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David La Graffe has acted in both professional and community theatre for over twenty-five years. His favorite roles include Sweeney in SweeneyTodd, Scrooge in A Christmas Carol and Willie in Death of a Salesman.
David taught acting and improvisation at the Acorn School for the Performing Arts for fifteen years, and currently teaches acting at Lights Up Theaterworks in Westbrook and at the USM Center for Continuing Education. He also teaches Improvisation at the Gorham Campus of USM.
David is a member of Rocky Coast Radio Theatre as well as the Ever-Ready Readers, a reader’s theatre company which performs and offers workshops for students from Kindergarten through College.
He has studied Playback Theatre with Jonathan Fox and Jo Salas, both founders of the playback theatre form.
He lives blissfully with his wife Claudia Hughes just down the street from the Thaxter Theater where they met and later married. |
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 Bob Bittenbender has taken a circuitous journey but finally, after nearly sixty years and almost failing Public Speaking in high school, he has found a place to listen, act and empathize with others at Portland Playback Theatre. His story includes 32 years in the horticulture business, two tours in Vietnam, a radio show with his wife Margi Huber, and traveling to all 50 states and more than twenty-five countries.
Bob is the assistant property manager for Maine Audubon in Falmouth, Maine. As a sideline he leads trips to places like Italy, Newfoundland, the Bay of Fundy, and the Everglades in Florida. His passion however is polar bears and he is currently preparing for his fourth journey to Churchill, Manitoba, Canada with Maine Audubon. Bob has made several presentations on polar bears including one for the Cleveland Metroparks system in Ohio. |
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...I love to listen to and tell stories, to play, to laugh and to cry, to aspire to live in the moment, to perform. I have had the good fortune to indulge in these passions on the stages of various community theaters, in my office as a play therapist for both children and adults, with my family and friends, and now, doing playback. Heraclitus said, "Man [or woman!] is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play." This
is what I strive for in playback. |
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Gracie Cleaves has studied and performed improvisation for fifteen years. She’s studied with ImprovBoston, Second City Chicago, Laughing Stock Comedy Company, Oak Street Theater and Tim Ferrell. For more than a year, she performed weekly as a member of the Portland Comedy Connection Improv Company. Prior to that, she was a Downeast humorist and storyteller.
By day, Gracie is President of Cleaves Marketing, which provides branding,customer acquisition and growth strategies for small business and independent professionals. She’s a firm believer in "thinking things true,” and teaches her clients that thoughts, attitudes and patterns of relating to
the world influence the reality that one experiences.
Gracie has an adult daughter who is an artist/painter in Oregon, and she herself lives in Portland, Maine, with her dog, Petey. |
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As Director of Short Fuse Interactive, Inc., Kym Dakin created and facilitated educational events using theatre as a teaching tool for New England businesses and non-profits for over 10 years. She is now Membership Coordinator at Portland Time Bank, and she volunteers for the Maine Center
for Creativity as a discussion facilitator and planner. Kym will complete her Master's degree in Adult Education this fall at USM. She is the proud
mother of Skyler - age 8, who continually teaches her mom about the value of playtime! Kym is delighted to be part of Portland Playback theatre, as she has long been fascinated by the use of story as a tool for transformation. |
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Richard Herman began his acting career in college then took a thirty-year hiatus to practice Family and Emergency Medicine in Bridgton, Portland and Scarborough. He returned to his avocation in 1994 and is best known in the Portland area for his portrayal of Felix in The Odd Couple and Dr. Austin Sloper in The Heiress.
More recently he has been writing screenplays and is working on a second novel. When he heard about Playback Theater he couldn't resist the opportunity to combine his theatrical experience with his love of story telling to help others make meaningful discoveries about themselves. He thanks David LaGraffe for giving him this opportunity. |
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Margi has always been acting, getting the distinction of "Class Clown" in high school and playing Lily Tomlin's character of Edith Ann in the high school talent show. More recently she played Gooch in Mame, the nun in Tony and Tina's Wedding, and multiple characters in As Is. She is currently appearing in PurpleBreast, a play about breast cancer being offered to schools and hospital groups.
By day Margi is trips and tours program coordinator at Maine Audubon. A graduate of the National Outdoor Leadership School, she has ten years of experience leading trips in the mountains of Maine and on horseback. Her degree in human ecology (how humans relate to their environment) combined with twenty years of experience in the horticulture industry provide her with an eclectic kind of knowledge which she enjoys imparting on her trips. She lives in the woods in Windham with her husband Bob and their Jack Russell Terrier, Gulliver.
Margi studied story-telling and improvisation with Tony Montanero and David La Graffe and is thrilled to be in Playback Theater where story meets improvisation and the audience enjoys instant theater. |
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Marcia Pitcher has been teaching drama and directing high school plays at Massabesic High School for the past twenty years. She has also enjoyed several roles in community theater productions including Crimes of the Heart, Steel Magnolias, Nunsense and A Christmas Carol. Her favorite roles were Conrad in Much Ado About Nothing and Puck in A Midsummer Nights Dream; both at the Bread Loaf School of English in Vermont.
Marcia also directs an after school ensemble that uses improvised scenes to address bullying in her school. She lives a serene life in W. Newfield, Maine with her family. |
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Sandra Sneiderman has a love for improvisational theatre. She studied with David LaGraffe through Acorn School of Performing Arts and was part of an improvisation theatre group in Portland for one and a half years. She has a love for comedy and drama and has been acting since high school. She also likes to sing every now and then having performed in a Caberet in Boston and with a band in college. Now, Sandra dabbels in dance, music and art for fun taking lessons/classes in all whenever financially possible. She is just blowing the dust off her saxophone, starting to play after a long break and is learning the guitar.
Sandra is a licensed social worker and certified mediator. She provides case management and supportive counseling for adults with mental illness and addiction problems. Seeing a lot of human struggles and triumphs makes her appreciate how important kindness, compassion and relatedness are to a productive and peaceful society.
Sandra is excited to be part of Portland Playback Theatre having the opportunity to do what she loves and to give something back to the community. |
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A documented introvert, Emily's had a love-hate relationship with performance for as long as she can remember. While attending Kalamazoo College, Emily collaborated with Holly Hughes in the performance piece The Mystery Spot Emily wrote, performed and directed, A Died For People: Monologues found in Dichotomies of Goodness. Emily received a full scholarship to attend The Salt Institute of Documentary Studies – forever instilling a place in her heart for Maine, radio and storytelling.
During the last six years, Emily has found ways to bring her love of writing and art to her chosen profession of social work. She earned her MA in Transformative Language Art from Goddard College and conducts writing groups in rehabs and juvenile correction facilities. Emily currently works as an outreach caseworker for women in early recovery. She lives with her husband, her 10 year-old step-daughter, two guinea pigs, and a very lonely love bird. |
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A visual and performing artist for more than fifteen years, Dave Weinberg has done Stand-Up at the Comedy Connection and has appeared at clubs, colleges, and for some reason, Chinese restaurant function rooms, up and down the east coast where he's opened for among others, Colin Quinn and Brett Butler. Dave has studied Improvisation with Daena Giardella in Boston and Tim Ferrel in Portland. He studied acting with the Hamilton Project in Boston and Playback Theater with Hannah Fox in New York.
In his other life Dave is an award winning Creative professional and the Senior Art Director of the L.L.Bean web site. He has an extensive background in design and branding across media that extends back to Boston and New York City where he spent many years freelancing and operating his own studio. Dave is also an accomplished illustrator. He holds a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in NYC. He is currently the Programs Director for the Maine chapter of the AIGA - the professional association for design.
Best of all - Dave is a proud and adoring Dad. |
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