Author: STAGES Youth Theater

Maiya grew up at STAGES! She took part in many toddler classes and early childhood camp programs before graduating to the mainstage as a farm girl in OKLAHOMA, and ending her STAGES time playing Dot in SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE in 2018.

While growing up in Portland, she also performed with local theater companies including Portland Players, Lyric Music Theater, Maine Playwrights Festival, PortFringe, and Mad Horse Theatre Company. Maiya has been featured in several films made by Maine independent filmmakers, and has worked as a voice actor since age 10 with many audio drama, commercial, and audio book credits to her name.

Maiya is currently a creative writing and drama student at Bennington College, and has taken part in several field work/internships, including most recently with Florida Repertory Theatre in Fort Myers, FL. In her spare time she is a Dungeons & Dragons game master, a cos-player & make-up designer, an international music fan, and an avid video gamer.

Maiya joined the STAGES Team in 2023 as a member of the Summer Camp directing teams for kids ages 5-9. She also creates the original artwork and logos for the STAGES PET VETS program.

Beth Somerville (She/Her) has been making theater in the Portland area since 2012 when she started taking classes with Acorn Productions. She is a director, teacher, actor, and stage manager who loves nothing more than collaborative theater-making. She has recently returned home after earning her Master of Letters and Master of Fine Arts in Shakespeare and Performance from Mary Baldwin University in Staunton, Virginia.

Locally, Beth has acted and stage managed with Acorn Productions, The Maine Playwright’s Festival, and with several artists during PortFringe. She has directed several Shakespearean productions, including a recent production of Much Ado About Nothing as part of Shakespeare & Company’s 35^th Fall Festival of Shakespeare. Beth is very excited to be working with STAGES for the first time, and even more excited to share just how fun the Bard can be!”

Beth joined joined the Teaching Artist roster in 2024 and is developing and teaching a new Shakespeare program for middle school and high school students.

Alicia Fournier (she/hers) is so happy to be back at STAGES in a teaching role. She was a student here since the very early days and cherishes her memories of growing up a “STAGES kid”. She recently graduated with her early childhood education degree and is still very active in all aspects of theater. 

Alicia spent several summers after high school interning and working with our youngest summer camp students, and joined the Teaching Artist roster in 2024. She is currently teaching and directing students enrolled in STAGES programs taking place at Breakwater School in Portland.

Karly is an OG Stages student! She was in the very first STAGES production in 2007 and has been extremely fortunate to be a part of this amazing family ever since. She performed with STAGES until she graduated high school and continued to work at STAGES through college. After graduating with a degree in Theatre from Dean College she moved to New York City where she worked professionally as an actor (including a stint as a zombie nurse in an immersive theatre production) for several years before spending some time in Europe and then returning to Maine in 2018. 

She can be seen performing/directing around the Portland area now. Theatre and the arts are truly invaluable and along with teaching performance skills, gives students of all ages the power to be creative, express their emotions, learn to problem solve, work as a team, and countless other crucial life skills that will serve them long after they leave the rehearsal room. STAGES gave Karly the opportunity and experience to cultivate the passion she always had for performing/creating but had no idea what to do with. The staff members became family and the theatre became a second home. She can confidently say without STAGES her life would look very different, and feels extremely proud and grateful to still be a part of this wonderful team. It means the world that she can try to give back to today’s young artists some of what she was given. 

When she’s not involved in a production you can find Karly among the shelves of bookstores, thrift shops and flea markets, reading in cafes, or hanging out with her husband, Mike and her cat, Harper Lee. 

Karly joined the STAGES team as a student intern in 2008, and has stayed involved for over 15 years! She currently serves as a Director/Choreographer and Teaching Artist in the Musical Theater Ensemble program, and supports almost every STAGES production in various design, run crew, and front of house tasks.

Bio Coming Soon!

Robbie joined the STAGES team as a Teaching Artist in 2022. They have served as a Acting Ensemble Director, and a Lighting Designer for STAGES mainstage productions. Robbie also spent a season on the STAGES administrative team, working on production oversight, program development, and data analysis.

Allison is a figure skating coach and choreographer, a filmmaker, and an activist at the intersection of sports and the performing arts. She grew up in Maine spending most of her time on the ice, practicing for competitions and (her favorite) ice shows. But she couldn’t resist the stage and also made time to perform in musicals and stage manage for community theatre and concerts.

Moved by curiosity, Allison has dabbled in yoga, politics, crisis work, mountain biking, and beyond but youth and community development has been a thread through it all. She studied Leadership at USM with a focus on performance artists as community leaders then spent most of her 20s in New York City working with social justice activists in the wellness industry. Allison went on to coach and direct figure skating programs in Brooklyn and Harlem, getting the chance to choreograph programs for Prospect Park, Rockefeller Center, and Reebok, before finding her way back to Maine. 

