Papers litter his desk, old sound-proofing crowds the walls and ceiling, a cartoon of Shakespeare smirks from the wall over a caption reading “Who’s thy Daddy?” and in the chaos of his office, Michael Beyer grins as he tells about the job he gets to do.
Beyer has been the production manager and lighting designer for the Hillsdale College Fine Arts department for the past nine years, and he lives by the mantra “I try to enjoy everything I do.” He’s not much of a complainer, and it has paid off.
Cleveland-born Beyer came to Michigan in 2001 for his Masters in Fine Arts in lighting design at Wayne State University — after finishing his undergraduate studies at Ashland University, where he majored in theater and minored in philosophy and English. He began teaching at Hillsdale in 2004 and has also freelanced in lighting design for various productions, including the Boar’s Head Theatre — where he received a “Thespie” award for his work on “The Glass Menagerie” — Performance Network, Michigan Shakespeare Festival, and other venues in the Michigan and Ohio area. Most recently, Beyer designed the lighting for the Electric Forest Music Festival in Rothbury, Mich.
Beyer knew that he wanted to teach, but he said he did not expect it to come so soon in his career. He hopes to inspire students in theater, whether they are simply being introduced to the art or needing a challenge in advanced design classes.
“I knew that I eventually wanted to teach. Finances made it more so that I needed to jump into it sooner than I thought, but [teaching] was always the ultimate goal,” Beyer said. “ You really get to expose people to some ideas that they may not have been exposed to and you get to see them understand what theater is as the class goes on and develop a genuine interest in it,” he said.
During his time at Ashland University, Beyer really came to understand his interests and strengths in theater: What began as an aspiration to become an actor soon transformed into a passion for creating lighting designs.
“I always knew that I wanted to work in theater. When I was in college I thought I wanted to be an actor, and then I realized I was not a good actor. At the same time I was doing my work-study in the scene shop and lighting area, and it seemed to come quite naturally. I dove into it for my last three years of college and decided that’s what I wanted to do for a living,” he said.
At Hillsdale, Beyer’s work is known to be creative and reliable.
“One of the many jobs of a lighting designer is to enhance the colors being used by the set and costume designers and we know Michael is going to do that for us,” Technical Director David Griffiths said.
Griffiths said that Beyer brings a unique, concert-influenced element to his design.
“He is a lighting designer who likes to experiment, especially with color and [projected patterns]. One of the things that Michael has done, more than other lighting designers at Hillsdale, is to use the actual beam of light, usually reflected off of fog and mist, as a scenic element. This is a very popular effect in concert lighting, part of his background, but relatively new to theatre lighting,” Griffiths said.
During his time at Hillsdale, Beyer has also hired two students, who he calls his ‘sidekicks,’ to train in lighting design and help set up for productions.
Junior Mattie Butaud, who works with sophomore Megan Landon as an master electricians, said she has appreciated learning the craft from Beyer.
“It’s just fun. He teaches and explains his designs so that we are not just being the physical laborers — we are actually getting to understand the thought process behind it,” Butaud said.
Butaud also held a chorus role in the theatre department’s latest production “The Trojan Women,” a play Beyer directed.
“It was different seeing [Beyer] as a director, because he has seen so many productions, but he has never had a say in the directorial process of them,” Butaud said. “He brings his unique perspective to the stage. He sees [productions] from the point of view of someone who is going to be watching it — and life in general. He is so much more creative than he gets the opportunity to show.”
Butaud said that Beyer and the cast of “The Trojan Women” were satisfied with their performances.
“We were all really pleased by the time we got down to the end — each performance we grew. [Beyer] said he has not felt this way about any performance since his masters project, and then he started crying,” she said.
Beyer also mentioned that the play was a rewarding and memorable challenge.
“It [was] a pretty heavy play, especially to undertake as my first time directing a main-stage show. The passion and the energy that every single cast member and every single designer poured into this show has been really inspiring to my own work as well,” he said. “It’s been an experience that I certainly will never forget, at least in the coming years. It is definitely a show that I put on the top of my list [of productions] that I am excited to have worked on.”
Beyer also loves the opportunities he has had to design for rock ’n’ roll concerts. Beyer grew up breathing rock ’n’ roll and The Moody Blue, a band he has followed since fourth grade and seen nearly 25 times in concert, who he said shaped his creativity and inspired his dreams in lighting production.
From 2005-2009, Beyer toured with One Under, a band trying to break out from Columbus, Ohio. This experience was a fulfillment of many of his dreams, he said. He also was excited about his time spent working at the Electric Forest Music Festival over the summer.
“Electric Forest Festival this past summer was a tremendous experience. I spent a week-and-a-half on site with a whole bunch of really talented artists making magic,” Beyer said. “We were working 16 to 17-hour days without complaining about it. That kind of environment is really inspiring, and the final product is something so beautiful and amazing. It’s those types of things that really keep me excited about what I do.”
Beyer said he is looking forward to collaborating with those artist again, but he is excited for what is coming up at Hillsdale as well. He is now preparing for “Medea” in November, and will be scheduling some freelancing gigs for January.
“Things have been going really well for me the past few years, and it’s still on that upwards climb, so I am excited to see where these opportunities are going to start opening doors to. As far as working for a college, though, this would really be the ideal situation.”