{"id":114978,"date":"2021-11-01T11:15:01","date_gmt":"2021-11-01T15:15:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=114978"},"modified":"2022-09-29T11:21:08","modified_gmt":"2022-09-29T15:21:08","slug":"stage-direction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/01\/stage-direction\/","title":{"rendered":"Stage direction"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Grace Beckman, a mechanical engineering and stage management major, is part of the team producing “Mamma Mia!” in the Festival Playhouse.<\/p><\/div>\n

Putting things together and figuring things out came naturally to Grace Beckman as a young girl. Her mother would even ask her to take charge of assembling new furniture from IKEA.<\/p>\n

And then in high school, Beckman was bitten by the theatre bug, specifically the backstage part, using her innate engineering skills to help produce plays.<\/p>\n

Today, the Wright State University senior has married those two disparate passions \u2014 majoring in both mechanical engineering<\/a> and stage management<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to keep doing theatre in some capacity after graduation just because truly there is nothing else like it,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I have been looking into project management for engineering, either in the construction industry or something similar. I like putting moving pieces together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beckman grew up in Columbus, graduating from Bishop Watterson in 2016. Her high school\u2019s theatre program was a small one where everyone did a little bit of everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really liked the backstage side of it,\u201d she said. \u201cFrom the engineering point, I was helping build sets, helping run lights and doing anything that involved getting the technical side of the show together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beckman was later put in charge of the productions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would run around making sure actors were in the right place and learning more about professional theatre,\u201d she recalled. \u201cI said, \u2018Oh, there\u2019s a job for this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Beckman had never even heard of Wright State until talking with her high school counselor, who knew of Beckman\u2019s interest in theatre. A campus visit, including a stop at the Creative Arts Center, clinched her decision to enroll at Wright State.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just felt right,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Beckman acknowledged that double majoring in mechanical engineering and stage management has not always been easy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll take one semester that\u2019s more engineering, then one semester that\u2019s more stage management,\u201d she said. \u201cIn the beginning, that decision depended on my classes, but now it hinges on whether or not I\u2019m running a show. This semester, since I\u2019m on ‘Mamma Mia!,’ will be a theatre semester for me. But I\u2019m still taking some engineering classes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beckman said the most challenging thing about stage management is juggling all of the different aspects in producing a play.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou really can\u2019t focus on just one thing all the time,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a balance of who you talk to, when you talk to them, making sure everyone has the right information. Someone is asking for shoes. Someone lost their clip. Time management and balance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beckman said the most gratifying part is experiencing the final product.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hectic and sometimes things can slip your mind and you don\u2019t quite see it when you\u2019re in the rehearsal room even though you know something is going to be there,\u201d she said. \u201cBut once you see it come together and it\u2019s all in front of you happening, it really makes you remember why you\u2019re doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Especially challenging was producing \u201cMamma Mia!,\u201d which was supposed to be performed in the spring of 2020 but was put on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

During her interview, Beckman was in the middle of helping produce the musical at the Festival Playhouse for a three-week run from Oct. 29 to Nov 14<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we\u2019re coming back; whole new cast, new stage management team, same designers, thank goodness,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re just finally putting it all together. Last night when we did a run with mics for the first time, we got further than they ever got in the first process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beckman said the highlight of her experience at Wright State has been the people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve just met some really, really cool people here; classmates that I\u2019ve gotten to work with, people who have graduated and moved on, seeing what they\u2019re doing and following up with them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grace Beckman, a mechanical engineering and stage management major, is part of the team producing “Mamma Mia!” in the Festival Playhouse. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":114970,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,2037,743,4859,747,4269,715,4298],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-arts-scene","category-engineering-computer-science","category-fine-and-performing-arts","category-liberal-arts","category-mechanical-and-materials-engineering","category-news","category-student-profile"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114978"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114994,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114978\/revisions\/114994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}