The Beck Center in Lakewood wasn’t always the Beck Center for the Arts were know today, a vibrant hub for education and performances, with programs in art, music, theater and dance.
How did it evolve in the nearly nine decades it’s been around? Now you can find out in a book written and published by Beck’s president/CEO Lucinda “Cindy” Einhouse who has led Beck Center for nearly 15 years.
Celebrating Our Past — Creating Our Future: 90 Years of Creating Arts Experiences at Beck Center for the Arts is a 196-page paperback that begins with the country’s “Little Theatre” Movement, its early years as “The Guild of the Masques,” to the creation of Lakewood Little Theatre and its many education programs, to its professional-level presentations and collaborations with group’s such as Baldwin Wallace University’s celebrated music theatre program. It includes copious photos and news articles that capture the spirits of past eras, and nods to Beck alumni who have gone on to success careers in theater, film and TV.
The pandemic slowdown was productive for Einhouse. She saws she wrote the book over a nine-month period. “Anticipating the organization’s 90th theater season in 2023-24, I was inspired to dig through the archives and tell the story about the generations of people who have come through these doors for arts experiences,” she says. “I met with a small team of history lovers on Friday mornings from April through December of 2021, to sort out information, discover treasures, do research, and share ideas.”
The book is available to be printed on-demand exclusively at Amazon, with all profits going to create an endowment for the Beck Center. Go here to order it.