The spotlight has gone out on one of the local arts community’s brightest stars.
Carley Beattie is being remembered not only for her love and dedication to the local arts community, but also for the lasting impact she has left on everyone who knew her.
Beattie, who was well known around Barrie for her passion of theatre — she was a student at Moving Art Centre of Performing Arts for nearly 10 years and as a longtime volunteer with Kempenfelt Community Players (KCP) — was diagnosed with colon cancer on July 21, 2023, which was also her 25th birthday.
After just over a year battling the disease, Beattie succumbed to the disease on Sept. 28 at Hospice Simcoe.
Kempenfelt Community Players (KCP) board member Lorie Hanley described Beattie as a “bright, outgoing light” and a “force to be reckoned with," telling BarrieToday she had been a member of the local theatre group since she was a teenager, first starring on stage and eventually moving into the role of stage manager.
“At a very young age, she began to stage manage our youth shows. It’s an enormous task. She’d be at every single rehearsal. She’d wrangle the kids. She’d call the show from the Georgian Theatre lighting booth and essentially take care of all of the details that come with stage managing a show … and she did that as a volunteer,” said Hanley.
As Beattie got a bit older, she was cast in adult productions, taking the stage in Mamma Mia and We Will Rock You, and was also the youngest ever member of KCP’s board, noted Hanley.
“Carley was a very unique young woman. She had a beautiful voice. If something had to be done, she jumped in with more energy than I can fathom,” Hanley said.
Hanley recalls the last show Beattie was involved in as stage manager, telling BarrieToday that despite her poor health and compromised immune system, she insisted on being there in person.
“We agreed to allow her to sit in the booth and call the show from up there and we had somebody else do the in-person work with the kids … but if I turned my back Carley was down there doing things with the kids,” she said.
“She was going to do it her way … and the kids really respected her. It was a hard thing for the youth when they found out she was sick and even harder when we had to email their parents to let them know of her passing," Hanley added.
Carla Tucker, one of Beattie’s teachers during her nearly 10 years at Moving Art, remembers her as someone who just loved the arts and loved theatre, noting even after she graduated high school Beattie would return to help with productions.
“She loved being on the stage, but she loved behind-the-scenes work as well,” said Tucker. “When she was on stage, she definitely entertained the audience and she was brilliant at that, but when she was backstage, she was definitely a role model for the others.
"She loved doing make up, helping with costumes … she was just someone who would always smile and would be excited about theatre.”
Tucker remembers her former student’s first production when she was only nine years old — a pirate show — telling BarrieToday that even as a youngster, Beattie always took on every character with enthusiasm.
“She always had a spunky and sassy, fun attitude. When she embodied a character she was able to play that character so well," Tucker said. "It was so exciting to see she’d kept her love of the arts and wanted to continue artistically and help other people feel that power as well. I feel like she just always wanted to entertain.”
Despite fighting hard, Beattie's cancer treatment was no longer working, and she spent her last few days of life at Hospice Simcoe, at which point Hanley put out the call to friends to come say their goodbyes — and to sing to her.
“We sang Dancing Queen to her. At the end, she was a pretty sick little girl, and the effort she made was insane. She gave us two thumbs up,” said Hanley.
Beattie’s death, acknowledged both Tucker and Hanley, is going to have a profound impact on not only those who knew and loved her, but those who she could have shared her bright light with in the future.
“They won’t know what they’re missing, but we will see it as a community because she was always positive about everything,” said Tucker. “Her love and her passion for the arts is going to be missed by the community.”
A celebration of life is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 20 at Willow Creek Baptist Church, located in Midhurst at 2387 Gill Rd., from 1-4 p.m.
A GoFundMe, created in August 2023 to help alleviate some of the financial stress for Beattie and her family while she underwent treatment, is still active, and to date has raised more than $8,000.
