JayBeacham.com-A Voice as an Instrument

Barbara Hunt of St. George, Utah wrote this news article about me.

Jay Beacham-Actor   To be Lincoln’s ghost and to be remembered as Abraham Lincoln
is about as good as it gets.  Jay Beacham, with the uncanny physical
appearance of Abraham Lincoln, gave an awe inspiring performance
in the Opera House on Lincoln’s birthday.  Beacham’s voice and
physical attributes made one think the President was talking and
explaining  history as it happened to him.  Jay Beacham will again be-
come Lincoln’s Ghost for the 4th of July festivities.
For the past 40 plus years, Jay Beacham has been acting in
musicals, plays, dramas, and one man shows in the St. George
area. His old cowboy storyteller has been popular with audiences
young and old.  His scuffy beard, hat, and shirt riddled with holes
complete his outfit.   (Beacham was the opening act for the
Singing Cowboys in March.)
Beacham loves singing and performing and, along with others,
volunteers his time for St. Geroge Live’s school season and
summer tour season.
“I could do this every night,” he says. “I
love it so much.” The crowds do too, and always beg for more.
Besides Lincoln and cowboy roles, he portrays Brigham Young
and Jacob Hamblin in St. Geroge Live and elsewhere and
various other historical and scriptural charactures.
Jay Beacham grew up with great interest in movies. His father
and mother both having been extras in some of the many movies
filmed in southern Utah. His father worked in the show houses and
helped with the introduction of television to the area.
An early remembrance of Jay’s is his Aunt Jewel.  She was a
photographer and home movie buff and would film he and his sib-
lings playing(army for example), then show the footage in a home
showing.
Another remembrance was of his mother as an extra caught in a
stampede.  She wasn’t hurt and it made for exciting footage, so
was left in the film.
As a teenager, Beacham continued the sing and act in Church
musicals and roadshows. Once he played a veteran who had
lost a limb or two, and was afraid to come home. The one-man-play
was about compassion.
While in high school, he met the owner of radio station KDXU
who being impressed with his voice, hired him as a disc jockey.
At Dixie College and later at BYU, Beacham perfected his
acting by performing in student produced plays.  And he took
singing voice lessons. During  this period he was involved in a
opera workshop and  appeared in the operas “Madame Butterfly”
and “Ahmal and the night visitors”.  He was the voice of the Mirror
in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, appeared in Silent Alarm,
The Prophet, and numerous other plays and musicals.
In addition to acting, Beacham is also a poet, songwriter, and
an artist.  His poetry has won many awards, and won an director’s
award at the Washington County Fair Poetry Contest.

A special song with words and music by Jay Beacham in as follows:

To the right be true(1st verse)

When Joseph of old was sold as a slave
True service he did and always he gave.
When faced with a choice t’ween right and wrong,
He ran from the wrong and proved he was strong.

Chorus

True, true, to the right be true.
Be true, be true in all that you do.
True, true, to the best that’s in you.
Always, like Joseph, oh always be true.

Staint George is lucky to have an array of creative, talented
people, and Jay Beacham is certainly at the top of his game.

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A couple of days ago I put some clear sealer over a wood deck which had previously been done. The owner suggested rolling it on after I’d done the edges by brush. I did.  It was fast. But it dried slow and didn’t soak in all over causing the thicker sealer to wrinkle when it dried.

Lesson learned: speed doesn’t always make for the best job.

Correction: We’ll need to sand later and re-do with a brush. A brush would have taken longer but would not have put the sealer on so thick that this would have occured.

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