beginner

Someone who is just starting at something, or has only recently started.

I'm new to learning Finnish: I'm just a beginner.

Someone who sets something in motion.

The beginner of the games lit the ceremonial torch.

An actor who is present on stage in the first moments of a play.

On the stage, the beginners for the first piece had taken their places — the chorus were there, scared but determined, and in the wings waited Harlequin, in the person of Charles Lyall […]