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Young Rep actor to perform on stage that brought his parents together
By Jeff Korbelik
Thursday, Jun 03, 2004 - 11:59:49 pm CDT

The old black-and-white photo hangs on the wall inside Benjamin Beck's apartment.

He found it while rummaging through a box of his mother's, looking for something else.

It was a moment too good to be hidden away.

In the picture, his mother is gingerly kissing his father on the head.

It was a downtime during rehearsal of the Nebraska Repertory Theatre's 1973 production of the musical "Company."

The actors, including Beck's father and mother, were taking it easy when a technical director's wife, who was chronicling the Rep summer, snapped the photo.

For Beck, the tender scene is priceless.

Even more so considering he is performing in a Rep production this summer on the very same stage his parents Carl Beck and Susan Baer Collins once shared.

He will play the aspiring singer Max, who is called upon to fill in for a famous opera tenor in Ken Ludwig's "Lend Me a Tenor."

Guest directed by Brant Pope, the comedy opens with a special 9 p.m. performance Tuesday (following Jazz in June) in Howell Theatre.

"It's just absolutely charming and the coolest thing," Beck said of being in the same building where his parents not only performed but met.

You can tell by his expression his dark eyes dancing above a big smile that it really does mean a lot to him.

"It's interesting," he said. "I'm in these rooms that have this history to it (for me)."

Benjamin's parents met the year before the photo was taken, during the 1972 Rep season, which featured George Bernard Shaw's "Arms and the Man," John Guare's "The House of Blue Leaves" and the musical "Guys and Dolls."

She was a University of Nebraska-Lincoln undergraduate. He was a graduate of Tulsa University.

"(UNLtheater professor) Tice Miller, who was fairly new back then, introduced me to Ben's dad on the Howell stage," Baer Collins said.

The couple went on to perform in several more Rep productions over the years.

Today, Carl Beck is the artistic director of the Omaha Community Playhouse, while Baer Collins is OCP's associate director. Last Friday, she opened the musical "Annie Get Your Gun" on the playhouse's main stage.

Beck and Baer Collins divorced when Benjamin was 12, but not before passing on to him their passion for theater.

Benjamin, 21, just finished his third year at UNL and plans to transfer this fall to the University of Nebraska at Omaha, where he hopes to finish his degree.

While at UNL, he has appeared in such productions as "Romeo & Juliet" and the Tice Miller-directed "A Flea in Her Ear."

"It's been a riot to go (to Howell), where I spent so much time, and my own son is in a show directed by Tice, who once directed me," Baer Collins said.

"Lend Me a Tenor," though, will not be Benjamin's first Rep production. When he was 13, he starred with Lincoln's Harley Jane Kozak in the 1996 production of "Lost in Yonkers."

"The first day of rehearsal (for 'Tenor'), I was intimidated," Beck said. "It felt like I was 13 all over again. Everyone here is absolutely exceptional."

Joining Beck on stage will be Equity actors Tammy Meneghini, Carrie Lee Patterson and Leigh Selting. Meneghini lives in Lincoln.

Also in the cast are Ron Vigil, Megan Thomas, Kriste Belt and veteran Rep actor David Landis of Lincoln. Director Pope is returning to the Rep after mounting productions of "Art" (2001) and "Sylvia" (1999).

"It's a clever, clever script," Beck said. "It's not only intelligent and funny, but it also has this familiar classical feel to it."

The same kind of feel that a certain black-and-white photo hanging on his apartment wall has.

Reach Jeff Korbelik at 473-7213 or jkorbelik@;journalstar.com.

If you go

What: "Lend Me a Tenor," Nebraska Repertory Theatre

Where: Howell Theatre, Temple Building, 12th and R streets

When: 9 p.m. Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-June 11 and June 18-19

Tickets: $22, $19 senior citizens and UNLfaculty/staff, $12 students; 472-4747 or (800) 432-3231

Rep Hall of Fame inductees

The Nebraska Repertory Theatre recently inducted Bob Hall, Dorothy Benes and Walker Kennedy into its Hall of Fame.

Founded in 2001, the Hall of Fame was created to honor special members of the Rep patronage who have given both their creative energy and dedication to the advancement of professional theater.

Hall, producing artistic director at Haymarket Theatre, served as the Rep's artistic director for six seasons, beginning in 1988.

Benes recently retired as accounting technician for the Rep and the Department of Theatre Arts at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, a position she held since 1972.

Kennedy, a retired insurance and computer executive, has been a Rep supporter since moving to Lincoln with his wife, Dianne, in 1990.

Joyce E. Cartmill was inducted posthumously. The late Cartmill was a former Rep board member and longtime supporter.