Photography by Leaetta Mitchell
Instructors
Our Instructors have a deep understanding of acting.
Director
Heidi Spiker
HEIDI SPIKER (Director) is currently a Board Member for Beat Children’s Theatre, she has directed Peter Pan and A Midsummer Night’s Dream in past Beat seasons.
Other Directing Credits include: The Night Walk in Forest Park, Portland, Oregon; Turning the Glass Around for Work/Space Collective at Teatro Circulo in New York; Guided Tour for the Hibernian Hall in Boston; The Flower Thief, Donnie and the Monsters, An Absolutely Perfect Life, Accidents Do Happen, Bye Bye Bombay, and Tom's Things for Horse Trade Theater in The Red Room, UNDER St Marks, and The Kraine Theatre in New York; punkrock/lovesong for The Brick Theatre in Brooklyn; Dido and Aeneas at the West End Theatre for the Boston Early Music Festival; and A River Pure for Healing reading for New Jersey Playwrights. Assistant Director Credits include Antony and Cleopatra, Love's Labour's Lost, and A Christmas Carol for the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Virgina.
Casting Assistant Credits include Impressionism on Broadway, The Cripple of Inishman at Atlantic Theater Company, Shawshank Redemption at The Gaiety Theater in Dublin, Holiday Garland at The Westport Country Playhouse, and Hamlet and Hair at Shakespeare in the Park. Producing Credits include Obie Winning The Fire This Time Festival, Co-Creator and Producer of the monthly storytelling show TOLD, and the founding Artistic Director and Producer of The Drafts, an acting ensemble responsible for development of over one hundred original plays.
Instructor
Sierra Kincaid
Sierra Kincaid has been working with children as an instructor, a choreographer, and a youth theater program actor and member since 2015. She’s enjoyed being in theater and dance arts herself since her early childhood, and growing in her teens and early adulthood to instruct with these passions was a dream come true for her. In her life outside of theater, she’s a barista for Starbucks, and a lover of the outdoors.
Director
Justin Tilton
Justin has been performing in the Bend community theater scene for the last 10 years in such roles as Marius in ‘Les Miserable’, Prince Eric in ‘The Little Mermaid’, Jaime in ‘The Last 5 Years’, Roger in ‘RENT’, and various others. He’s stepped into the shoes of Director over the last few years, with the most recent production being ‘The Theory of Relativity’ as both Director and Music Director. He is excited to work with B.E.A.T. on their upcoming production of Anastasia: The Musical Youth Edition as the Director and Music Director.
Instructor
Erin Maxon
Erin Maxon is proud to be instructing for BEAT, as well as leading the in-school education program as BEAT's Education Program Manager. Erin is a passionate educator with more than 15 years experience teaching students age 4 to 95, using theatre and ethical facilitation to create the safest place possible for people to try on different aspects of themselves. She has her Masters in Applied Drama: Theatre in Educational, Community and Social Contexts from the University of London at Goldsmiths, and a BA from UC Berkeley in Anthropology and Theatre and Performance Studies. Erin has spent time working with numerous educational organizations including but not limited to theatres, schools, refugee organizations, national historic organizations, and internationally-located school boards. She is so grateful to be spreading the love of theatre to the young people of beautiful Bend!
Executive Director
Bree Beal
Bree is the lucky person who gets to be the Executive Director of BEAT. She joined BEAT in 2014 and has been having a wonderful time ever since. Bree has taught many classes for BEAT and directed 6 plays, as well as 4 recent radio plays. While she loves doing any type of theatre with young people, her particular loves are Shakespeare, puppetry and slapstick comedy.
Instructor
Ann Boyd
Ann is so happy to be a part of this amazing community of dedicated youth and families! Ann is grateful partner to Kurt and proud mama of Ella and Viola. She directed, performed and choreographed theatre and dance in Chicago for many years and taught movement and devising original theatre at Columbia College Chicago before moving to Bend to be close to family. Ann currently teaches art making with a focus on process, is training to teach yoga at Namaspa and loves caring for a small herd of hooved and feathered friends.
Instructor
Bandana Suzanna
Bandana Suzanna began writing songs in 2023, inspired by her grandchildren to bring music and rhyme to life. Since then, she has expanded into videos, books, poems, and plays.
With a lifelong love of music and theatre, she weaves songs, rhymes, and stories into her workshops to spark creativity, build confidence, and make learning joyful. Learn more at www.bandanasuzanna.com.
Instructor
Jens Trumpa
From the bright lights of the stage to survival swim lessons in Hawaii, to schlepping shopping bags up steep driveways and immersing myself in the classroom, I’ve worn a lot of hats—sometimes wigs! I’ve played everything from a penny-pinching miser in The Miser to a donkey-headed dreamer in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Nick Bottom, if you know your Shakespeare). I’ve even popped up in music videos, narrated musical adventures across Europe with Up With People in the ’90s, and worked behind the scenes in the German film industry—earning an MBA from the University of Cologne along the way.
Eventually, I swapped film sets and red carpets for palm trees and baby diapers, raising my kids and running a survival swim school for infants and children in Hawaii.
Since 2015, I’ve been based in beautiful Bend, Oregon, reacting to life’s topsy-turvy twists and turns and keeping the family boat afloat one gig at a time—substitute teaching, Uber-ing, Instacarting—and most importantly, sharing my love of theater with the next generation of performers. Let’s play!