OCTOBER 2018
Nancy Burkholder
For years Nancy has had one foot in the arts and one foot in the madcap world of marketing research. Part of the creative team behind the long-running show Late Nite Catechism, and a marketing research consultant, Nancy understands the importance of both following your artistic dreams and having a sensible fallback career. However, winning a recent Moth StorySLAM has definitely amped up her interest in storytelling. A stint in the record business put Nancy’s pop music fixation to good use in a pre-Google world, not to mention provides some pretty interesting stories. As a kid she saw the Beatles live and has the $2.50 ticket-stub to prove it.
Mosie Duhe
Mosie is New Jersey born and Boston educated. She works at a non-profit on the West Side and loves running, cooking, crafting, and petting cute dogs. She took “Storytelling for Everyone” earlier this year, and recently performed in Is This a Thing? She keeps saying she’ll do more story-telling and she swears that she’ll actually follow through on that in the next year (but like, please hold her to that).
Theresa Gibbons
Native to the South suburbs she has performed at The Drama Group in Chicago Heights and was nominee for a Northwest Indiana Excellence in Theatre Award. A graduate of The Second City writers program and The Lincoln Lodge Stand up Comedy seminar. She’s facinated with world politics and by that she means she likes looking at pictures of Justin Trudeau. So thrilled to be telling a story!
Patty Gunger
After many years of watching other brave souls share their stories OUT LOUD, and in front of a LIVE AUDIENCE (while I anxiously chew my fingernails in the back row), I’ve finally decided it’s time! Plus, I’m worried about the state of my nails! I should be good at this, right? I come from Irish immigrant grandparents, the people known for being professionals at this storytelling gig. I will either honor dear Anastasia and Joseph, or I will shame them since I don’t possess “the gift” of weaving a good yarn. I desperately want to be clever, but I would rather be profound, inspiring, healing (with a touch of entertainment!). Through the stories from my circus-like life, I’m hoping that you will see a bit of yourself. I grew up in Chicago, still reside here (big yay!), and have too many interests to name. I work with immigrant high school students full-time, as well as helping single moms and children in crisis. I’m excited for my first telling at Story Lab!
Mercedes Lake
Mercedes Lake graduated from a school you've probably never heard of (Marlboro College) and received her MFA from a University that you probably have (Northwestern University). She's a playwright/screenwriter whose work has been produced through the Araca Foundation, Chicago Dramatists, Scrap Mettle Arts, Panglossian Productions and Fraud and Phony. She's was also a finalist for Northwestern's Julia Louis Dreyfus sitcom grant, which was really really cool. She's currently working on several screenplays in collaboration with Lighthouse Media Management and occasionally laughing at bad parallel parkers from her 3rd story apartment.
Sidney Thompson
Sidney Thompson is a short story writer straight outta the suburbs of West Omaha. After leaving home at seventeen, she spent a year living in California before coming to Columbia College Chicago to get her B.F.A in Fiction. When she is not frantically editing a story five minutes before class, she’s most likely people watching in coffee shops or running the Lakefront Trail.
SEPTEMBER 2018
Parla Hoelter
Parla Hoelter is originally from New Orleans, and owns over twenty different hot sauces. Parla enjoys reading, cross stitching, sunscreen, sour beers, improv, and figuring out how to stop her cat from eating every plant she owns. She is currently taking a 80's jazzercise class and is now the proud owner of three pairs of legwarmers.
Carrie Lannon
Carrie comes from a background in public relations, where she says you are telling stories just about every day and just about every one of them is true. Her work today finds her presenting to audiences on main stages and in workshops on her favorite business topics -- personal and business branding. She has performed at the Second City Training Center in sketch comedy and storytelling shows. In her spare time, she is giddy about just becoming an AMC Stubs A-List member, which enables her to see up to three movies per week all for one low, low monthly fee.
Tracy Lytwyn
Tracy Lytwyn is native to the Chicago area and recently returned after a brief foray in Indianapolis. She found her passion for writing and storytelling at a young age and has had her words published in The Atlantic, WBUR Boston, Prevention Magazine, xoJane and others. When she isn't spinning a yarn, she enjoys rock climbing, singing, playing piano, biking, exploring and advocacy work. Professionally, she works in public affairs for a non-profit and lives in Lincoln Square with her "dog-child," Juno.
Valerie Mrak
Valerie Mrak is a speaker, storyteller and coach as well as an award winning documentary filmmaker. She has interviewed a wide range of people from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, a Blackfoot Medicine Woman, Fortune 100 CEOs and “everyday” people with fascinating stories. She is a TEDx speaker and leads workshops and talks on Conflict to Possibility: Insights from Nobel Laureates and Former Gang Leaders. She produced the Telly Award-winning documentary, Shadow Over Tibet: Stories in Exile, a film about Tibetan immigrants in America and India striving to maintain their religion and culture in exile. It is narrated by Richard Gere and aired nationally on PBS.
Darren Stephens
Darren Stephens is a voiceover talent, actor, writer and singer who is happy to be a successful full-time freelancer living in Chicago. Onstage he was Pastor Dave Shepherd in the critically acclaimed parody church service The Best Church of God at various venues around town and played Rod Blagojevich at the Athenaeum Theater. He has performed long-form improv with Baby Wants Candy, Cast On A Hot Tin Roof, and the Free Associates. He can be heard at local venues with his three-part bluegrass harmony comedy group, The Famous Brothers. Darren has voiced hundreds of regional and national radio and television commercials, including during football season as the announcer at the end of Corona Hotline TV spots. His MFA in Acting is from Ohio University.
Sage Tyrtle
Sage Tyrtle is a professional storyteller whose stories have been featured on CBC and NPR radio. She teaches The Art of Storytelling.
Jeff Witz
Born and raised in Jackson Hole, Wyoming Jeffrey spent much of his childhood roaming the peaks and valleys of the Grand Tetons and beyond. When it was time to grow up, he moved to the bleak and muggy prairies of Iowa to attend Grinnell College, and then on to Chicago where destiny lead him to many amazing adventures and his soulmate. Jeffrey is now a cowboy of financial planning, focusing on helping physicians manage all aspects of their wealth. He’s come to StoryLab to realize his true passion for storytelling, and when he’s not telling a long-winded tale, he can be found obsessively tracking the US Men’s Soccer team and DJing the underground techno beats!
AUGUST 2018
Eva Eig
Eva moved to Chicago from the D.C. suburbs. She studies Radio and Creative Nonfiction at Columbia College Chicago, where she takes her dog Blue to class. She hopes when they graduate that she can find a cap and gown that fit him too.
Caren Evans
Gender fluid trans woman. Life and labels can be complicated. I have found storytelling in recent years and now tell stories often and try to advocate for transgender awareness though storytelling.
Liz Klein
Liz Klein is a sassy hairdresser here in Chicagoland. She is Chicago born, Denver raised and returned to Chicago thirteen years ago after earning a BA in costume design. Chicago has almost completely killed her filter so don't be surprised when she throws a few "f" bombs. When she is not troubleshooting hair problems or finding new ways to use the "f" word she can be found chasing after her two small humans and hubby.
Victoria Reeves
Victoria Reeves is a Writer, Career/Life Coach and Storyteller. Some call her “brassy and intrepid” while others call her a “Pragmatic Mystic.” She is passionate about cultivating authentic expression as a means to clarify, quantify and actualize one’s path in life. In her coaching practice, she works with clients from all over the world on Vocational Integration, which is the process of incorporating who you are with your Soul’s Work. Throughout this journey, she has heard 1000’s of stories of transformation, epiphany, synthesis and resulting joy! As such, she deeply understands the power of words to affect change. A Memoir Writer and Blogger, she began intensively chronicling her own tales 6 years ago after immersing herself in Personal Narrative classes at The Hugo House in Seattle. Here in Chicago, her Storytelling career began 4 months ago in Scott Whitehair’s class. Through workshopping snapshot vignettes with her classmates, she discovered this new (to her) genre where she could integrate her love of writing, performing, endless pontificating and connecting the dots. Since then, she has unearthed funny and reflective stories called “Comfortable in My Skin”, “The Muse is Calling” and “Communication Skills”, performing them at: Louder than a Mom Storytelling at Martyrs’, OLLIE Inter-generational Storytelling at Northwestern University and numerous Do Not Submit shows.
