Creative Team
Marty Pottenger (Executive Producer, Playwright, Creator) has been the Executive Director of Art At Work since 2001. Her plays include the OBIE-winning City Water Tunnel #3; ABUNDANCE: America & Money; #PhillySavesEarth (2016); and home land security, and her TEDx Talk has reached international audiences. Marty is the founder of Art At Work, a national initiative to increase cities’ resilience through strategic art partnerships with governments, unions, communities – Portland, Philadelphia, Boston, Broward County, New York City. Learn more at www.martypottenger.com and www.artatwork.us.
Daniel Minter is a painter and art educator, born and raised in Ellaville, a small town in south Georgia. Minter’s paintings, carvings, block prints and sculptures have been exhibited both nationally and internationally at galleries and museums. Minter’s work on Malaga Island Trail is a tribute to the Black, European and Native American residents of the island who were forcibly removed by the state of Maine in 1912. Minter serves on the Maine Arts Commission. Learn more at www.danielminter.net.
Christopher Akerlind (Director, Lighting Designer, Co-Producer) is an American lighting designer for theatre, opera, and dance. He has won two Tony Awards for Lighting: Indecent (2017) and Light in the Piazza (2005), and an Obie Award for sustained excellence for his work Off-Broadway. Longtime Portlander. Trained with Jennifer Tipton at Yale School of Drama. He was Head of Lighting Design and Director of the Design & Production Programs at the CalArts School of Theater. More about Chris here.
Jo Radner: Past President of the American Folklore Society and Board of Trustees of the American Folklife Center in the Library of Congress. She holds a PhD from Harvard University. Books: Anglo-Irish drama, and women’s folklore, and articles on New England social history. After 30 years of teaching literature, American Studies, folklore, and storytelling as a professor at American University, she moved back to western Maine to focus her work on her family’s ancestral home. More at www.joradner.com.
Ian Bannon (MAINEUSA Elders Coordinator) has worked in the arts with elders for last 15 years at retirement communities and assisted care facilities. He is a certified TimeSlips leader, a puppet-maker, a puppet filmmaker and an arts educator. Learn more about Figures of Speech Theater.
Dave Remedios (Sound Designer) is a sound designer and composer who has designed extensively for theatre and dance. He is Assistant Professor and Program Head of Sound Design at Boston University’s School of Theatre, and has lectured for Bowdoin College, Emerson College, Boston Conservatory, and ART/Harvard. Awards: Connecticut Critics’ Circle Award, Helen Hayes Award nomination. Learn more at www.remediossound.com.
Ellen McCartney (Costume Designer) is a freelance designer, studio artist, and educator dedicated to innovative teaching practices. She has 30 years of professional experience as a costume designer in the theatre industry. Ellen is the Director of Design and Production and Head of Costume Program at the California Institute of the Arts. Owls Head, Maine. Learn more at www.ellenmccartney.work.
Mike Romanyshyn (Composer & Music Director) is a composer, theater director, clarinet & reed player, and the founder of NYC’s International Toy Theater Festival. He is also a birch syrup tapper and a baker. Temple, Maine. See Mike in action here.
Mihku Paul (Wabanaki Dramaturg) is a Native American poet, visual artist, and storyteller living in Portland, Maine. She is a Maliseet Indian, a member of Kingsclear First Nation in New Brunswick, Canada. Presented at Maine-Wabanaki Reach’s Genocide and Maine conference, her “A Song for Machigonne” has reached international audiences.
Judy Gailen (Set Designer) most recently designed the sets for The Niceties at Portland Stage Company; Love & Information, The Threepenny Opera, Krazy Kat, and Sondheim on Sondheim at Bowdoin College (where she is Adjunct Lecturer in Design in the Theater & Dance Department); Precious Little for The Nora Theatre Company; A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Our Country’s Good and Marie & the Nutcracker at Bates College; the premiere of Oceanside for Merrimack Rep; Carmen and La Bohème for PORTopera; and Giulio Cesare for Wolf Trap Opera.
Cindy Thompson (Scenic Consultant) is the CEO and owner of Transformit. M.F.A. in sculpture at the Museum School, Boston. She has been a visiting artist at Arizona State and a teacher at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine. As well as building Transformit for the last 30 years, she serves on the Board of MECA and the governor’s Creative Economy Steering Committee. Learn more about Transformit at www.transformit.com.
Jeremy Frey (Passamaquoddy Basketmaker & Puppet Consultant) comes from a long line of native weavers. He specializes in ash fancy baskets, a traditional form of Wabanaki weaving. His work has been featured in the Changing Hands exhibit at the Museum of Art and Design in New York City. He has pieces in the Smithsonian as well as many other prominent museums around the country. Learn more at www.jeremyfreybaskets.com.
Vanessa Anspaugh (Choreographer) makes highly collaborative interdisciplinary performance. She is currently a Visiting Professor at Colby College and has recently shared her work at Space Gallery in Portland. Vanessa spent several decades making contemporary dance in New York City including NYLA, Danspace, and The Joyce, and has worked with a plethora of incredible artists from all over the world including Taylor Mac, Aretha Aoki, Juliette Mapp, Faye Driscoll, and more. Learn more at www.vanessaanspaugh.com.
Adreanna is a Native American/Chicana artist based in San Francisco, CA and Berlin, Germany. As a storyteller, her research, writing, and filmmaking revolve around issues of social/climate justice for indigenous communities, as well as feminist stories. She has directed and produced her first short documentary film about female pastoralists from the Maasia tribe who document the impact of climate change through the use of participatory photography. Adreanna holds an M.A. in Visual Anthropology from San Francisco State University, and is currently working toward a Salt Graduate Certificate in Documentary Studies at the Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine. Learn more at Adreanna.Photography.