She continues to sit on the Laureus: Sport for Good Leadership Council in NYC but Maine is her home and happy place. Allison loves the space to play with her dog, the community she’s found as a member of the PortFringe committee and Maine Film Association, coaching skaters aged 3-103 at the local rinks, and now teaching at Stages!

Allison joined the STAGES team in 2023. She is a Teaching Artist, co-leading The Hero’s Journey – the STAGES 2023-24 Young Performers Ensemble.

Tyler Costigan has been performing for stage and screen for over 30 years, most recently with Mad Horse Theatre in South Portland. Some of his favorite roles include Norman Dewars in Table Manners, Algernon in The Importance of Being Earnest, and Felix Ungar in The Odd Couple.

In 2018 Tyler discovered his passion for teaching young performers and has since led workshops at True North Theatre, Ten Bucks Theatre, and The Grand. He served for one year as the theatre director at Ellsworth Middle School, and has just finished his second year as director at Jordan Small Middle School in Raymond. Tyler spent the summer of 2022 at the Celebration Barn Theater, training in Advanced Eccentric Performance under the instruction of Avner “The Eccentric” Eisenberg, and performed at the Barn’s 50^th Anniversary celebration alongside some of the world’s funniest people. This summer he’ll be returning to the barn to study the works of Samuel Beckett with one of his favorite performers, Bill Irwin.

Tyler joined the STAGES team in 2023. He is a Teaching Artist and Curriculum Designer for the PLAYVENTURE role-playing programs, and a Director for mainstage productions!

Lauren Murphy has loved singing for as long as she can remember! Her family was super supportive of her singing, leading to her participation in Maine District and All-State Festivals, taking private voice lessons, participating in Musica De Filia girl choir, Singing in operas, and touring Europe with the United States Youth Ensembles while in high school.

She went on to get a degree in Music Education at The University of Southern Maine in 2013. She has been teaching in public schools since then as well as performing when she can, including in Ogunquit Playhouse’s 2016 production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

At school, she directors multiple choirs, and group voice lessons. She also directs musical theater productions and does private voice coaching as needed. Her voice coaching students have gone on to the Maine District II festival, the Maine All-State Festival, Port Opera Chorus, The Nutcracker at Maine State Ballet, and many other exciting opportunities. 

Lauren believes that all students can and should sing and that focused effort is the key to successful singing. She helps to foster individual vocal development by showing students the anatomy of their voices and how everything should work together to make sound through vocal warm-ups. She thinks music is at its best when it is used to tell a story. In her lessons, she includes acting coaching as well as vocal coaching.

Lauren joined the STAGES team in 2022. She is a director and music director for STAGES productions, and is now offering voice instruction in the STAGES private lessons studio!

I came into Stages by the side door when I said “I’ve got some free time this summer if you need a sub.” and they said “Yes!”  Now I’ve choreographed and directed for Stages and I couldn’t be happier to have found this organization that shares my views on the creative arts and how important they are in a person’s life.  

I grew up playing make believe and never stopped; it turned into acting and dance. In addition to countless plays and dance shows, both school and professional; I worked at summer arts camps, founded Sticky Tape Theater company in Bangor, lived in NYC to dance, earned a BA in theater from USM, founded and still work with Vivid Motion Dance in Portland, direct the drama club at Lincoln Middle School, teach dance at Scarborough High School, choreograph for local groups, design and create costumes, and have recently found myself back onstage as a performer with Lyric Theater and Portland Players.  

As a young person I had phenomenal teachers and mentors that encouraged me to love the process of performing, to be creative, and who gave me a voice. I try to honor that legacy and help my students to create, to speak out, and to be proud of themselves.

When I’m not doing something directly related to the performing arts I can be found planting native species of plants, researching and trying out edible flowers, recreating the middle ages with the SCA, or trying my hand at coding “choose your own adventure” games.

Brigitte joined the STAGES team in 2022. She is a director and choreographer for STAGES musical theater productions, and is a Teaching Artist in our after school programs across multiple locations!

Thalia Wolff (she/her) is a dancer, director, playwright, and teaching artist from the Pacific Northwest captivated by the unique capacity of the performing arts to enable individuals to boldly, playfully imagine and embody new worlds together.

She has taught and supported classes with Seattle Children’s Theatre, the Central Stage Theatre of Central Kitsap, Reed College, and Portland Stage Company on topics ranging from collaborative playwriting to movement-based acting, from creating for the camera to devised dramatic play.

She is thrilled to be working with the wonderful teachers, staff, and student-artists at STAGES this year!

Thalia joined the STAGES team in 2023. She is a Teaching Artist and on the directing team for the ACTING ADVENTURES program for 8-9 year old students!