Whitney Shaffer
Born and raised in small town Indiana Whitney spent many summer days wrecking her bike and still has the scars to prove it. She’s an advocate for s’mores culture and can often be found with a cup of coffee in her hand. Whitney has always loved writing and storytelling. Her ultimate life goal is help others feel less alone by telling stories about her life.
Will Thimes
Will is a writer, intellectual giant and arbiter of good and evil for all who cross his path. He whiles away the daylight hours in a soulless office job and blossoms in the evening hours. He has a widely-chronicled grudge with water in all its forms – solid, liquid and especially steam. His writings have been compared to lunatic rantings, and he has been favorably compared (by himself) to the late Chicago outsider artist Henry Darger, who authored the 15,145 page handwritten novel, “The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion.” He is loved by few and feared by many. He has a pretty and talented girlfriend who is a StoryLab veteran and who introduced him to storytelling. He also has a very discontented twelve-year old cat.
JULY 2018
Patrick Curtin
Patrick Curtin is a Chicago native that incorporates storytelling as a celebrant for weddings, memorials and other moments in life that should be celebrated. Patrick has shared stories at the Irish American Heritage Center, Steppenwolf, Second City and the Goodman Theater.
Alison Duffy
Alison first discovered This Much Is True a year ago and fell in love with hearing other people's stories! A teacher, traveler, and musician, Alison has taught English in Korea and France, and she is planning to be a high school history teacher in Chicago. She also loves the flute; she grew up playing mostly classical music, and she has enjoyed playing Jethro Tull, Led Zeppelin, and Ibrahim Maalouf with friends.
Audrey Johnston
Raised in small-town Oklahoma, Audrey fulfilled a lifelong dream of transitioning to city limits after taking the midnight train going anywhere and ended up in Chicago. Her background is in film and video production, but she now works as the Operations Manager for a finance company. She enjoys collaborating on projects that empower women and will soon be publishing a book with friends featuring interviews with women from all over the world. She is currently on her fourth time through watching The Office.
Caroline Mooney
30 year veteran of sales and marketing, and nationally recognized expert in the field of consumer promotions, Caroline has traveled from sea to shining sea calling on the top 200 consumer packaged goods companies. Thankfully no longer a road warrior, she now develops retail marketing campaigns for her former clients and thinks about telling stories of her sales adventures.
Karen Purze
Karen Purze is in the middle of a transformation. She is using twenty years of software product development experience to launch a career as a business consultant (and independent writer.) She is the author of Life In Motion: A Guide for Gathering Life’s Vital Details, a workbook to help people get their affairs in order. She blogs about better preparing for emergencies and her personal experiences with serious illness and loss at lifeinmotionguide.com. In addition to writing, Karen teaches people at corporate and community based organizations to prepare for (and manage through) major life transitions.
Nancy Wai
Nancy Wai was first exposed to the magic of the performing arts by her mother via Andrew Lloyd Webber. Immediately spellbound, she consumed all that she could find on cassettes and VHS tapes at the library and daydreamed about being on "the stage." But there was one problem: she was extremely shy. In fact, the jury was still out in terms of whether or not she could actually speak. Fast forward to freshman year of high school when her Enriched Patterns teacher asked her to do a staged reading of Antigone (major props to teachers that see and call forth the potential in kids). It was through Antigone she found her voice but never considered storytelling until late last year when one of her improv classmates asked, "Nancy, have you ever considered storytelling? I think you'd be good at it!" Even though she was an avid listener of Radiolab, This American Life, and The Moth, the thought had never occurred to her. But since she was failing miserably at improv, she decided, "What the hey." Thanks to Mr. Google she discovered Story Lab and now history is being made. Ask her about her coffee shop, which should be open by the time she shares her story.
JUNE 2018
Julia Brownfield
Julia Brownfield made her acting debut in comedy short film festival in 2012 with a submission that she wrote and starred in, A Girls Dream. Did she win? Heck no, but her movie was funny and she won $50 bucks for shouting out Two Gingers Whiskey in an unrelated scene. Does she still act? Heck no, but she loves telling stories, and when she’s not telling stories, she can be found naked and afraid in the shower before work.
Bonnie Cortez
Bonnie Cortez is the mother of two strapping young man who are making their way with finesse that makes a mother proud. She is a Life-Cycle Celebrant which means she delights in writing and officiating wedding ceremonies. She is also a Montessori 1st through 3rd grade teacher and a lover of the written word. She will try her best to make those written words sing in tonight‘s performance.
Louis Greenwald
Louis Greenwald, storytelling addict. Louis was dragged to his first storytelling festival 25 years ago by his wife Susie who was a sixth grade teacher. He has promoted storytelling venues and now steals techniques from the best tellers.
John Hahm
Born and raised in Honolulu Hawaii, John Hahm is a relative newcomer to the storytelling community. He recently retired from Northside College Preparatory High School, where he taught English, coached the Academic Decathlon Team, and led educational tours of the UK and EU during spring breaks. He is eternally grateful to Sheri Reda, Ellen Blum Barish, Jill Howe, Scott Whitehair and other virtuoso writers and storytellers who opened the world of storytelling to him. They have taught him so much. Much more, they have given him the community of writers he has so wanted so long! Most recently, John has performed his stories at First Person Personal, The Asian Diaspora, and Mrs. Murphy’s Irish Pub, and Do Not Submit in Lincoln Square.
Barbara Peterson
I'm a native of Chicago, born and raised mostly on the South Side, but lived for 12 years in New Orleans, where I acquired a love of good food, good music and good people. I graduated from the University of AZ with a B.A. in psychology, and did some graduate work at Tulane. After realizing that a life in academia wasn't for me, I moved to the French Quarter and worked at some awesome hotels and restaurants. I still cherish my 4 year stint at K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen where I was taught commitment, dedication and teamwork from a culinary genius -- while eating fabulous food, having an enormous amount of fun working with a talented bunch of people and meeting interesting (and sometimes famous) people from all over the world! But I missed home and came back to Chicago where I pursued a variety of different vocations among them being stock options trader, backyard nature store manager, product designer for a Chicago manufacturer of metal products, and genealogist. I was blessed to have met and married a great guy, who unfortunately died of lymphoma at way too young an age. Since 2016 I have rekindled my childhood love of performing, and have immersed myself in singing, improv, acting, voice over, and storytelling. I am currently performing with JarFar, an improv team, over at Second City, where we all completed their improv program, and I am also in their Musical Improv program.
Gili Sherman
Gili Sherman is an art teacher for grades 5 - 8 at a small school in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago. When asked where she is from, the answer is never short, because she grew up in Israel, the US and the UK and has lived all over this country. For her writing, she draws from a deep well of inspiration from her Iraqi and British grandparents, her immigrant parents, and the colorful stories they have shared. She also draws from her friendships; her rich connection with her husband and four kids; travel; and the serendipity of meaningful conversations with people she encounters along the way.
MAY 2018
Amy Bean
Amy is a middle school teacher from the Boston area. She has lived in New Orleans, New Mexico, and now Chicago. When she’s not grading papers at Dunkin’ Donuts or scheming ways to make 7th grade more interesting, she can be spotted watching sports, heckling the New York Yankees, playing board games, dancing, running, cooking, and pretending to be a weight lifter at Planet Fitness. She looks forward to hearing and sharing stories through Story Lab.
