Marti Stevens (c. â€" May , ) was an American educator and theater
director. Born in Chicago, she spent years as a professional director
and actress on off-Broadway stages in New York City before relocating
to the rural community of Cornville, Maine. There she developed adult
education and literacy programs for high-school dropouts, teen
parents, the disabled, prison inmates, and seniors. She also taught
composition at the university level. She created and directed an
amateur theatre group, the Cornville Players, from to , and founded
an improvisational theatre group called Teens 'N Theater for high
school students. She was posthumously inducted into the Maine Women's
Hall of Fame in .Marti Stevens was born and raised in South Side,
Chicago. Her parents were both musicians. She had one sister. She
earned her bachelor's degree in journalism at the University of
Missouri and her master's degree in education at City College of New
York.In she moved to New York City, where she studied acting with
professional coaches Uta Hagen and Gene Frankel. Her efforts to pursue
a career in the "avant-garde theater of the s" were disappointing.
After ten years of work as an off-Broadway director, occasional acting
gigs, and work as a teacher and secretary, she gave up big-city life
and moved to Cornville, Maine, in .Less than a week after her arrival,
she was seriously injured in an automobile accident. Following her
release from the hospital, she went on welfare, and her caseworker set
her up as a job retraining consultant. She also began a tutoring
service for high-school dropouts to help them attain their high school
diploma. 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
. It was renamed the Marti Stevens Learning Center after her death in
and has evolved into a coeducational alternative education program.
Stevens also co-developed the Training for Tomorrow program for
displaced homemakers with the Maine Centers for Women, Work and
Community.
director. Born in Chicago, she spent years as a professional director
and actress on off-Broadway stages in New York City before relocating
to the rural community of Cornville, Maine. There she developed adult
education and literacy programs for high-school dropouts, teen
parents, the disabled, prison inmates, and seniors. She also taught
composition at the university level. She created and directed an
amateur theatre group, the Cornville Players, from to , and founded
an improvisational theatre group called Teens 'N Theater for high
school students. She was posthumously inducted into the Maine Women's
Hall of Fame in .Marti Stevens was born and raised in South Side,
Chicago. Her parents were both musicians. She had one sister. She
earned her bachelor's degree in journalism at the University of
Missouri and her master's degree in education at City College of New
York.In she moved to New York City, where she studied acting with
professional coaches Uta Hagen and Gene Frankel. Her efforts to pursue
a career in the "avant-garde theater of the s" were disappointing.
After ten years of work as an off-Broadway director, occasional acting
gigs, and work as a teacher and secretary, she gave up big-city life
and moved to Cornville, Maine, in .Less than a week after her arrival,
she was seriously injured in an automobile accident. Following her
release from the hospital, she went on welfare, and her caseworker set
her up as a job retraining consultant. She also began a tutoring
service for high-school dropouts to help them attain their high school
diploma. 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
. It was renamed the Marti Stevens Learning Center after her death in
and has evolved into a coeducational alternative education program.
Stevens also co-developed the Training for Tomorrow program for
displaced homemakers with the Maine Centers for Women, Work and
Community.
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