Faculty
GRIFF BRALEY (Artistic Director) Griff has spent his entire life in Maine and most of his life involved in theater. After graduating with a BA in Theater from Bates College, he directed his first play at Wiscasset High School in 1983, where he continued to teach children's theater, mythology, speech, acting, technical theater, film and English until 2006. He directed more than sixty plays at Wiscasset, including numerous original scripts and several award winning one act plays. Griff moved to Lincoln Academy in the fall of 2006, to teach theater and film, and to direct Lincoln's productions.
Griff's work came to include adults with the production of his Zeno's Arrow at Lincoln County Community Theater in 1998. He then directed Fiddler on the Roof, Camelot, Peter Pan, The Little Prince and Secret Garden for the Chocolate Church in Bath. Since envisioning and starting up Heartwood Regional Theater Company in the fall of 2003, Griff has acted as artistic director to produce more than 70 productions.
His work at Heartwood includes creating a successful summer camps for kids which is sixteen years in the running. In 2008, Griff oversaw the development of a performing arts outreach program, Heartwood Goes to School, for schools in the Midcoast region.
BETH PRESTON (Vocal Coach) teaches privately at the Heartwood Studio, coaching classical, Broadway, pop, and jazz singers. She is a member of the Voice Care Network, National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), National Association for Music Education (NafME) and American Choral Directors' Association (ACDA). Her students frequently place and win at the Maine NATS Broadway and Classical competitions and are accepted to prestigious music conservatories. Ms. Preston has provided the vocal coaching Heartwood Regional Theater Company’s musical productions. June, 2019, marked Ms. Preston’s retirement from Lincoln Academy and a thirty-seven-year career in the public schools, where she conducted award-winning choirs and directed musical theater productions of the highest caliber. She sings with Una Voce Chamber Choir in Brunswick and directs the Newcastle-based adult community choir, Tapestry Singers.