Rie Du

Not many people can say they have pursued their passions since they were six months old, but Dylan Beckett ’27 can.

Beckett’s dad was a theater teacher at their local middle and, later, high school, and their mother participates in improv comedy, so Beckett was put to work in their productions. Beckett first starred in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in the role of the “challenging child” who the actors on stage passed around. Their dad got them started with acting and always used his experience in the field to push them to be the best they could be.

While at Bowdoin, Beckett has been the lead in “Macbeth,” John Willoughby in “Sense and Sensibility” and now Cinderella’s Prince in the upcoming musical “Into the Woods.”

“The personal process for Macbeth was really special,” Beckett said. “I’ve never done student-run theater before, so that was a really great experience. And everybody there was so skilled and professional. I met so many friends through that who I’m so really close with, and it was a really nice introduction into that community and obviously a very, very, very fun part that I was very surprised to play and also very honored to play.”

One of those friends, Mads Higgins ’27, was relatively new to acting when they joined an acting class their first year. Higgins is involved with Masque and Gown and is currently doing the wardrobe for “Into the Woods.” They were in the same first-year writing seminar with Beckett as well, and they immediately clicked.

“I think [Beckett] is just really lovely,” Higgins said. “They’re clearly very dedicated to what they do. [It was really nice,] especially [with me] being relatively new to acting and being able to be around someone who’s like up here [in experience]. Also, [they’re] clearly very knowledgeable in what they’re doing, and clearly very passionate about [it]. That was really nice, just being able to sort of feel that excitement when we’re working together.”

Beckett’s energy doesn’t just feed off of their friends in the theater department but also in the poetry realm. They had a class in their senior year of high school called Literary Madness where their final project was to write a dramatic monologue that incorporated the themes from the course. This project made them interested in figurative language and led to their poetry involvement at Bowdoin. Since then, they have become a leader of the Nightingale Society and have written for the Bowdoin Review.

Poetry section editor of the Bowdoin Review, Charlotte Iannone ’26, took notice of Beckett’s unique approach to storytelling.

“I really enjoy when a writer adheres to a certain rhyme scheme, and there are very certain poems of theirs that have a very specific structure,” Iannone said. “[They] pay attention to meter, pay attention to rhyme scheme, and I think it really enhances the type of stuff that they like to write about, which is a lot of magic and how it relates to masculinity.”

Beckett’s ability to intertwine their poetry and acting art forms into expression shines through their work. For them, poetry itself can convey a feeling, while the characters in a play convey that feeling.

“When they’ve read [their poetry], they do bring that commanding presence, which I think is indicative of an actor,” Iannone said.

Their long history with acting and newfound love for poetry has allowed them to create interesting narratives and become a valuable storyteller.

“I think art is valuable because of the fact that we tell stories through it, and something I think about a lot today, specifically, is that I really do believe in my heart that stories are the most powerful tool we have,” Beckett said.