Marti Stevens

Marti Stevens (c. 1939 – May 8, 1993 ) was an American educator and theater director. Born in Chicago, she spent 10 years as a professional director and actress on off-Broadway stages in New York City before relocating to the rural community of Cornville, Maine. She was posthumously inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 1996.

Stevens developed adult education and literacy programs for high-school dropouts, teen parents, disabled people, prison inmates, and seniors. She also taught composition at the university level. She created and directed an amateur theatre group, the Cornville Players, from 1974 to 1993, and founded an improvisational theatre group called Teens 'N Theater for high school students.

Early life and education Marti Stevens was born and raised in South Side, Chicago. Her parents were both musicians. She had one sister.

Career

Off-Broadway In 1959 she moved to New York City, Later she launched the Crossroads Learning Center in Skowhegan to provide living accommodations and alternative education for teenage mothers. This center became part of the school district in 1987. It was renamed the Marti Stevens Learning Center after her death in 1993 and has evolved into a coeducational alternative education program. She also developed training modules for a Literacy Advocacy Program.

From 1981 to 1993 she taught composition at the University of Maine at Farmington. and staged dozens of plays in the Cornville Town Hall. In the group's early years, the Cornville Junior Players acted in five plays.

In 1985 the Cornville Players were invited to move into the Lakewood Theater in Madison. Stevens became artistic director of the Lakewood Theater for eight years, and also served as vice president of Curtain Up Enterprises, the non-profit operating company of the Lakewood Theater.

In her work as director of the Somerset County Basic Skills Program, Stevens founded the Maine Literacy Theater in 1985. Based in Falmouth, the theatre group has evolved into a management training tool, as actors improvise the challenges and conflicts faced by audience members in their line of work, be it education, business, or non-profits, and engage the audience in problem-solving.

Other activities As a single woman living alone on a farm, Stevens was an anomaly in her rural town. Her holdings included "a steer, two cows, two horses, eight goats, a pair of ewes, laying hens, two dogs and nine cats". In 1982 the Bangor Daily News reported that she had participated in the first "adopt a burro" transaction in the area. She also had a collection of face masks from Africa, Asia, Indonesia, United States, Canada, and Central America.

Stevens was appointed plumbing inspector for Cornville, Starks, and Athens.

Memberships Stevens served on the board of directors of the Kennebec Valley Community Action Program, the North Kennebec Regional Planning Commission, and the Western Maine Mountain Alliance.

Personal Stevens died suddenly on May 8, 1993, aged 54. Police speculated that she had succumbed to an asthma attack while driving on the Maine Turnpike in Portland.

She was posthumously inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 1996.