Steph Fowler
As a quiet kid in rural Iowa, Steph Fowler spent hours reading Choose Your Own Adventure books from the local library. As an adult, she’s learned to use a similar "do over" approach when she doesn’t find the happy ending she had hoped for. She's now an entrepreneur and mental health professional who uses narrative therapy to help clients discover new stories and create lives they love. When she's not working long hours, she can be found writing or doing cross-stitch in late night establishments or enjoying the therapeutic benefits of boxing, cosplay karaoke, and cat cafes.
Ray Lauk
Dr. Ray Lauk has been a school superintendent and business manager since 1993 in suburban Cook County, downstate Illinois, and overseas at the American School of Brasilia, Brazil. Ray also teaches School Finance at Concordia University in Chicago and at The College of New Jersey’s international master’s program in Bangkok, Thailand. Ray has been transitioning from school leadership to being an entrepreneur. In 2014, he created Dr. Ray’s Toffee, a gourmet toffee candy business that was built on his 38 years of toffee making. Ray is also professional speaker who speaks across the country on a variety of business topics. A marathon runner, Ray is running his eighth Chicago Marathon in October, 2018.
Kate Lorber-Crittenden
Kate is a high school English teacher who is committed to social justice education, equity, and inclusion. When she’s not working, she’s bound to be at the gym or curled up with a good book for a short reprieve; if she’s got a bit more time on her hands, she’s likely getting out of town and into nature . Kate got interested in the storytelling scene about five years ago but has only told a handful of times. She’s thrilled (and a tad a bit nervous, too) about her first appearance on the Story Lab stage!
Michael Sanchez
Michael Sanchez is a filmmaker, songwriter and recovering stand-up comedian. A co-founder of Comedians You Should Know and the storytelling show I SHIT YOU NOT, Michael would give it all up in a heart beat to "make it" with his band The Electric Dylan Controversy. lifejazzfilms.com electricdylan.com
Gillian Summers
Gillian is Irish, and grew up in Liverpool, where everybody inherited the 'gift of the gab'! She is a recently retired R.N., who has lived in Australia, California, Hawaii, Oregon and now, more recently, Chicago. Realizing she may have more stories than she has years left to tell them, her New Year's resolution is to die trying!
APRIL 2018
Steven Ashby
Steven Ashby was born and raised in sunny southern California, but for reasons he can never convincingly explain to Chicagoans, he moved here more than thirty years ago and is utterly happy that he did. He is a professor of Labor Studies at the University of Illinois, and a life-long labor and social justice activist. This is his first time presenting a story.
Rachel Fernandez
Rachel Fernandez is a clueless recent college grad, a dedicated millennial and a vegetable enthusiast. Up until a few weeks ago, she studied Communication and Media, Journalism and Documentary Studies at DePaul, but now she's just trying to survive. Peak Rachel is when she's chopping vegetables for soup while listening to a podcast and thinking about the latest memes. Rachel's a Pisces-Aries cusp, a Taurus moon and a Cancer rising. Show her pictures of your pets and talk to her about your junior high emo phase.
Art Garwin
Art Garwin is a lifetime resident of Chicago. He retired from the practice of law in 2016, having spent the last 27 years of his career working in the field of legal ethics, so you know all his stories are true. While practicing, he also wrote for and performed in an annual gridiron revue and, for a few years, was a member of a very amateur improv group. Now, he’s working on his golf game.
Elain O'Sullivan
Born and educated primarily in Southern California, Elain’s early art training began in neighborhood art schools and community colleges. She focused on art history, drawing, painting, sculpture and later ceramics. Her portfolio was accepted by Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles 1965 but decided to build her own Ceramic Studio instead. In the late 1970’s, Elain apprenticed with the renowned ceramic artist, Ruth Duckworth in Chicago for three years. For the past 36 plus years, Elain has maintained a working art studio in Chicago creating art for corporate and private clients. In her art practice: Drawing, Sculpture and Photography she has come to recognize that her artworks are unconventional enigmatic self-portraits.
Teresa Rawlings
Teresa is a native Nebraskan. She made it to Chicago after a decade in Memphis--where she once met a man on a plane who told her she looked like Elvis, then asked her if she'd like to go to Graceland. She’s been a project manager at a women's research center, a violence against women educator, and now works at a visual note-taking firm. She’s written and performed in two one woman shows and is now delving into storytelling. One of her favorite memories is getting a surprise bump up to first class on a flight from Berlin to Chicago. She found the bathrooms to be roomy and well lit.
Jon Spiegel
Jon Spiegel has been fascinated with storytelling since he was a small boy. His Pop was a confirmed long-form joke teller, and Jon grew up telling all kinds of stories from the stage as a musician (his primary career). He moved to Chicago from the East Coast after graduating from Harvard thirty years ago and has worked with The Old Town School, the Goodman Theatre, Blue Man Group, the Lyric Opera, the Northlight and many other others. He is a songwriter and a playwright and most recently rediscovered storytelling. He has told stories in Chicago at Story Jam, Do Not Submit, Illinois Storytellers, TenX9, and is now delighted to make his Story Lab debut!
MARCH 2018
Thomas Besore
Tom Besore delivers sailboats across the ocean. He joins volunteer delivery crews taking small sailboats from the Chesapeake to the Caribbean, a journey of 1500 miles and ten days offshore. These journeys provide great material for adventuresome stories of life at sea. As a lifelong resident of the Chicago area, he's passionate about the city's history. He started a neighborhood walking group called the Windy City Explorers which after eight years has grown to eight thousand members. They meet at neighborhood train stops and wander around discovering the best hidden gems throughout the city. Tom loves to share his city with others and will enjoy telling us a few stories he's collected along the way.
Patricia Brennan
After growing up in a small Iowa town, I migrated to the University of Wisconsin just in time for the riotous sixties. Then it was onto New York City to work as a waitress (what else do you do with an English degree?) before breaking into educational publishing and children's book writing. Last year I discovered the vibrant community of Chicago storytelling -- and now I can relive some of those exciting, tumultuous and crazy old days.
Matthew J. Lipman
Matthew J. Lipman is a Chicago based actor – writer – storyteller and philosopher (with a degree to prove the last one). Life is about gathering stories and its meaning can be found in the sharing of them. Matthew believes that walking a beat won’t give you a story unless you can learn to listen to your own footsteps on the pavement in the dark of night. That which defines us need not pay the bills.
Jon Hane
Jon is a graduate of the McGyver School of Excellence where he studied knife throwing, duct-tape construction and wilderness survival. He has been an exterminator, a women's shoe salesman, a meat packing plant security officer, Presbyterian youth minister, a videographer for an Aurora Mayoral attack ad, a Field Museum beetle collections volunteer and an after-school teacher in the Chicago projects of Cabrini-Green and Altgeld Gardens. He is not a expert in anything, but marginally competent at many things. He hopes that is the case with his story telling.
Sara Mathers
Sara is the Director of Organizing for a community organization committed to racial, social and economic justice. She likes interrupting people during dinner to talk about politics, whiskey soda and bitters, and all things inappropriate.
Jeff Suskin
Jeff Suskin and his twin brother Hart are best friends. They were adopted from a Russian orphanage and age two, and grew up in Evanston. Jeff currently lives in a group home in Wilmette. He has been a fan of Storylab since his mother brought him to an event several years ago. He was inspired by the fact that everyone has a story to share. Plus, his mom says, he has had an interesting life.
