Katie Beck

Katie Beck is a director, writer, actor, and teaching artist based in NorthEast Ohio. She is the artistic director of Gum-Dip Theatre, a community-based theatre company that creates plays for, with, and about the Rust Belt. Katie is an Akron native and graduated from Allegheny College in 2014 with a BA in Theatre and Values, Ethics, and Social Action.

Katie is a Knight Arts Challenge winner for her project called “Nepali Applause: an open air market/performance festival,” which is a multilingual variety show that will be produced in North Hill in spring 2017. As a playwright, she premiered “A Town for Us: a Meadville Community-Based Play” and “Into the Mold: a Firestone Park Community-Based Play” in 2016. Her recent acting credits include “Rest Stop: Political Theatre” (Wandering Aesthetics), “Cuyahoga, Briefly” and “Fire on the Water” (Cleveland Public Theatre), and “Tingle Tangle” (Theatre Ninjas). She was recently published in “Publicly Engaged Scholars” for an account of community-based theatre in practice and will be published in the upcoming “Diversity & Democracy” periodical.