Gracie Cleaves – Business Manager

Gracie Cleaves has studied and performed improvisation for over fifteen years. She’s studied with ImprovBoston, Second City Chicago, Laughing Stock Comedy Company, Oak Street Theater and Tim Ferrell. For  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. Gracie is the Business Manager of Portland Playback Theatre.

By day, Gracie is Director of Marketing and Communication at Coastal Enterprises, Inc., a nonprofit business lender and technical assistance provider. She’s a firm believer in “thinking things true,” where thoughts, attitudes and patterns of relating to the world influence the reality that one experiences.

Gracie lives with her partner Mike Miles in Westbrook, Maine, with their dog, Jake and their cat, Rosita, and has a daughter who is an artist/painter in Rockport, MA.

Bob Bittenbender

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.

Meg Christie

…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.

Erin Curren

Erin joined Portland Playback in 2008 after taking Acting for Beginners with David La Graffe at USM in 2007. Erin relishes the energetic rush of performing and values Playback’s ability to touch the pulse of our shared human experience.

After obtaining a PhD in French in 2005, Erin realized she was not cut out for academia and has recently refocused her energies on her first love: dance. Erin enjoys all forms of dance and finds fulfillment in her practice of NIA, a fusion dance form she discovered in 2008.

While she tools around in her Gypsy Crib, a bedazzled, Senegalese-taxi-inspired Subaru, Erin thanks her lucky stars to be a part of this adventure called life.

Kym Dakin

Kym Dakin has been a working creative for over 25 years.  She spent a decade in New York, where she appeared on and off Broadway and in regional productions throughout New England.
In Maine, she was a company member of Madhorse Theatre and in productions at Portland Stage Co.  She has taught theatre at PSC, as an original member of the Acorn School with David LaGraff and Michael Howard, and for 7 years with the Maine Summer Dramatic Institute, as well as adjunct faculty at Bowdoin College.

She is currently the Director of Short Fuse Interactive Inc., a company dedicated to bringing the power of theatre into experiential training formats in a variety of business and educational settings, and she has recorded over a dozen audiobooks along with a variety of recording projects for web marketing and instructional efforts in her home studio.

Kym delights in experimenting with the creativity of Playback, and loves getting others to do the same!

Margi Huber

Margi has always been acting, getting the distinction of “Class Clown” in high school and playing Lily Tomlin’s character of Edith Ann in a talent show. More recently she played Gooch in Mame, the nun in Tony and Tina’s Wedding, and multiple characters in As Is.

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 20 years of experience in the horticulture industry provide her with an eclectic kind of knowledge which she is currently marketing for gainful employment.

In the meantime, she is a volunteer for Riding to the Top, a therapeutic riding center,  and horticulture instructor for continuing education programs. 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.

Marcia Pitcher

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.

Sandra Sneiderman

Sandra finds her authentic self expression in creative dance, drama, song and musical improvisation.  Creative expression is an outlet for the spirit to celebrate and heal, allowing the soul to be called from the inside out.

She has ten years of dance experience/training, seven years of improvisational theatre training, two years of voice training and is a performing member of the community building Portland Playback Theatre.
Sandra has completed personal growth education through Landmark Education’s curriculum for living.  An active member of the American Dance Therapy Association, Sandra is pursuing a master’s degree in Dance Therapy and Mental Health Counseling at Lesley University.  She is a social worker in the Portland community, and recently started a creative movement workshop series called Inner Light Movement.

Emily VanStrien

Emily has been a member of Portland Playback since its inception. Emily is always excited for the opportunities Playback presents including the chance to make strange noises with her body, to break out through her introverted nature and especially to share meaningful moments from this human journey with a caring community.

Emily attended The Salt Institute of Documentary Studies and earned her MA in Transformative Language Art from Goddard College. She is a fan of: strong tea, dancing Nia, greek yogurt, hot air balloons and her two chubby cats, Harold and Lily. She is employed as a program coordinator of a group home for adults with severe mental illness.