FEBRUARY 2018
Lesley Ames
Lesley is a world explorer, nature lover and founder of BonViage, a local travel company. From her first solo adventure gutting fish in Alaska to breaking free from the corporate jungle of Chicago and finding personal peace in Portugal, Lesley believes life is best lived and learned outside your comfort zone. She has traveled to over 30 countries and has a life-changing story to share for every one. When not planning her next adventure, she enjoys long walks along Lake Michigan with her miniature schnauzer Stanley, sitting at street side cafes and turning strangers into new friends.
Reed Evans
Reed Evans is a sustainability consultant and educator and the Founder of Scale it Up! Sustainability Training for Women Entrepreneurs, a non profit program focused on providing triple-bottom-line business training for entrepreneurs. Many years ago, she was a double threat actor/dancer. Currently, she's writing a single book with the working title: Inspiring Entrepreneurial Women: Creating Healthy, Resilient Planet. And, making ends meet includes work as a teacher of university seminars and PIlates. She recently took a standup comedy class and learned that she has no idea how to write a one-liner, but that she does have some strange and fun stories to tell.
Chris Forte
Chris Forte, born and raised in suburban Clarendon Hills, grew up in an artistic, creative family. Obsessed as a youth with baseball, wood sculpture, antique repair, cars and some shenanigans we can’t talk about, he went on to earn a degree in dentistry and raise two boys. His latest interests include yearly trips to Scotland, Crossfit, watercolor painting, cooking, creative writing, and storytelling.
Camille King
Hi! I'm Camille King and I work as a Freelance Costume Production Assistant for film. I love reading and writing in my spare time, and when I'm not choosing a bomb ass outfit, you can find me daydreaming my next great fictional love story.
Caroline Mooney
30 year veteran of sales and marketing, and nationally recognized expert in the field of consumer promotions, Caroline has traveled from sea to shining sea calling on the top 200 consumer packaged goods companies. Thankfully no longer a road warrior, she now develops retail marketing campaigns for her former clients and thinks about telling stories of her sales adventures.
Onyi Okoroafor
Onyi grew up on the East Coast but is now on his 2nd stint in Chicago. Over the years, he's learned a lot from exploring the intersection of his Nigerian heritage and American upbringing. He enjoys getting to learn about people through their stories and is trying to become a better listener (you can ask his partner how he's doing!). Onyi believes in the power of being comfortable being uncomfortable and enjoys storytelling events as an opportunity to share and learn.
JANUARY 2018
Leah Brenner
Leah is a native of Pennsylvania who arrived in Chicago (via Indianapolis) 2.5 years ago in a rash attempt to escape monotony and pursue her previously successful acting career. Here in Chicago she feverishly fills her time biking around the city attending as many theatre, storytelling, and queer-focused performance events as time allows, tirelessly attending auditions around the Midwest, and enjoying her daytime work of keeping a roomful of privileged toddlers alive and maybe, just maybe, teaching them a thing or two about consent. Gotta start early.
Mark Burns
Forty-something year old former engineering who is now a consultant and still trying to figure out what he wants to be when he grows up (sadly, trust fund baby is not a job you can apply for). As an engineering student at U of I in Champaign and an MBA candidate at University of Chicago, I got to see fun die twice. I've completed the Second City Improv training A-E and have been playing with my group, Standing Backwards, for the past several months. I started improv as a way to deal with my anxiety over public speaking, and I'm doing this story telling to push myself even further. I enjoy biking, running, and swimming and sometimes I even do them back to back to back. (though not in that order)
Beatriz Jamaica
Beatriz Jamaica is from Chicago. She became a mother at the ripe old age of 16. Her daughter, Lisa, became her inspiration as she persevered in her endeavors. She took Lisa with her to Cornell University and pursued her Linguistics degree (she secretly wanted to major in theater). From there the naïve pair ventured to Santa Barbara as Mom pursued her MA in Education and daughter began first grade. They returned to Chicago to be with extended family a few years later. Beatriz was an academic advisor at UIC for over fourteen years. She is now pursuing her passion in acting as she has made appearances in Chicago Fire, Chicago PD as well as a few films, Unexpected, On the Downlow and Sunday in the Middle of Nowhere. Beatriz is now a proud grandma of three and babysits often as Lisa pursues her career as a bilingual education teacher.
Debi Lewis
Debi Lewis is a website designer and writer living in Evanston with her husband, two daughters, and an apathetic lizard. She’s new to storytelling on stage but not to storytelling on the page, having published stories and essays in fits and starts over the last two decades, making dozens of dollars to justify the two degrees in creative writing she so wisely earned. When she’s not working or writing, she’s perfecting a recipe, playing the fiddle, or laughing with her family.
Katie McKenzie
After a 10 year stint as a human tumbleweed, Katie has returned to the shores of Lake Michigan, where people appreciate ending a sentence with a good preposition. She currently works at a medical association, helping medical students ("zygotes") figure out what kind of doctors they'd like to become, but, also, collating. (So very much collating.) In her free time, Katie enjoys leading knitting club at the local library (living proof that there is a gang for every gangster), takes stupidly long bike rides, and frequently laughs til she cries over her 4 brothers' combined shenanigans.
Jessy Lauren Smith
Jessy Lauren Smith is a Chicago-based writer, educator, producer, and claymation enthusiast whose plays have been performed in Chicago, Colorado, Massachusetts, and Texas. She has been an artist-in-residence at Ragdale and Blast Theory, and has told stories with 2nd Story, Story Lab, and That Maxwell Bitch, among others. She is also a founding member of Living Room Playmakers, a playwright-driven collective that writes plays for unusual spaces. She holds an MFA from Northwestern, in the palm of her hand, for an hour each day. jessylaurensmith.com
DECEMBER 2017
Terry Burke
Terry Burke is a retired attorney and high school football and basketball coach. A native Chicago Southsider, he is the only Cubs fan in the family and spent the past few seasons working at Wrigley doing his part to bring the World Series home! His interest in storytelling and writing began with researching his Chicago family history. And there are stories to tell!
Joe Kreitzer
Joe Kreitzer, 39, has lived in Uptown for the last 10 years and in the Chicago area his entire life. Joe works downtown for a software company but gets his inspiration for performances at 2nd City, Toastmasters, and Story Telling via his marriage, young daughter, and questionable decisions.
Jennifer Ould
Jennifer Ould (pronounced "old") moved to Chicago from North Carolina 13 years ago and found home here. She has a Master of Divinity degree and, in addition to her day job at a progressive seminary in Hyde Park, she works in leadership at Gilead - an inclusive church that meets in a Rogers Park bar to tell true stories that change lives. She's a sunshine, cider, and bourbon lover who completed her first marathon in October, occasionally preaches, and blogs at jennifereould.com.
Gabriel Sheridan
Gabriel Sheridan once told a story at the Moth about how the universe wanting her to be a lesbian and forgot to mention she is straight. Which in itself would not be an issue except she really would like to meet a guy...so that didn't help. See, she is funny and sad… Spends most of her time with 7 year old people in a public school and truly loves her work! Hoping to entertain a crowd for a few minutes of free therapy.
Nathan Stevens
Nathan is 31 years old who has called Chicago home for the last 11 years. As an award winning screenwriter, Nathan naturally found a semi-fulfilling career in a field that has nothing to do with the film degree he earned and thousands of dollars he still owes Columbia College Chicago. Nathan credits his last 3 years of happiness to the time spent with his wonderful partner while they continue to garden, travel, and laugh as much as possible. Fun Fact: While this is being read aloud to all of you, Nathan is currently experiencing a mini heart-attack and existential crisis.
Valerie Williams
Valerie is a joyful human being who has spent the past 30 years listening to other people’s life stories as a licensed clinical social worker therapist. From psychiatric mental health to hospice, addictions to trauma, there’s pretty much a life experience she hasn’t encountered. When she’s not listening to people, she talks to her chocolate lab, Montana, who has made life a great adventure since 2009. Tonight, she decided it’s time to tell one of her own stories officially on stage for the very first time.
