Beki Baker 

Theatre

Associate Professor and Chair, Theater

Biography

Beki Baker (she/her) has been Chair of Theatre since 2014. She holds a M.F.A. in Directing and a B.F.A. in Performance.

Prof. Baker's professional directing credits at the Nashville Repertory Theatre include 9 to 5 the Musical and A Christmas Carol for their main stage, The Revolutionists for their RepALOUD series, and Together We are Making a Poem in Honor of Life, Showing, Pattern Seeking Animals, The Very Last Wishes of Grandpa Joe, and The Second Avenue Subway for their Ingram New Works Festival.

Also, Prof. Baker directed Steel Magnolias and Driving Miss Daisy at Studio Tenn Theater Company, and Julius Caesar (starring Eddie George) and Shakespeare’s Case at the Nashville Shakespeare Festival. Her Blackbird Theater Company directing credits include Man & Superman and The Crucible. She directed Broadway star Eden Espinosa in a staged concert of Tarzan for Disney Theatricals as well as Tony Award Nominee Elizabeth A. Davis in Tomorrow at Tablerock Repertory Theatre.

At Lipscomb University, Prof. Baker has directed The Pajama Game, Pride’s Crossing, The Glass Menagerie, Much Ado about Nothing, Dancing at Lughnasa, She Loves Me, Silent Sky, Bright Star, Mamma Mia, Pride & Prejudice, and Ada and the Engine. She teaches several classes in directing and acting.

She has received the First Night Star Award, First Night Outstanding Direction of a Musical Award (Mamma Mia and 9 to 5), and several BroadwayWorld Best Director nominations. Prof. Baker has received two Excellence in Directing awards from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, and has been nominated for the Outstanding Professor Award at Lipscomb University three times. In 2021, she received the Dean’s Award of Excellence, and in 2022, was awarded tenure.

Beki Baker has been married 20 years and has three children. She's also a cancer survivor (boo-yah!).