Our Story

Maine Inside Out is a 501 © (3) nonprofit organization founded in 2008 based in Lewiston, Maine. Maine Inside Out groups create powerful theater to inform and engage the greater community in dialogue about social change. 

MIO began working together with incarcerated artists in Maine’s juvenile correctional facility, Long Creek Youth Development Center (LCYDC) where hundreds of incarcerated youth volunteered to create and share original theater inside LCYDC and in communities across the state. In 2014 -2019, youth returning home after incarceration collaborated with MIO to lead community projects in Lewiston, Greater Portland, Biddeford, and Waterville. MIO community artists supported one another to navigate system involvement and re-entry. Together, MIO engaged over 30,000 audience members statewide and nationally during this time, supported the launch of a youth-led campaign Maine Youth Justice shifting the landscape of juvenile justice in Maine.

MIO’s current strategy is to open local community sites across the state led and run by MIO artists and theater facilitators in their communities. 

In 2022, MIO created a facilitator training program in which MIO artists  are  hired to facilitate theater projects in their schools and workshops in the community. MIO opened a location in Lewiston and partnered with Lewiston Schools to begin facilitating theater workshops with youth and staff.  In 2023, MIO expanded this model to Portland and began ongoing workshops in Portland Public Schools. MIO continues to collaborate with artists incarcerated in Maine correctional facilities, creating and performing plays at Mountain View Correctional Facility and engaging inside artists in community projects such as MIO’s first poetry and music album that debuted in June 2023.