UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — For almost 50 years, Kathleen Beck has focused her life’s work on theater education, and at Ashby Ponds, a senior living community in northern Virginia, the 1978 graduate of the College of Arts and Architecture has found yet another way to build community through theater.
After retiring to Northern Virginia in 2024, Beck recently directed Ashby Ponds Drama Club’s production of “Into the Woods.” With the entire cast and crew comprising residents of Ashby Ponds, including fellow Penn State alumni Leanor Myers and Paul Shiring, Beck has found herself in familiar territory while pushing the bounds of an accomplished career.
“This has been an incredible experience that, like all theater, can be challenging but ultimately deeply rewarding,” Beck said. “I am an educator at heart, and this has allowed me to apply my experience in educational theater while bringing people together.”
After earning a master of arts degree in theater arts at Penn State, Beck entered the academic ranks starting at St. John’s University where she rose to the university’s director of theater. She held teaching positions at Molloy University and Hofstra University before being appointed as an associate dean at the New York Institute of Technology. The Long Island, New York, native ended her career at Nassau County Community College where she was director of the college’s communications lab.
“I’ve had a wide range of experience in higher education, but theater will always be my first love,” Beck said.
As she was settling into her new surroundings in Virginia, Beck said an opportunity to tap into her love of theater came when she learned about the Ashby Ponds Drama Club. After meeting with a few of its members, she said, working with the club was a natural fit.
Beck made her directorial debut at Ashby Ponds in 2025 when the club offered its take on “Crazy for You.” With the cast of both shows being in their 70s and 80s, some of whom had no theater experience; a limited budget; and theater space built more for large-group meetings, she said the challenges made her feel right at home.
“As a director, you are always solving problems and you learn quickly what will and won’t work,” Beck said. “These shows presented unique challenges, but thanks to an amazing cast and crew we were all up to it.”
To help, Beck said the club purchased the senior and youth script editions of the musicals, which cap the performance run times to 70 minutes with no intermission.
Costumes for the shows were designed to address mobility issues while offering maximum comfortability, Beck said. Sets were designed with added safety measures with much of the scenic design accomplished with projections while set exchanges, stage entrances and exits were illuminated with blue light.
Familiarity and comfortability for the cast and crew throughout the process was paramount, Beck said. The process of planning, auditioning, rehearsing and performing lasted about four months. Rehearsals started at three nights per week, increasing to five nights as opening night approached. The club offered seven performances of “Crazy for You” and six performances of “Into the Woods.”
“The cast and crew of each show was incredibly dedicated and sacrificed a lot,” Beck said. “For some of the actors and actresses, this was the first time they ever tried something like this, and I really loved seeing the lightbulb go off. When they proved to themselves that they can do something they never thought about doing or never thought they could do, those were special moments.”
With two successful musicals in the books, Beck said, she will continue to direct while returning to the stage herself during a run of cabaret shows this coming holiday season. When looking to the future in Northern Virginia and reflecting on the relationships she’s building in her new community, Beck said she knows she is in the right place.
“Somebody once said to me years ago, ‘you can’t tell me that you didn’t want to be on Broadway,’” Beck said. “I said, ‘what’s more important to me is to do good work with good people,’ and that’s exactly what we have here.”