Faculty and Staff
AB BrownAssistant Professor (on sabbatical 2022-23) | |
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EducationB.A., Muhlenberg College, Theatre & English Literature BioAB (they/them) is a transdisciplinary performance artist, writer, and performance studies scholar AB’s research-based practice looks at how transness, disability, and colonialism orient us to place and time and how embodied and material engagements might rearrange these modes of being and belonging… |
Matthew CumbieVisiting Assistant Professor | |
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EducationB.A., Texas Lutheran University, Communication Studies BioMatthew Cumbie (he/him) is a collaborative dancemaker, writer, and artist educator. His artistic research cultivates processes and experiences that are participatory and intergenerational, moving through known and unknown, and bring a poetic lens to a specifically queer experience… |
John D. ErvinTechnical Director | |
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EducationM.A., The University of Maine, 1992 BioJohn Ervin’s (he/him) professional design and technical direction experiences include scenery for The Public Theatre in Lewiston, Maine and six seasons as Technical Director, Scenery, Lighting, and/or Sound Designer for The Theater At Monmouth. Elsewhere, John’s designs and technical direction have been seen at… |
Kimberly Fletcher-StibalVisiting Instructor | |
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EducationB.F.A. The University of the Arts, Jazz Dance Performance BioKimberly Fletcher-Stibal (she/her) graduated from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA. with a BFA in jazz dance performance. While there, she received several scholarships and was selected as the outstanding senior artist and outstanding in jazz performance…. |
Marjorie GallantProduction Manager and Associate Chair | |
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EducationB.A. Georgia College & State University, Theater with an emphasis in Technical Theater BioA long way from home, Marjorie (she/her) came from Georgia to Maine by way of Portland Stage where, during an eight-year period she stage-managed over twenty productions, including six seasons of A Christmas Carol. In addition to her work at… |
Kate HunterHouse Manager | |
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EducationB.A., University of Utah, Theatre Studies BioKate (she/her) is a sound designer/mixer and stage manager from Salt Lake City, Utah. After college, she came to Maine to be closer to her partner and build a home together. Kate has worked with Salt Lake Acting Company and with Maine’s site-specific theatre group, Bare Portland. For her side gigs, she does freelance voice-over work as well as live streams interactive video games for audiences all over the world. In the past, Kate has worked in radio advertising and currently serves as a DJ for her community radio station WXNZ-LP 98.1FM Skowhegan, HooSkow Radio. |
Annie KloppenbergAssociate ProfessorPerformance, Theater, and Dance, Chair | |
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EducationB.A., Middlebury College, Dance, and American Civilization BioAnnie Kloppenberg’s (she/her) creative and theoretical research hinges on improvisation and investigates pedagogies of choreography. She teaches and performs nationally with the Improvisational trio Like You Mean It (www.lymitrio.com) and has presented her collaborative performance, workshop… |
Ariana KarpVisiting Instructor | |
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EducationB.A., Reed College, Literature-Theatre BioAriana (she/her) is an actor, director, educator, and cellist. She is the Artistic Director of the International Shakespeare Center Santa Fe. Ariana has made theatre in New York, London, Madison, WI, Portland, OR, Portsmouth, NH, Santa Fe, NM and across Japan. She is a member of The Shakespeare Ensemble… |
Meredith LabountyCostume Shop Manager | |
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Education:B.F.A., Savannah College of Art and Design
Bachelor of Fine Art in Production Design: Costume Design M.F.A., Florida State University
Master of Fine Arts in Costume Design BioTo come… |
Jessie Laurita-SpangletVisiting Instructor | |
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EducationB.F.A., University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Modern Dance BioJessie Laurita-Spanglet (she/her) is a dance artist and educator based in midcoast Maine. Jessie’s focus on arts in health and improvisational practices has led her to become a Creative Aging Teaching Artist with the Maine Arts Commission, to work closely with the Dance Exchange in Takoma Park, MD, and to teach improvisational movement classes to adults with neurodegenerative diseases, healthy older adults, and blind and visually impaired movers… |
Kate PestanaAcademic Administrative Assistant | |
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EducationB.A., Colby College 1987 BioKate Pestana (she/her) has a degree in art history from Colby. Most recently she has worked with students at the Colby College Museum of Art Welcome Desk. When she was in Boston, she was the Art Production Coordinator for the Harvard Business Review and also wrote, illustrated and self-published three children’s books. |
Gwyneth ShanksAssistant Professor (on sabbatical 2022-23) | |
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EducationB.A., Macalester College, Theatre, magna cum laude BioGwyneth Shanks (she/her) is an Assistant Professor at Colby College. Prior to that, she held curatorial positions at the Whitney Museum of American Art through the Independent Study Program and at the Walker Art Center. Broadly, her research considers how performance can propose strategies for revealing and dismantling colonial and racialized histories of representation in contemporary art… |
Nell ShipmanVisiting Instructor | |
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EducationB.F.A. Butler University, Dance Performance BioNell Shipman (she/her) joined Portland Ballet in 2004, before assuming the role of Artistic Director in 2015, and Director of Portland School of Ballet in 2016. She holds a B.F.A. in Dance Performance with High Honors from Butler University and has performed and shown choreography in Portland, New York, Chicago, Boulder, Indianapolis, and Tbilisi, The Republic of Georgia… |
Raphi SoiferVisiting Assistant Professor | |
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EducationB.A., Yale University, Theatre Studies and Anthropology BioRaphi Soifer (he/they) is a performer, educator, and conceptual mess-maker whose work focuses on street-based activist performance. Raphi’s research examines relationships between embodied memory, territory, and community; competing notions of urban public space; and the aesthetics of power and protest in Brazil and the United States… |
James C. ThurstonAssociate Professor | |
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EducationB.A., Ohio Wesleyan University, Theater Major, Art History Minor BioJim Thurston (he/him) is a professional scenographer and educator. He is the resident designer of the Department of Performance, Theater, and Dance at Colby College, teaching courses in scenography, interactive digital media, and architectural imaging. He holds a Masters of Fine Arts in stage design from Northwestern University’s School of Communication… |
Bess WeldenLecturer | |
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EducationB.A., Oberlin College, Theater and Judaic/Near Eastern Studies BioBess Welden (www.besswelden.com) is a theater-maker living and working in Portland, Maine. Her creative practice focuses on playwriting, performing, and teaching. She holds a BA from Oberlin College and an MFA from the National Theater Conservatory…. |