Professional Lighting & Production - Summer 2019 | Page 34

34 PL&P
Jennafer Beck
By Andrew King
It’s not unusual for someone to credit their family with the encour-
agement and inspiration needed to nudge them along their chosen
career path; however, Jennafer Beck, a theatrical lighting pro based on
Prince Edward Island, benefitted from a bigger push than most.
Born and raised in Calgary, AB, Beck and her family moved to
Mexico for a year when she was 12 years old. Upon their return, they
travelled across Canada in a 30-ft. motor home, ultimately ending up
and planting roots on PEI. Throughout it all, she was home-schooled,
and only entered public school for the last few months of the ninth
grade before heading to high-school.
“Homeschooling was amazing and let me have more of a
hands-on learning experience growing up,” Beck tells Professional
Lighting & Production. “That way of learning didn’t make me see the
world as only having a handful of job choices; I was just as interested
in archaeology as I was in becoming a farrier or, later, a librarian or
masseuse. Having such good parents that let me explore my future
choices made it so stress-free. Ultimately, I think that’s why the
change from my college degree to where I work now was essentially
a no-brainer.”
That change involved pivoting from her studies in the theatre
performance program at PEI’s Holland College towards the more
technical side of the art after graduation. “I’ve been doing theatre as
long as I can remember – classes, small plays, musicals… Anything I
could be involved in, really,” shares Beck. “It has always been something
my family has done and loves to do, so it was no surprise when I took
it on as a career.”
Out of school, she landed a job as a stage hand at the
Harbourfront Theatre in Summerside, PE, and has since branched
out into related roles. She spent a summer in Banff, AB, taking a
stage carpentry course, visited China as an “illusion technician”
on a three-week tour with magicians, and toured with East Coast
music icon Lennie Gallant as the video technician for his Searching
for Abegweit show. She even took on a few acting gigs in between,
starring in a well-received PEI-based web series.
Ultimately, though, she found her calling behind the lighting
board.
“My colleague, Greg Mountain, taught me everything he could
and continues to lend his expertise when it comes to lighting. Other
than that, I’m mostly self-taught, and have ETC on speed dial – a fact
I’m not ashamed of!” she says with a chuckle.
Beck is now the lighting technician and board operator at both
the Harbourfront and nearby Celtic Performing Arts Centre on the
College of Piping campus, keeping plenty busy with “a lot of road
shows, school plays, and local theatre productions.”
She’s excited to be designing and programming the lighting for
the College of Piping’s upcoming summer production, the widely-
adored Highland Storm. “This is a new and in-depth opportunity for
me in terms of lighting, just getting the chance to be involved so early
in a production,” she shares.
Another recent professional highlight was working in tandem
with the CBC to broadcast a debate from the Harbourfront ahead
of PEI’s recent provincial election. “That was an awesome and
challenging experience for me,” she enthuses. “I really enjoyed seeing
the film side of a production and learning how different the lighting is
and needs to be for good translation to TV and film.”
More generally, she says her favourite part of her job is when the
lighting is perfectly in sync with the music or performance on the
stage and elevates everything to an experience greater than the sum
of its parts.
“Those are the moments I’ve had as an audience member that
made watching theatre magical, and those are the moments I want
everyone to have when I work shows,” she stresses. “I can’t tell you how
many times I’ve hit the next lighting look at just the right moment,
where the music swells or the scene ends, and I’ve done a little dance
or thrown my first in the air – all because I know someone in the
crowd just had that ‘wow’ moment.”
Beck admits that, being relatively new to her gig, she’s still trying
to strike the ideal balance between her work and personal lives. She
enjoys reading and writing in her downtime and is always game for a
walk around town or a short outing with friends or family members.
She’s also hoping to get her hands on a good camera this year to
indulge her casual interest in photography – “and PEI has so many
beautiful locations to shoot.”
Ultimately, though, she loves what she does and is “excited for any
and all new learning opportunities” that come from either her work or
personal life. “I’m a go-with-the-flow kind of person, and can’t wait to
see where 2019 takes me,” she says in closing.
It all comes back to family, and how the support of her own
during her formative years has provided her an opportunity to
join another as a valued member of PEI’s dedicated and diverse
performing arts community.
Andrew King is the Editorial -in-Chief of
Professional Lighting & Production.