NOVEMBER 2017
Steve Fehr
Steve likes crossword puzzles and frisbee, a lot. Outside of that he is an international educator that has been adventures from around the world. Despite all of this excitement, he is true to his Ohio roots and loves the outdoors. After he left Ohio he had a 3.5 year layover in Korea on his way to Chicago. It should be noted that he has never told a story in front of an audience before, but thoroughly enjoys meeting strangers and hearing their stories. He figured others may feel the same way, so what better way than to share a story with strangers.
Cynthia Bogorod
Although Cynthia makes her living in digital content for business, she is a storyteller and fiction writer at heart. Originally from New York, she has made Chicago her home for over 17 years and wouldn't dream of rooting for those teams from Queens and the Bronx. She has also lived in England, Israel, Spain, Seattle and, funnily enough, Connecticut.
Arnold Kas
Arnold Kas has been engaged with storytelling from the first weeks of This Much Is True - when the audience was one table of friends and other storytellers. During his years in storytelling audiences, he has learned road trips, paper products, life as a tour roadie in the 1970s, a mom in New York City, and mulitple views of the Bartman foul and last year's World Series. He is a Chicago-based improviser and has started to develop a voice about his own story. He's performed at Identity Flip and Mac & Cheese as an Idea Potluck Dish. He is an Urban Transportation Planner and Logistics Analyst and a professional dreamer who tries to make people think the good idea was theirs. Arnold's roommate is an adorable white haired cat.
Katie McKenzie
After a 10 year stint as a human tumbleweed, Katie has returned to the shores of Lake Michigan, where people appreciate ending a sentence with a good preposition. She currently works at a medical association, helping medical students ("zygotes") figure out what kind of doctors they'd like to become, but, also, collating. (So very much collating.) In her free time, Katie enjoys leading knitting club at the local library (living proof that there is a gang for every gangster), takes stupidly long bikerides, and frequently laughs til she cries over her 4 brothers' combined shenanigans.
Jim Morsch
Jim is new to public storytelling but a lawyer and adjunct law professor by profession so he has been telling his clients’ stories for years. He likes messy stories, stories of redemption, stories of real lives lived. His storytelling heroes include John Prine and Sandra Tsing Loh. He thanks his friends and colleagues for putting up with his need to inject his stories into conversations, regardless of topic. He believes that no matter what happens in life, there is a good story in there somewhere.
Jennifer Saito
Jennifer is a native Californian turned New Yorker turned proud Midwesterner. Her longest career has been in group fitness, as she truly loves the active life. Though instructing has always come naturally to her, public speaking has not. Yes, as a child, she entered many a speech contest, resulting in many tears...on stage. Ha! She is here tonight to see if years of adulthood will help ease the tears...or will those years have only generated more fodder for tears? We shall see!
OCTOBER 2017
Thaer Aburmishan
He is an advocate and speaker about the nature of addiction, recovery and the human condition as a whole. He loves to ride motorcycles and is currently trying earn his pilots license. Also, he is the head of janitorial services at his house and the lead engineer for waste management for his kitchen. In his free time, he does everything possible to make his wife happy and to avoid being yelled at.. he's in charge of a whole crew of ZERO people and loves working with all of them.
Randy Ford
Randy Ford moved to Chicago from Tennessee with a 15-year layover in Washington, D.C. In 2016, he launched First Story Strategies, which helps nonprofits tell the story of their work.
Sade Hutchinson
Sade Hutchinson is a comedy writer who hails from Chicago. After studying Psychology and Theatre at Lewis University in Romeoville, IL, she moved back to Chicago to enroll in the Second City Training Center. There she completed the Sketch Comedy Writing Program, and began to work on sketch shows throughout the city. Her true, yet amusing stories provide a unique perspective on navigating through life as a Queer Black woman. Currently, she is the Content Editor for sex KiKi, which is an educational pop up forum that provides self care resources to femme-identified individuals and trans women of color. In her down time, you can find her day drinking in a Chipotle or crying in the bathroom of that same Chipotle.
Caryn Klein
Caryn Klein is a mother,grandmother and costume director. She has been telling stories about the adventures she and her family and friends have shared, since she was a teenager,Her audience has been her family and friends. She see the world as a wonderful place and likes to get on the roller coaster of life and enjoy the ride.
Richard Norby
Richard’s professional experience is wide-ranging and colorful. It includes being a sailor, an opera singer, a writer, a marketing executive, a web developer and an actor. He is currently MC for two popular Chicago shows: Loose Chics, and Cafe Cabaret.
Sandy Suminski
Sandy Suminski is an advertising copywriter who’s proudest commercial achievement was having the Dairy Fairy put the “yum” in calcium. She is a memoir writer and mental health advocate who’s trying to overcome her writer’s block by replacing it with stage fright.
SEPTEMBER 2017
Paul Baffico
Paul Baffico is a Vietnam veteran who served with the 101st Airborne Division in 1970 and 1971 as a communications platoon leader. He flew 206 combat assaults with the Screaming Eagles and earned the Silver Star, the Air Medal with 7 oak leaf clusters, the Bronze Star with 1 oak leaf cluster, the Army Commendation Medal, and the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry. He is a monthly volunteer docent for the National Park Service at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC where he has served for 136 consecutive months; is a certified Veteran Peer Support Specialist, the 2012 Red Cross Military Hero of the Year for Greater Chicago, and is the President of the Lake County Veterans and Family Services Foundation, a non-profit charity that he founded in 2012. His book, Last Mission for a Reluctant Patriot, is about his life journey in dealing with the Vietnam experience and the indelible residual memories of combat. It was published on Amazon and Kindle in 2015.
Mike Duffy
Raised in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, with a BA in fine art from Colorado College. I run a small business in Chicago with my daughter Rose, and recently published From Chicago To Vietnam: A Memoir of War(Sept. 2016).
Bob Gorman
Bob Gorman is a peer support specialist with the Lake County Veterans and Family Services Foundation in Grayslake, Illinois. After graduating from the University of Notre Dame, he entered the Army in 1968, serving as Editor of the Airborne Quarterly for the 18th Airborne Corps at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. He also served as Public Information Officer for the 1st Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division serving near Hue, Vietnam. He is married to Mariann and has three children and nine grandchildren.
John King
John King has lived in Chicago suburbs all his life with exception of 4 yrs in Marine Corps. John is a Vietnam Veteran having served in country from September 1967 to October 1968. After the service he completed his college education on the GI Bill and enjoyed a long career in the insurance industry. Currently retired, John and his wife split their time between Chicago area and Florida where he enjoys golf, fishing and not shoveling snow!
Josephine Mulvihill
I am from Buffalo,New York. I graduated from D'Youville College in 1967 with a BSN in Nursing. The day after graduation I drove to Newport Rhode Island for Navy orientation. I served 2 years at Great Lakes ,Illinois from 1967-1969. Moved to Chicago after the Navy and worked at the VA Lakeside Hospital. After getting married and starting a family, I worked in pediatrics. Since 1995 I have gone on yearly Medical Missions to Bolivia, Ecuador, Kenya or the Philippines.
Steve Mulvihill
Grew up in Kankakee, IL. Bachelor of Architecture from University of Norte Dame in 1968. Commissioned an ensign in the US Navy Civil Engineer Corps in June 1968. Assigned to Mobile Construction Battalion 40 and deployed for 9 months to Phu Bai combat base that was 8 miles south of Hue RVN, 8 months after the Tet Offensive. Returned to CONUS for 6 months and redeployed with 16 men to Xuan Loc RVN as officer-in-charge of Seabee Team 4004. The Seabee Team did civic action projects. Got out of active duty in January 1971 and went to graduate school at University of Chicago. Got an MBA from the U of C in 1973. Continued in Architecture and founded ARCON Associates, Inc. in 1979, specializing in education projects. I will retire from there in October. I functioned as the managing partner for architectural forensics for the last 38 years.
