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Alumna returns to the Spotlight

Walking past the local theater — a World War II-era building called The Sunrise in Southern Pines (North Carolina) — Rebecca Lane Beittel ’94 noticed a casting call for an upcoming production of Blithe Spirit, a comedic play written by Noel Coward.

“It’s funny because the last show that I did at Marietta was fall of 1993, which would have been my senior year,” says Beittel, who studied English at Marietta, but also was deeply involved in the theatre and speech competition. “I was 21. And as far as acting since that time, I never did another show.”

As an undergraduate, she acted in at least one production each year — with her final performance as the lead in Reckless, by Craig Lucas.

“At that time, there really weren’t many English majors who were active participants in the theatre,” she says. “But with it being a small school, you could do whatever you want. You could dabble in anything. I had a radio show one semester, and I wasn’t in the Mass Media Department. That was what was magical about Marietta. We could spread our wings and try what we wanted to do. If it fit, you just kept going with it.”

After Marietta, Beittel’s career focused mostly on teaching in schools and higher education. Recently, she left a high school position to explore writing and other interests. 

“I was branching out into other things, and I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll do a play.’ It only just then occurred to me that I just turned 51 right when I had gotten my part in this play, and I had just turned 21 when I got the part officially in the last play I was in, which was 30 years ago at ��ݮ��Ƶ.”

Stepping back into the spotlight in her role as Mrs. Bradman in Blithe Spirit after three decades has been an exciting and memory-jogging experience. She remembers her friend, Rhonda Loreman ’95 — daughter of the late Theatre Professor, Ronald L. Loreman — mentioning that her father had always wanted to have a production of Reckless, and how satisfying it was for Beittel to know she would bring the main character to life in her final performance at Marietta.

Theatre also became life-changing for her.

“It’s funny because I met the man who was going to be my husband right before (Reckless), she says. “A young man who graduated with me, Stefan Beittel — Class of 1994 — was a friend of mine all four years. He minored in Theatre and was a Mass Media major. He worked backstage. Stephan and I were friends all four years, and he introduced me to his brother, Tim Beittel, who was in medical school at the time. The thing about Tim, who is my husband of 28 years, is Tim was a Theatre major in college, but he went to medical school.”

When Tim learned that she was the lead in the play, he promised to watch her perform.

“I mentioned that I was going to be in this play next month and I’m the lead. He said, ‘Oh, I’ll come back and see it.’ I said, ‘No you won’t; it’s an eight-hour drive.’ And he did. Maybe it helped him fall in love with me, I don’t know.”

Beittel is enjoying her time working with the cast and crew of Blithe Spirit, including one of her former high school English students who is a stage manager at The Sunrise theater.

“So, she was cast and just turned 19, and I was cast and I’m 51,” Beittel says. “She says, ‘Mrs. Beittel, I really don’t know what to call you anymore since we’re in this play together.’ I told her, ‘For God’s sake, don’t call me Mrs. Beittel — I’m not your teacher anymore and you graduated from high school.’ Now she calls me Rebecca, but I can hear the ‘quotations’ around it every time she says it.’ ”