by Amanda Williams
A-Williams.3@onu.edu

    While others may recognize him best from his roles in various Freed Center productions, I will always remember Bryan Beckwith as the best tango partner I ever had in social dance class.
    Though he may have moved on from his days of ballroom dancing, he hasn’t entirely left his alma mater behind. Beckwith, who graduated from Ohio Northern with a degree in theater last May, has returned to campus and the Freed Center stage to play the role of Mr. Lawrence in “Little Women the Musical” later this month.
    Returning to ONU has been a bit strange, Beckwith admitted.
    “Not too long ago, I was roaming this campus as a student, and it doesn’t feel like it’s been as long as it has,” he said.
    Beckwith, who is staying with an aunt and uncle in Ada for the three weeks he’s in town, has been living in Chicago since last July. Coming back to small-town Ohio has helped him to realize what he’s been able to accomplish since graduation.
    He cited moving to the city as one of his biggest accomplishments so far.
    “I felt very Bohemian,” he said, remembering his move. “It was all on me suddenly.”
    Beckwith made the most of his move to the city, getting his foot in all the right theater doors. Not long after finding an apartment just outside of the “improv triangle” and securing one or two part-time jobs, he began taking classes at Second City and interning at i.O (formerly Improv Olympic). These improv/sketch comedy training centers boast such big names as Tina Fey, Chris Farley, Mike Meyers, Stephen Colbert and Vince Vaughn as alumni.
He also soon began an internship with TP&R casting, one of the three largest casting agencies in Chicago. Beckwith acted as an initial Chicago casting assistant on “Public Enemies,” a film starring Johnny Depp. Afterward, he was signed to Geddes Talent Agency, and was hired on at TP&R as a freelancer.
    Beckwith has the ONU theater program to thank for his connection with the casting agency. During his junior year, Matt Miller, a representative from TP&R, had come to Northern to do a workshop and see Beckwith in “Brigadoon.” He and Beckwith got along, and Miller told Beckwith to “look him up” if he was ever in Chicago.
    Through the ONU theater program, Beckwith said, opportunities like these are always available, if you know where to look.
    “Being out in the middle of a cornfield kind of creates a couple of hurdles for a theater program to overcome,” he said. But ONU brings in guest directors and performers to “fill in those gaps.”
    Ultimately, Beckwith feels that “you can morph and you can create and get out of this program whatever you want to.”
    During his time at ONU, Beckwith was directly responsible for Steve Martin’s “The Underpants” being performed, and was the creator of ONU Underground, an improv/sketch comedy group.
    Improv, Beckwith said, is what he loves most, because of its endless possibilities.
    “You can play absolutely anyone in one night,” he said. “You could be a clown or a psycho killer or a doctor or a taxi driver; a woman; a baby; God, or Jesus.”
    Beckwith is now in the conservatories of both Second City and i.O, and has two agents in Chicago. He is on a house improv team at an up-and-coming improv theater, Chemically Imbalanced, and is busy auditioning for all sorts of things from plays to films to commercials.
    When asked about some of his strangest auditions, Beckwith just laughed, flashing a crooked smile. Among the strangest, he said, were Jesus, a KY Jelly commercial, and a voice-over for a talking dog. One of the strangest roles he ever played in a show was Dionysus in the form of Rico Suave. Next year, he’ll be playing Hitler in a one-man drama written by Israeli actor/director Yagil Eliraz. Eliraz and Beckwith met last year during Ohio Northern’s Fifth International Play Festival, which Eliraz directed. The Hitler show will bring Beckwith back to ONU once more, this time as a headliner.
    Northern, Beckwith said, boosted his confidence in his abilities. He encourages majors to make the most of their education while here.
    “When you graduate, attack the real world,” he said. “It doesn’t happen anymore that a director walks into a café and sees this beautiful girl and makes her a star. You’ve got to put yourself in the pipeline and meet the right people.”
    It seems that Beckwith has done just that. He is reading the newspaper and lots of books to keep up-to-date for his improv, and now has goals of moving in the direction of on-camera work. His ultimate dream, he said, is not necessarily to be rich or famous.
    “It’s just to be respected for my skills and for my art; to be happy with the product and be happy with the process to the product,” he said.
As he got ready to head over to the Freed Center to work on his “Little Women” lines at the end of our interview, Beckwith had trouble forming his closing thoughts. After a few fruitless attempts, he finally gave up with a shrug and a chuckle.
    “I can’t complete sentences. Obviously, I’m not reading enough books. I’m going to go read a dictionary tonight,” he said, laughing.
    “That’s me, ADD in a nutshell.”