AUGUST 2017
Brad Finkeldei
Brad Finkeldei went from buying his confidence with a big corporate paycheck to now inspiring entrepreneurs to face their own fears. He wouldn't be here today if he hadn't met a man in his journey that reminded him he could be powerful in this world. That man, Rafael, left Brad with a tiny rubber chicken to remind him to step into his fears and believe in himself. To stop being a chicken! A year after Brad met Rafael he was killed in a terrorist attack and Brad decided to carry on his message to pay it forward and continue the message of making a difference for others. Brad's dedicated his life to empowering entrepreneurs to step into their fears and make a difference in the world. He reminds entrepreneurs it's not about making money but the person you become in the journey to make the difference you're out to make.
Julie Gaynes
Julie Gaynes enjoys traveling the world collecting stories of the supernatural. After graduating from Oberlin College with focuses in Creative Writing and Religion, she received a fellowship to teach Creative Writing and English in Indonesia. In her two years living in South-East Asia, she joined an acrobatic dance troupe, with whom she performed as a Javanese demon. She also edited and illustrated an anthology of local myths. Each day she made it her business to milk stories out of strangers, which fueled her curiosity across South-East Asia, Ghana, Israel, and most recently Peru and Bolivia, where she volunteered as a journalist. She loves filthy markets and dreams of bravery.
Sandy Horwitz
After teaching drama in Chicago public high schools, I opened a woman's clothing store which I operated for 43 years. During that time, I never gave up the theater. I was on the Jeff Committee for 5 or 6 years and the monthly buying trips enabled me to see most of the Broadway shows. I have always been a storyteller, but only with my friends. I began "performing" storytelling several years ago but this is my first appearance in Chicago.
Jake Langenfeld
Jake is a long-time attendant of Chicago live literature, but a first time teller. When he's not talking about maps or science fiction you can find him playing board games in bars across the city. By day he's a business analyst at a marketing company, and by night he's probably eating tacos.
Kristen Miano
Kristen Miano was born in Yonkers, NY, a city famous for being the setting of the Broadway musical, Hello, Dolly!, which Kristen has never seen. She works as the Digital Media Coordinator for the United Airline Pilots Union, lives with a gimpy cat named Bilbo, knows more Westerosi history than she probably does American and is a self-proclaimed DnD nerd. Kristen's love of stories is what has motivated a good many of her life decisions and is what brings her here tonight.
Craig Montgomery
Craig Montgomery is a 9 to 5er who spends his days mitigating risk for a logistics company. He is also a brother, guncle, and friend, as well as a writer and long time lover of stories in all of their shapes and sizes. In his spare time he runs a YouTube channel about self-care and emotions that make you question your own existence. You can find him by searching the channel name, WhoEvenAmI?
JULY 2017
Kyle Akerman
Kyle Akerman was born and raised in Illinois and has never lived outside of the state. Luckily he has expanded his worldview by traveling around the world both for work and pleasure. Kyle is a recovering engineer turned internet marketer and enjoys helping small businesses grow. Kyle recently completed the Improv programs at Second City and the Annoyance Theater and wishes he had discovered Improv 20 years earlier. Kyle volunteers with the Chicago Independent Radio Project (CHIRP Radio) and loves playing music for passionate music fans during his weekly CHIRP show. Unbeknownst to Kyle he had a 5-second on-air appearance as "Unidentified Man #2" in a 2016 NPR feature on Low Power Radio. Also, Kyle has one of the Top 5 worst birthdays - the day after Christmas.
Jamie Bliss
Jamie Bliss is a mysophobic old lady with a fear of all things scary and a zero tolerance policy for bad grammar. She graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in English and has half of a double masters in Special and Elementary Ed. from DePaul. She currently works in advertising. Three years ago, Jamie signed up for an improv class in an effort to combat her crippling anxiety and has been taking classes and performing ever since. She is obsessed with her cat (but has been told she can't get a second until she gets a boyfriend). She is very nerve-cited to be part of Story Lab!
Scott Goehring
Scott is Southern Transplant from Montgomery, Alabama who is thrilled to be making his Story Lab debut. A graduate of The Second City Conservatory, Scott has performed in various theaters and venues throughout Chicago as a writer and director of sketch comedy and improvisation, and occasional drag queen. Scott would like to thank Hillary Clinton for hugging him that one time at a rally and for shouldering the weight of a nation divided. He would also like to thank Jennifer Lopez for single-handedly bringing back the sequin bodysuit as acceptable cocktail attire.
Selena Kyle
I'm a litigator for a nonprofit environmental group. I love climbing, being outside, fish, awkward moments, and various shades of green.
Wes Meador
Wes Meador was a theatre kid who wound up working in advertising. After spending nearly 15 years focusing on digital media planning in advertising agencies and not having the energy to live like a human outside of work hours, he decided to take a year off to travel, spend time with friends and family and just remember what it was like to live in the real world. Luckily, his time off morphed into a consulting practice, so now he has time to help clients make smarter decisions about their digital marketing while making time to listen to stories, tell stories and, most importantly, spend time with people making stories worth telling.
Danielle Snow
Danielle Snow is a long-time audience member but first time storyteller who has lived in Chicago for the past seven years. She works as a professional pastry cook and loves playing around with chocolate, yeasted dough, and homemade ice cream. When she's not in the kitchen, Danielle is either out and about (usually on her bike) exploring Chicago's wealth of restaurants and bars or-- more likely than not-- at home with a book. She's hoping to eradicate her fear of public speaking through exposure therapy (or at least to tell a story and have fun doing it!).
JUNE 2017
Harrison Jones
Hello everyone, my name is Harrison Jones. I am originally from Brighton, Michigan which is a tiny town outside of Ann Arbor. I am a recent graduate of Michigan State University with a Dual BA in Comparative Cultures and Arabic Language with a focus in Economic Development. I love traveling and have spent time in Jordan and Morocco. I am always looking for another adventure either down the street or across the country! I try and get outdoors to go hiking, camping, and fly-fishing whenever I possibly can either in northern Michigan or out in Montana. I am a huge fan of architecture and I have wanted to live in the Second City my entire life. I currently live in Uptown and am incredibly grateful to have finally made it to the big city.
Sarah Leibov
Sarah Leibov is a writer whose personal essays have appeared in a range of local publications. She is also an instructor of the Feldenkrais Method, a practice that applies therapeutic movement to enhance overall awareness and use of the body. She discovered Feldenkrais in Israel when she took a class by accident. She couldn’t read the Hebrew schedule, so she signed up thinking it was yoga. When not writing or teaching, she enjoys reading and traveling with her family.
Lauren Leffel
A Michigander and Spartan at heart, Lauren Leffel moved to the Windy City in 2016 seeking new adventures and nearly daily food and music festivals; needless to say, it's been easy for Lauren to call Chicago home despite living here/there for less than a year. Having been empowered by constant change and need for adaptation while growing up, Lauren's ultimate goal is to bring quality education to people of all socio-economic backgrounds and plans to do so by receiving her teaching certificate within the next year. In her free time, Lauren is either over-watering her cacti, steeping loose-leaf tea, eating tacos, or dancing in the rain. She's excited to tell you about her travel adventures (Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Spain to name a few), life's trials, tribulations, and successes, and may even throw in a few Spanish words if you're lucky
Jodi Meusel
Jodi Meusel grew up on a 2nd generation farm here in northern Illinois, working at her family's ice cream shop. After spending her sophomore year in high school as an exchange student in Germany, she fell in love with cross-cultural learning and travel. She and her husband spent 2 years teaching English in Japan followed by another 8 years of working internationally in Switzerland, England, and China. Today, she works in global production and sourcing in the toy and game industry. A perfect combination of fun and travel. She moved back to Chicago 3 years ago and continues to be impressed with the public transportation here. She is an avid movie goer and now calls Uptown home.
