Ralph Beck is leaving his beloved Blumey theater award program and plans his second act

Ralph Beck’s unceremonious retirement May 1 was hardly appropriate for someone so exuberant. It’s another byproduct of the pandemic. But the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center’s education director doesn’t mind skipping the fanfare for himself.

What absolutely guts him, though, is that his beloved Blumey Awards — what would have been the ninth annual ceremony — were canceled.

Originally scheduled for May 17, the Blumey Awards honor the best of high school musical theater in the Charlotte area. Best actor and actress winners compete in the national Jimmy Awards — the high school equivalent of the Broadway’s Tony Awards.

That annual event has always allowed Beck to create fanfare for “his” kids. The Blumenthal is planning a substitute — a WTVI-televised Blumey tribute made up of clips from video footage high schools submitted of canceled musicals. It airs at 8 p.m. on May 12.

“We held out on making that tough decision for as long as we could,” said Beck. “Schools began to cancel their participation, but we waited until the Jimmys were canceled and then followed their lead.”

Beck’s pride and joy

Beck, 67, was beloved by students and staff alike for the 11-plus years he was with the arts organization, said Blumenthal CEO Tom Gabbard. But the Blumey Awards? They were Beck’s pride and joy. But he doesn’t take any credit. “Tom Gabbard has been the instigating and creative force behind almost every program overseen by the education department during my tenure, especially the Blumey Awards,” Beck said.

The first Blumeys were held in 2012 with 20 high schools. Last May, 47 high schools competed for 16 trophies that cover everything from set construction to costume creation to theater criticism.

Winning a Blumey is a really big deal.

After Northwest School of the Arts alumna Eva Noblezada won for best actress in 2013, she went on to become a finalist in the Jimmy Awards, and from there scored the lead role in the “Miss Saigon” revival in London’s West End. She opened the show on Broadway and earned a Tony nomination, then earned another Tony nomination last year for “Hadestown.”

Beck, a father of two adult children, wasn’t like a pushy stage parent. He enjoyed seeing high school actors pursue their dreams, but he wasn’t just focused on the actors.

For Beck, nurturing hopeful directors, lighting designers, PR people and arts patrons was as essential as nurturing aspiring Matthew Brodericks and Kristin Chenoweths.

Future arts patrons

He did a lot of that nurturing through the Junior Ambassadors (JA) program, comprised of about 50 high school juniors and seniors who serve as volunteer ushers at events in all six Blumenthal theaters each year. About 500 students have been part of the program since its 2004 inception.

The Blumenthal requires applicants to have a minimum 3.0 GPA average, but many have a 4.0. Each JA must usher a minimum of 14 shows during a Blumenthal season and attend a minimum of three of seven seminars on performing arts center operations. He told each new group of ambassadors that his goal is for them to become “ambassadors for the arts for life.”

It’s nearly impossible to see Beck’s overt love of the arts and not want to have what he’s having.

He got a kick out of watching students interact with patrons and other ushers — often retirees. “It takes chutzpah for a high school student to talk to an adult he’s meeting for the first time,” he said. “Some kids already have it; some learn it on the job. But it’s a skill they can use for life.”

“I used to be an introvert …” is a refrain Beck heard often from his ambassadors, who inevitably benefited from learning the art of conversation. A thank-you note Beck received from one of this year’s Junior Ambassadors, read in part: “As someone who is naturally introverted, it was always nice when you were there to crack a joke and make my experience more comfortable.”

That’s Beck’s way — with his kids and with teammates.

“Ralph’s upbeat and positive, a social butterfly,” said Jenny Kabool, the Blumenthal’s education manager. “He prefers talking face to face, so we have lots of in-person meetings.”

One of his favorite ways to meet was over a slice of cake and cup of coffee, Kabool said. They’d often head to Something Classic or Seventh Street Station for their meetings.

Razzle dazzle ‘em

Beck’s job gave him the chance to regularly be on stage — where he’s entirely at home. He served as emcee for the Blumenthal’s Open Mic nights, where he hammed it up for capacity crowds.

The free event attracts performers and spectators of all ages. Singers, musicians, dancers, spoken-word poets, and more show up for turn at the mic. And Beck was always there to put them at ease and congratulate them for being brave.

A California native, Beck was born for his role at the Blumenthal. He played clarinet and performed in musical theater in high school and at Pepperdine University, where he earned undergraduate and master’s degrees in music education and a second master’s in religion and religious studies.

Beck’s Blumenthal role allowed him to teach, guide, enlighten — and entertain. “Ralph loves to perform,” Kabool said. “He wants people to have a good time.”

Typically, he was the one getting the party started. Even when the audience was on the smaller side — at team events, for instance — Beck was known to make up a musical number or do a song-and-dance routine.

“Ralph is joyful,” Kabool said. “He especially loved dancing with (his late wife), Linda,” who worked for a time in the Blumenthal’s development department when the couple moved to Charlotte from Colorado in 2009. (Linda went on to become a regional director for the United Way.)

Beck’s next act

There’s no way to know the number of young lives Beck touched during his tenure. Last year alone, his department reached more than 18,700 students, including those who attended more than one Blumenthal-sponsored event.

Workshops, internships, social clubs, formal and informal mentoring, scholarships, the Annual Loonis McGlohon Young Jazz Artist Competition all fell under Beck’s purview.

Beck and Andie Maloney, his successor, worked together in recent months during a transition period. Maloney most recently served as senior arts director for the Morrison YMCA/Ballantyne Arts Center and arts-integrated preschool. She previously worked at Children’s Theatre of Charlotte.

Beck won’t be kicking back much in retirement.

He’s developing an after-school reading program called “Story Time Grand Folks.” He hopes to assemble “an army of ultra-committed, highly capable retired folks within the Charlotte region,” he said.

“One ‘Grand’ will read with one ‘Grandling’ (an at-risk first through third grader) the best of fun, award-winning children’s stories,” Beck said. “The program will include game playing – with the game pieces being sight words, letters of the alphabet and phonics. And the keyword will be fun.”

Fun, in fact, could be the keyword for Beck’s tenure at the Blumenthal. And his legacies? They’re all the students he cheered on over the years who became, and will become, arts fans for life.

For more about the Blumenthal’s educational programming go to blumenthalart.org/education.

Blumey tribute show

What: A Blumey Awards tribute show will air on PBS Charlotte (WTVI).

When: 8 p.m. May 12.

Details: Area high schools were invited to submit videos featuring musical numbers from their shows. Some will be featured in the tribute and some will be shared on WTVI’s and the Blumenthal’s social media channels.

This story is part of an Observer underwriting project with the Thrive Campaign for the Arts, supporting arts journalism in Charlotte.

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This story was originally published April 27, 2020 at 11:12 AM.