PAST SHOWS
Michael Boardman
January 12th, 2019
Michael Boardman is the founder and artist for Coyote Graphics. Michael is also a watercolor painter, specializing in wilderness and wild creatures, and has served several artist residencies, including Acadia, Baxter State Park and Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska.
Proceeds from Michael's show went to Oxford Street Shelter.
Total Raised: $200
Paul French
February 9th, 2019
Paul French, lifelong musician, guitar player, Berklee graduate, singer/songwriter, guitar instructor, recording engineer/producer, certified surgical tech, squash player, squash coach @ Portland Community Squash
Proceeds from Paul's show went to Portland Community Squash.
Total Raised: $168
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Jake Ryan
March 9th, 2019
Jake Ryan is the founder and director of the Open Bench Project, a makerspace offering a collaborative workshop, access to tools and equipment, and a variety of skill building opportunities. Over the years Jake has been a student of math, art, psychology, education and Architecture He is a thinker doer learner explorer, who feels best helping people bring their ideas to life, facilitating community and encouraging people to try new things in the face of failure. Today he lives here in Portland with his remarkable wife Jen and two confident children, Max and Sophia.
Proceeds from Jake's show went to Portland Trails
Total Raised: $186
Erin Curren
April 13th, 2019
Erin Curren loves to roll on the floor. Thankfully, as a Nia Black Belt, she gets to do that a lot. When she’s not teaching Nia, Erin can be found playing back audience members’ real-life stories with Portland Playback Theatre, driving around in her *bejazzled* Gypsy Crib, helping med students become better listeners, and throwing tennis balls to her husky mutt, Decaf. www.erincurren.com
Ian Ramsey
May 10th, 2019
Ian Ramsey is a writer, educator, ultrarunner, and musician. He is the founder and director of North Yarmouth Academy's Kauffmann Program for Environmental Writing and Wilderness Exploration, and one of the founders of theMaine Acoustic Festival, a statewide roots music festival for Maine students. Ian also teaches mindfulness, brain science, breathing, and physiology. He holds an MFA in creative writing from the Rainier Writing Workshop and has published poems and essays in a variety of national publications. A licensed Maine Guide and aspirant BCU Five Star Sea Kayak Leader, he has paddled, hiked, run, and led expeditions on four continents. He is an athlete ambassador for the Territory Run Company, Muir Energy, XOSkin, The Distance Project, and for Goodr Sunglasses. He also directs a community steel drum band and has been a national semi-finalist for the Grammy Music Educator of the Year.
Kimberly Curry
June 14th, 2019
Kimberly Curry is the job Director in charge of Community Relations at Goodwill Industries of NNE. She is an watercolor and encaustic artist working in Portland Maine. Additionally, Kimberly is a World Traveler, Retired Acorn Mascot, Failed Interior Designer.
Gillian Davis
June 19th, 2019
Gillian is a woodworker, building useful and beautiful things in her shop and scouring wood piles at the local dump for unusual materials. She loves the music and dances from the 1920s-40s and started a group called Portland Swing Project as a way to bring that interest to Maine through weekly classes and events. When not building and dancing, Gillian loves surfing but struggles to get in and out of her winter wetsuit and realizes that proficiency on a surfboard is elusive. She loves Maine and feels incredibly lucky to be able to walk to the ocean on the daily.
Gillian joined us at the 2019 Portfringe Festival
Mical Hutson
June 20th, 2019
Mical Hutson is from the Portland Symphony and has one of the longest and most interesting resumes we've ever heard .
Mical joined us at the 2019 Portfringe Festival
Allen Adams
June 21st, 2019
Allen Adams is a writer, actor and improvisor. He is the editor and chief culture critic at The Maine Edge, an arts and entertainment weekly based in Bangor. Allen is a Tomatometer-approved movie reviewer; his work can be seen at Rotten Tomatoes and other outlets. He is also a member in good standing of the National Book Critics Circle; his book reviews can be found in a variety of locations. He also makes regular appearances on the scripted stage with Penobscot Theatre Company. Allen has been improvising for over a decade, primarily with The Focus Group – a troupe he co-founded – but has also appeared with the Bar Harbor-based ImprovAcadia. He is also the curator and primary organizer of The Improv ME Festival, an annual event – set to mark its sixth year in November – celebrating the best that Maine and New England improv have to offer. In addition, Allen is a “Jeopardy! bronze medalist and the 2009 FOX/ABC Maine All-Star Hot Dog Eating Champion. He lives in Bangor with his beautiful wife Sheridan, their adorable weirdo of a dog Stella and two elderly cats named Scooby and Mine.
Allen joined us at the 2019 Portfringe Festival
Alex Kimball
June 22nd, 2019
Alex Kimball is the Deputy Manager, Finance & Administration for Cumberland County.
Alex joined us at the 2019 Portfringe Festival
Amity Stoddard
July 12th, 2019
Amity Stoddard is the Co-Founder and Director of Operations for The Sellam Circus School. Amity joined her first circus crew fifteen years ago, searching for the stories of the extraordinary people who move the show down the road. In her time with Circus Smirkus, Big Apple Circus, and Cirque du Soleil, she has loaded-in, set-up, torn-down, pulled stakes, cooked meals, justified ledgers, tracked down props, secured visas, driven big trucks and finessed fine print. She is currently working on a dual memoir with her husband, Sellam, a career circus artist and coach. In 2015, Amity and Sellam formed The Sellam Circus School in Biddeford, Maine. In 2018, Amity launched CircuStories – a project dedicated to gathering, presenting, and archiving the stories of circus folks from around the world.