Alex Sanchez
Alex Sanchez is a super fun dude. When not rolling dice in his weekly D&D sessions, between his Netflix and Crunchyroll binging sessions, he's a staple of Chicago geek culture - having created and grown one of the city's most popular board game meetups in his former role at G-Mart comics. Today he pushes more paper than comics, having gone all corporate. But he's still a geek at heart.
MAY 2017
Anne Beall
Anne is a market-researcher by day and writer by night. She’s written about research, body language, feral cats, and the connection between humans and animals. She believes that animals make us human and help us in more ways than we will ever know. Originally from Massachusetts, she’s lived in Chicago for almost 20 years and enjoys running on the lakefront, gardening, having spirited discussions with friends, and sampling dark beers.
Tabitha Bogart
Originally from Southern California, Tabitha has embarrassed herself in front of the likes of Damon Wayans, Cisco and Cuba Gooding Jr. In her 30th year of life, she gave herself a 7 week deadline to sell 90 percent of her belongings, find a room for rent and move to Chicago. A recent storytelling junkie, she attends as many events as possible because they are cheaper than therapy and more satisfying than Netflix.
Lisa Ebel
Lisa Ebel is a LOVER of STORIES! She loves stories because they entertain, educate, heal, transform and empower. She rarely makes it through the telling of one story without interrupting herself to tell another story.
Carla Marchese
Carla is the second youngest of seven and grew up in the southwest suburbs of Chicago. She studied Theatre performance at UIC and went on to graduate from the Conservatory program at The Second City. She spends her days as an insurance agent, while still maintaining her love of performance. She is a company member with Old World Theatre Company - UIC’s alumni theatre group. She enjoys yoga, stand up comedy, poker, coffee, and traveling - most recently to the south of India.
Karen Perille
Karen Perille is excited for her first appearance at Story Lab! She's a Chicago-native who lived in St. Louis for several years before coming back home to her family and hometown. A lifelong reader and sometimes writer, she works as an executive assistant in the tech industry.
Reece Quesnel
Reece Quesnel is a native Minnesotan who by some stroke of luck managed to leave that magical northern land where you can't start your car in the winter and can't get away from the mosquitoes in the summer. Before coming to Chicago,he spent a couple of years traveling the East coast and learning the previously foreign and non-Minnesotan concepts of "conflict" and "being direct". By day, he works at a standing desk and takes frequent foosball breaks to reconcile the fact that his software job has very little meaningful impact on the world. By night, he works on his wok technique and makes homemade pizza. This June will be his 2 year anniversary with Chicago, and he'll likely celebrate by donning his wetsuit to skirt the hypothermic effects of Lake Michigan's icy waters, and warm back up with the local elixer known as Malort.
APRIL 2017
Miriam Carey
Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Miriam Carey is a writer and editor who has published three regional interest books: Backroads of Ohio, 52 Romantic Outings in Greater Cleveland, and 365 Ways to Meet People in Cleveland. She was also the founding editor of LongWeekends magazine, the travel editor for Ohio magazine, and wrote for regional and national publications as a freelancer. Miriam moved to Chicago in 2008 to transition to web editing and has worked with clients like Kohler, Motorola, and HowStuffWorks. She’s currently the director of marketing at eContext and spends her free time thinking up the next tale to weave for Chicago’s live storytelling scene.
Anthony Hernandez
I am Half Mexican and Half Irish, I know, you can barely see my Irish side. I love my family, especially my sisters! I have three younger sisters that are so supportive of their older brother and can make me laugh like no one else. I love the sound of laughter and making people happy! In my fantasy life, i would be a professional Skateboarder. I guarantee you that I can beat you at Tony Hawk pro skater ( any of them ) but personally love Skate 1-3 and hope they come out with a fourth one for xbox one. I hope one day to be featured in a Thrasher Magazine, but not for my skateboarding skills, but for my love of the game. Family, Skateboarding and laughter is life!
Rhona Jacobs
I'm a retired RN , specializing in Maternal-Child Care for most of my career. I often comment on what is going on around me.I've been told my comments are right on and pretty funny. I've been told I'm a good storyteller. I'm in an improv class at a Chicago Senior Center, which I'm really enjoying.
Gordon Medlock
Gordon Medlock is a psychotherapist, psychology researcher, career coach, and educator – and married to a compulsive story teller who lured him into the world of storytelling. He has recently been doing research on the creative process of artists, and this is his first foray into the world of performance art.
John Highberger
John has been an actor for over 28 years, performing on stage, as well as in films and industrial videos. He is new to the world of performance storytelling, but did have a story that was published in 2014 as part of a collection entitled, ‘Dammit I Learned a Lot from that Son-of-a-Gun’ (available on Amazon in both paperback and audio versions, where he had his first opportunity to do a voiceover by reading his own story). His biggest claim to fame so far was performing in a film entitled, ‘This Afternoon’ which was shown at the 2014 Chicago International Film Festival. He has a new adventure on the horizon and he gives thanks to Sean and Pilot for making his house a home!
Reba Meshulam
Reba Meshulam is a video producer, making a living telling her client's stories. Her most eye opening experience (so glad you asked) was as a photographer at the Ponderosa Sun Club, a nudist camp. A native Chicagoan, she now lives and works in the northern suburbs where her office is six steps from her kitchen. When she's not downing handfuls of sprouted cashews, she's doing down dog in her yoga studio.And speaking of dogs, she wishes people were more like the
MARCH 2017
Julia Garfield
Julia is an explorer and mystic, embodied and present. She makes art, is a healer and bodyworker, a gardener permaculturist and nature-loving visionary, has traversed and experienced many things and ways. She has lived in Chicago most of her life, with a good chunk of time spent elsewhere. She likes to meditate and is always learning. She often enjoys listening to and sharing stories.
Jesús Manteca
Jesús is a self-described, middle-class socialite who grew up in Mexico, Arizona, and Chicago. He's a photographer, officiant, strategic planner, copywriter, and yogi wannabe. When he's not telling stories he dreams about taking up running again someday when the weather is perfect and he gets enough sleep. He also believes in the power of human connection and makes it his life's journey to connect people to one another just for the fun of it.
Lupe Nuñez
I'm a Director of IT at a major video game company, 22q Dad, first generation Mexican-Chicagoan, the baddest emcee you've never heard...and now a story teller. With all but a couple of creative dreams and ambitions completely faded away, I was looking for an outlet. I felt like I needed to fuel the creative fire or it may extinguish completely. So, I took a storytelling class and started telling stories around Chicago. I found what I was looking for. It's been an extremely gratifying experience and the response has been great. I thoroughly enjoy crafting a story and getting up in front of an audience and sharing that moment together. I look forward to telling more stories in my own way and taking the whole experience and medium even further.
Marc Lazar
Marc Lazar has been fascinated with all kinds of stories ever since he can remember. Perhaps it had something to do with the countless hours he spent sitting in front of the T.V. during Walter Cronkite's newscast in the mid-70s. Don't blame his parents - it was one of the few things that would calm him as a tantrum-prone toddler. This led him down the path to become a journalist, before he switched careers to work with teens and adults on the autism spectrum. That's where he really learned about the power of stories to connect people, especially those who might see the world in a different light. After performing several times at storytelling open mics, this will be Marc's first performance as a featured storyteller.
