AARON SCHRANK
Staff Writer
Every artist has a medium for artistic expression — a distinct way to produce and present his artistic ability. Pablo Picasso’s medium of artistic expression were painting and sculpting. Quentin Tarantino’s medium is filmmaking. Bob Dylan found his medium in songwriting and performing. Similarly, Pepperdine Professor Benoit Beauchamp expresses himself through the medium of light design.
Beauchamp, who joined Pepperdine’s theater department this year, said he has had a fascination with light design since childhood and describes it as “an abstract form of art” and “something that everyone is affected by.”
Beauchamp was nominated for an Ovation Award in lighting design in 2005 for work he did while in graduate school. This is a peer-judged theater award from the Los Angeles Stage Alliance, a group that gives awards to various artists from the Los Angeles area. The Los Angeles Times calls the Ovation Awards “the highest-profile contest for local theatre.” Beauchamp considers this to be one of his greatest accomplishments in the field.
Beauchamp has done lighting work for dozens of theater productions, Club Med and various nightclubs.
“Interestingly, that’s actually how I got started,” Beauchamp said about his work with nightclubs. “I worked everywhere from small venues to huge raves.”
Beauchamp has been involved in all areas of theater design, including technical direction, set design and sound design, but said he is most interested and involved in lighting. He served as lighting designer in Pepperdine’s fall theater production, “The Empire Builders.”
Fellow theater professor Bradley Griffin notes: “I have already benefited from his gifts in working with him on ‘The Empire Builders,’ the first production of the 2007-2008 Theatre Season.” While this was Beauchamp’s first production as a professor, his first production experience at Pepperdine was with “The Grapes of Wrath” in 2005.
Beauchamp brings teaching experience from the California Institute of the Arts and Stony Brook University, but this is his first full-time position as a visiting professor.
Beauchamp said he considers his experience at Pepperdine thus far a positive one, adding that he appreciates the enthusiasm and attitude of the students here.
“The most interesting thing about Pepperdine is the people,” Beauchamp said. “Most students I encounter are passionate about what they do. The people are just amazing.”
And, the Pepperdine community seems to feel the same about Beauchamp, as he has been well-received around campus.
“He is an incredible asset to our design students,” said Cathy Thomas-Grant, an associate professor of theatre and the Fine Arts Division Chair. “He is on campus, participating fulltime, and has a tremendous amount of energy and passion for the theatre and for the students.”
Griffin said he agrees that Beauchamp’s addition to the theater program has help improve its quality.
“With the addition of Professor Beauchamp to our faculty this year, we have substantially augmented an already impressive team of artists who work tirelessly behind the scenes to make Pepperdine’s theater productions and the opera possible,” Griffen said.
Beauchamp said he considers his greatest challenge to be recruiting students interested in the design program.
“We need more students to fill various positions for our theater productions,” Beauchamp said. “A show like ‘Brigadoon’ requires an enormous amount of people working backstage.”
Originally from Quebec, Beauchamp received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in theatre design from Concordia University followed by his Master of Fine Arts degree in theatre design from California Institute of the Arts.
Before coming to Pepperdine, Beauchamp was working as a technical director at The Paramount Theatre, a medium-sized theatre in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is currently teaching Drafting for the Theatre, but is set to teach Stagecraft, Stage Management and Digital Portfolio next semester.
A man who clearly loves what he does, Beauchamp has made theater his life, dedicating the majority of his time and energy to the arts.
He has been active in a variety of communities across the United States and Canada, but seems pleased to be here at Pepperdine.
Beauchamp’s ideal situation is one in which he “has the opportunity to design and teach.” At Pepperdine University, he said he is having a chance to do just that.
Submitted 11-15-2007