Alan Casavant
August 9th, 2019
Alan Casavant is the Mayor of Biddeford ME
"My objective, as Mayor, is a constant: to make the city the destination point that I knew as a child. York County is the fastest growing county in Maine, and I see Biddeford and Saco as the drivers of the regional economy. I want to attract new residents, shoppers and engage investors. I want the name of Biddeford to be synonymous with the cutting edge."
David Hanright
October 25th, 2019
David Hanright is a Teacher at Thornton Academy where he is the Performing & Visual Arts Teacher. David is an artist, actor, board member of the Maine Drama Council, Maine state representative for the New England Drama Council, comedy playwright, and Artistic Director and Co-founder of Maine Repertory Theater and improviser with the Chamber of Comedy.
YES&Co. 8 Days Of Fringe w' Julie Durgee
December 5th, 2019
Julia Durgee paints the activity, beauty, and buzz of Maine. She grew up drawing and painting cartoons, fashion designs, murals, and portraits in Albany, New York. This early work led to an apparel design degree from Cornell University and eventual freelance illustration work for Forbes.com, Bust Magazine, and national branding agencies in NYC. In 2005, she was heavily influenced by the graphic novel boom, which unearthed her talent for producing structured, autobiographical comic art, winning her an American Illustration Award in 2007. Believing the business world could benefit from more artists, she got her MBA in 2012 and worked in marketing for Walt Disney World then was brought to Maine by L.L.Bean. She soon revived her oil painting practice on Monhegan Island and learned that a great painting contains just as much structure as a great comic. Plein air painting emboldens her to paint social, crowded settings: a rock-climbing competition, a fundraiser, a rowdy, craft beer festival. Her powers of concentration are retrained weekly with her volunteer work: drawing pencil portraits of the energetic kids at the Portland Boys & Girls Club.
YES&Co. 8 Days Of Fringe w' Kimberly Curry
December 8th, 2019
Kimberly Curry returned to join YES&Co. with 2 brand new stories as part of Portfinge's "the 8 Days of Fringe" festival.
YES&Co. 8 Days Of Fringe w' James Patefield
December 12th, 2019
James Patefield joins YES&Co. as part of Portfinge's "the 8 Days of Fringe" festival.
James is a co-director of the Portland Portfringe Festival as well as an actor and director.
Meg Christie
January 24th, 2020
Meg Christie has over ten years of clinical experience with teen parents and their children, other clinical experience with a wide age range, strong focus on anxiety and trauma. Experience as clinical director of innovative transitional living program for very young families. Have offered consultation as well as training in sandtray.
She is a founding member of Portland Playback Theatre. Actively involved in performances as actor and conductor, member of steering committee and treasurer for the company.
Chris Briley
September 11th, 2021
Chris Briley is a founding partner and principal architect at BRIBURN. In late 2012 he teamed up with Architect Harry Hepburn and founded BRIBURN where they practice “architecture for life”, specializing in energy efficient, environmentally friendly design. For seven years prior to this he was the principal architect and founder of the Green Design Studio in Yarmouth, Maine.
FUN FACT:
Chris Briley proposed to his long-time girlfriend and YES&Co. founding improviser Jen Whitley at this performance. Jen said YES!
Tae Chong
February 12th, 7pm
Portland Media Center
516 Congress St, Portland, ME 04101
Tae Chong is Director of Multicultural Markets and Strategies for the Maine State Chamber. He specializes in market research and strategies with multicultural and people of color communities in Maine and the Northeast. Tae has over twenty years’ experience working with the immigrant and refugee and people of color populations in Maine in economic development, business counseling, workforce development, education, and multicultural programming. He has consulted with Hannaford to expand their product lines to attract more immigrant, refugee and people of color to shop at their stores and he also assisted them with community outreach and with employee recruitment and retention strategies. In his role as Director of Multicultural Markets and Strategies, his goal is to educate, advocate and outreach to Maine businesses interested in increase sales and services to People of Color in Maine and Northern New England as well as businesses interested in hiring and retaining more People of color.
He has worked with the multicultural and people of color populations as an educator, advocate, policy maker, social service provider and as a business advisor. In his work as an advocate for economic integration of immigrants and refugees in Maine, he has been featured in Maine Biz and Maine Magazine, he was a speaker at MaineLive and Ted Dirgio, and he has published several articles and reports including CEI’s Building Maine’s Economy and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. He was named as one of Maine’s 50 most influential people by Maine Magazine, and he attended the White House Conference on retaining and recruiting immigrant and refugee knowledge workers.
Tae has also held leadership positions as co-chair of the refugee advisory council for the state of Maine’s DHHS Department, as a board member of NAACP, LULAC, and Asian American Heritage Foundation and as board member of University of Southern Maine’s Department of Social Work. He is also a long-time resident of Portland and is the first Asian American elected to the Portland City Council, Portland School Committee and as Senior Class co-president at Deering High School. He has also served on the United Way’s Children Leadership Council and the City of Portland’s CDBG Committee. On the Portland City Council, he serves on the Economic Community Development, the Health and Human Services Committees, Portland Downtown Corporation and Creative Portland. He also served on the Governor of Maine’s Economic Recovery Committee and chaired the Supportive Services and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committees. He holds a B.S. degree in Political Science and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Southern Maine.