured well the impact Michael has had: “Congratulations on a career that shaped so many lives, including my own and my children’s. You taught so much more than drama, so much more than theatre arts, so much more than stagecraft. You taught LIFE through ART. And we are all the better for it.”

Michael has always taken seriously the gift of theatre to teach, open eyes and mold lives; he truly has led the way for these three-plus decades in allowing literal generations of his “students” to walk in the shoes of individuals from far away times and places–to experience other lives, the full range of human emotions from joy to pain, while channeling the genius of playwrights from every era.

Fortunately for all, Michael endures as Artistic Director of TexRep! SO – If you haven’t yet discovered the genius of Michael Cooper’s staging and direction (or if you know it well) – do not miss TexRep’s current production of TARTUFFE – a hilarious modern-day retelling of Moliere’s classic farce – in one of it’s second weekend of three performances at the Stilwell Theatre on the Texarkana College campus!

CONGRATULATIONS and GRATITUDE to Michael Cooper for leading the way in Texarkana USA!