Michael Rafkin
Dayton, ME 
E-mail: mrafkin@icloud.com

Updated August 2025

Michael Rafkin has been a director, actor, teacher and playwright in Maine for the past 46 years. He graduated with honors from Beloit College and the University of Copenhagen. He received his MFA in directing from Carnegie Mellon University. He is the founding Artistic Director of Mad Horse Theatre and an Affiliate Artist at The Portland Stage Company. He lives in the wilds of Dayton Maine with his wife Kathleen O’Neill and their most recent rescue dog Benito. He is retired from theatre and spends most of his time writing, hanging out in the woods and kayaking on the Saco river. In 1998 he spent 6 months living at The Vipassana Meditation Center in western Mass and continues to bumble his way toward enlightenment.

Since retirement he has lived a very quiet introspective life, especially after covid. He and Kate were hyper cautious and barely went outside their small bubble for years. They gradually eased back into the world but not very far. Dayton is very small and rural. He used to adore the old Portland of the 70’s and 80’s but that is long gone. For them, the city has lost most of it’s unique charm and they seldom venture in anymore.