Elena Kent was exhausted. 

The founding artistic director of Be Theatre had just finished moving into the San Angelo Performing Arts Center and was days away from opening her 39thshow, “Peter and the Starcatcher,” the nonprofit organization’s first in its new space.

“I ordered breakfast,” she announced upon my arrival at Mr. T’s Deli, a quaint Santa Rita eatery with a hodgepodge of colorful art adorning the walls. “I haven’t eaten since 2 o’clock yesterday.”

Kent doesn’t minimize the work involved in moving from the West Beauregard building to the black box space at SAPAC, where it became the resident theater in January, at the same time it rehearsed and built the set for “Peter,” which opened in late February and ran through mid-March 2018. “It’s hard for me to put into words how incredibly complex it was, when you’ve been somewhere for seven years, to move into a new space and build for a new show,” she said. “We’ve had upwards of 30-plus volunteers every single weekend since January, and it’s been very, very difficult. It’s a blur. Everybody knows how exhausting it is to move, but I would say it’s 25 times more exhausting when you’re doing a show.”

But for Kent, who is also an actor, commissioned painter, wife of 21 years, and mother of three, the role of chaos coordinator is not a new one. She has her fingers in nearly every piece of Be Theatre’s proverbial pie, from selecting the season’s shows (which usually number about seven a year and include an improvisation event and two free outreach performances), to casting them, helping create set pieces, and sometimes acting and directing.

“A director has a vision, and everybody comes together to make that vision happen,” she said. “As a director you get to turn around and say, ‘I need…’ Any visual in a show, along with performing, I’ve done.”

Elena Kent, Director of BE Theater

Asked which role, acting or directing, at Be Theatre is her favorite, Kent said, “It would be a close tie between directing and performing. I love being a performer. I was the kid who had the shoe as a microphone standing on the canopy bed in my room because the canopy looked like a stage curtain, singing to Barbara Streisand. There’s nothing like being in front of a live audience. Stage actors, to me, they have completely laid themselves out on stage. You gotta own your mistakes and a brilliant performance with a group of people out there helping you look awesome. That bond is fuel for me.”

Propping her chin on a hand flecked with dried white paint, Kent smiled and looked up dreamily. “I looove being a cast mate,” she said.

Kent graduated from the University of Texas with a bachelor’s degree in art history. After college, she was a professional actor in Dallas, then worked as youth director at Angelo Civic Theatre in San Angelo from 2004 to 2011.

“They wanted to create a different youth program than what I had modeled,” she said of ACT. “It really came down to me standing for what I believed was best for youth theater under the direction of Elena Kent, and that wasn’t the vision of the executive director.”

Kent left ACT and rented space at Donna Linton’s music studio. “Twenty-eight students came over and auditioned for our first show, which was ‘The Somewhat True Tale of Robin Hood,’” held at Central High School, she said. The crew was comprised of individuals who are a part of Be Theatre to this day.

 The theater group called itself Be Theatre, a name conceptualized by Lisa Roberts, who had hired Kent at ACT, actor Brian Jones, and Kent. “It’s just the act of being,” Kent explained. “You can be angry, you can be sad, you can be inspired.”

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It’s also, perhaps, an apt description for the rollercoaster of emotions Kent felt in leaving one theatre company and striking out on her own as artistic director, a role she had once considered at Angelo Civic but decided against. “People came to me and said, ‘You don’t want that kind of job,’” she recalled. “I did take it on in a completely different venue doing my own thing. And I wouldn’t be where I am if I wasn’t given the opportunities I was given at Angelo Civic Theatre. It’s at the foundation of creating Be Theatre because that’s where I found my passion directing my first show ever.”

Be Theatre, which offers shows for both youth and adults, moved into an intimate space on West Beauregard Avenue in 2011 and became a nonprofit in 2014.

“My mentor Lisa Roberts and I had a glass of wine together going into our seventh year,” Kent said, jokingly referring to the seventh year as the seven-year itch. “She asked me what my goals were. In talking about that, she brought up that a lot of nonprofits in seven years either push forward or fold. For us, it made sense to have a big push forward. I knew we were going to have to move. The closed door was very symbolic of an opening door.”

That new door turned out to be the black box space at the San Angelo Performing Arts Center.

“I never, ever thought that was a possibility,” Kent said. “I kept thinking about the Brooks and Bates Theatre (inside SAPAC). I kept thinking, ‘We can’t go from 63 seats to 300 seats.’ But the black box (with 110 seats), I think that’s a fit. It’s the best place in town for a small production company.”

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It’s ironic that Be Theatre has taken up residence in a space with the word ‘box’ in its name. The company is known for its array of shows and content pendulum that, in a single season, might swing from G-rated children’s performances that blend storytelling and the performing arts, to heavier R-rated adult shows that address controversial topics.

“When people say, ‘Why are you…?’ I always say, ‘Why not?’” Kent said. “I’ve had people tell me in recent years that I need to stick with what I know. That challenges me because I do not think a theater should ever be in a box. Sometimes you pick a show where someone in the community is going to raise an eyebrow. That’s as important to me as getting on the floor (and interacting with children for ‘Literature Alive’ shows) at the library. That’s powerful! I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  For Kent, it’s just one of many rewards she experiences being at the helm of Be Theatre. Her other favorites are opening night and the final show.

“It’s the opening night, and then you turn around and close it three weeks later and that is gut-wrenching. The show is going away, and it’s so painful as an artist to wipe that canvas clean. At the same time you’re thinking, ‘What’s next?’” Kent said. “I love a good, emotional, I-don’t-want-this-to-end cry. I love opening night, but being in a heap of tears at the end is a great reason to cry.”

After seeing her vision come to life on stage on opening night, “I don’t sleep,” Kent admitted. “I get on my phone and scroll through all these pictures (from the performance). I can’t believe that what was in my brain is now a show. You just can’t explain it. It’s just cool and you want everybody to see it; I feel that way about every big show. I see all the different people who made it happen, and it makes me so proud.

“I’m tired,” she said. “But I’m so happy. It’s a happy place.”

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