Laura Sudec
Laura Sudec is a social worker by profession and a research nerd by choice. As a Lab Manager at Northwestern University, she cares about helping children and families and doing rigorous research that will change policy and move the needle. She spends a lot of her free time playing sports and hanging out with her two cats, Pip and Paisley. She came to StoryLab during her first month in Chicago, after moving from Baltimore, Maryland. After 3 1/2 years of attending, she figured it was finally time to bite the bullet.
Brian Wille
Brian Wille survived 15 years in IT and escaped with nothing worse than a bad back, acid reflux, nightmares and teeth ground down to nubs. His work has appeared in The Redacted Files podcast and blog, The Nerdologues Your Stories podcast, This Week in Despair podcast, and Brent P. Newhall's Museum of Fantastic Wonders. You can find him @steamboat77 on Twitter or visit his personal blog, Bad Company: Dungeoneers, Hunters, Aliens and Old Gods where he talks about games and stories.
FEBRUARY 2017
Michael Duffy
Raised in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, with a BA in fine art from Colorado College. I run a small business in Chicago with my daughter Rose, and recently published From Chicago To Vietnam: A Memoir of War (Sept. 2016).
Jeanie Harris
Jeanie Harris was raised in Chicago the last of seven children and by far her mother's best work. She defines herself as an artist although her degree is in Radiologic Technology.. go figure. Her passions include creative writing, reading, painting, drawing, dressmaking, jewelry making, leather working, and last but certainly not least bringing joy to others thru laughter. Her grandfather and the apple of her eye was a story teller. He was the best. He has since past but his spirit lives on thru Jeanie. It was called telling lies back then. We've come a long way baby.
Sarah Hurd
Sarah Hurd is a writer and radio producer who has lived in New Mexico, Washington, D.C., and Helsinki, Finland. She is passionate about local music and sharing stories with her community. She got her start at a public radio station in Oklahoma City before following her dreams to Chicago. She now lives in Logan Square and works as an Assistant Producer for WBBM Newsradio.
Terri Silverstone
Terri Silverstone has been telling stories since 7th grade when she convinced her social studies class to pretend they were in a TV studio and be interviewed by her about current events. Her yellow jump rope served as her microphone. Terri’s love of entertainment and media brought her to many jobs with the one closest to her heart being 30 years at Viacom, where she was an account director selling eyeballs for dollars at MTV, Nickelodeon and VH1. Terri is now experiencing a new avenue of life through retirement. She thanks her lucky stars for shooting her to Chicago’s Storytelling Community. She thanks TenX9, Scott Whitehair, Mary Foss and all the fab-o story tellers she’s been fortunate enough to hear.
Julie Soroko
Julie moved to Chicago in a state of confusion when she was 24. At 25, she finally got to dump a boyfriend instead of being the one to get dumped. She played a lesbian named Brenda in a play so shitty she didn't invite anyone to see it at 26. By 27 she experienced her first full blown hangover and at 28 she put on a cabaret at Davenports piano bar where she realized she had no idea how to write a show so she a took a storytelling class. She rediscovered Alice in Chains at 29 and wondered how she ever did without them, and a few days ago at her job, she heard someone say it was a huge red flag if you meet an attractive woman whose still single at 30. She hopes her storytelling skills will steer her towards less ridiculous things.
Reuben Westmaas
Reuben Westmaas is a writer and editor who works for Groupon and the arts publication Sixty Inches From Center. He has moved to Chicago in 2007, which means that in a couple of months he will have lived in Chicago longer than anywhere else. He is a whiskey enthusiast, a novice Spanish speaker, a podcast addict, and the author of thousands of opening chapters to unfinished novels.
JANUARY 2017
McKinley Carter
McKinley Carter has been an actor and singer here in Chicago for over 20 years, performing in theaters big and small. To keep things real, she is a solo cabaret performer, creating her own one-woman shows with personal themes expressed through a variety of music. She bravely leaves the music behind in Storytelling, although it's never very far away. You can find her in her kayak on lake Michigan on any given day over 60 degrees.
Katie Dow
Katie grew up in Minnesota but, apart from 5 years of backpacking around the world, has spent her adult life in Chicago. She's a preschool teacher in Lakeview. In her free time she is probably playing sports, watching British reality TV, or drinking wine.
Rose Duffy
Rose is excited to try a storytelling performance for the first time this evening. She is a jack of all trades: a practicing occupational therapist with experience in sales, fiddle player, swing dancer, and beginning work on her clinical doctorate of occupational therapy! She has always loved listening to others tell their stories, especially her elderly patients while working with them in the hospital. There is something special and beautiful about being the recipient of such personal stories. Now, she wants to try telling a story for others to hear.
Nina Em
Nina Em is a former nurse and spokesperson for people frightened by puppets. She lives with her husband in southwestern Wisconsin without internet access where they manage an isolated conservation property. Nina has performed on stage as a paid consultant and on El platforms and on the #36 Broadway bus in Chicago.
Deb McGarvey
Deb McGarvey is a lapsed storyteller, lifelong writer, and former Chicago actress. Originally from Connecticut, Deb moved to Chicago about a hundred years ago for college, where she fell in love with the art of storytelling. In addition to performing, she worked as a seamstress and dresser for the Lyric Opera, studied improv (briefly) at Second City, sang with an all-female a capella group, and held a variety of day jobs before leaving the theater world to get a Master’s degree in social work. For 7 years, Deb worked with a youth development organization in elementary schools on Chicago’s west side, where her favorite part of her job was working with students on performing their original poetry and partnering with other great organizations to bring in high quality programs.
Paul Teodo
Paul Teodo is the second ever Chicago Moth Grand Slam champion. He has 2 great sons and a love for writing,theatre, storytelling,music, movies, and hanging out with family, “family” being whoever is willing to hang out with and eat with. He was raised in an Italian family on the south side of Chicago that could not hang together unless there was lots of food and lots of stories. One of his favorite sayings in life is this: “The sign of a truly rich man is not he who has the most, but rather he who needs the least” He trys to keep things simple and focus daily on what is really important. His real job is serving as the Chief Operating Officer of an inner city hospital on the south side of Chicago. The hospital is run by a group of caring and committed nuns from Lithuania.
DECEMBER 2016
Emma Mae Brown
Emma Mae Brown graduated with an English B.A. and a writing certificate from Florida International University in Miami, FL. The day after graduation, she packed her car and made the move to Chicago. Since then, she’s worked in book publishing, coffee, blog marketing, and most recently discovered her passion for the nonprofit world. Emma dreams of getting a Masters in creative writing, argues with her two cats on the regular, and shutters at the memory of literally running into a tinder date at the gym. This is her first planned performance.
Krista Damico
Krista Damico is endlessly curious and frequently fascinated. She grew up in Ohio and originally came to Chicago to study at Loyola University Chicago (majored in theatre, triple-minored in philosophy, psychology, and communications). Krista is a fervent advocate of incorporating theatre in every sector of society (if you'd like to know how this will benefit the world, just ask). She's also an amateur neuroscientist. Krista may be found around the city exploring museums, making marinara sauce, attending Illinois Science Council events, fulfilling her civic duty, and singing in the Chicago Artists Chorale. Thanks in advance for listening to her story.
Mike Meyer
Mike Meyer is an Emmy nominated filmmaker, living in Lincoln Square. He’s worked for the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, made a feature film about zombies in heaven, and both Mickey Rooney and Keiysha Cole have both yelled at him. He’s currently directing a documentary about the haunted attraction industry.
Rich Pniewski
Richard Pniewski is a retired award-winning English and Drama teacher. He also has directed plays for Artcraft Theatre in Chicago's Beverly neighborhood and, more recently, for Evergreen Park's Candlelight Theatre. After years of appreciating the storytelling stage at the annual Fox Valley Folk Festival, he has decided to join the storytelling community. He has appeared at the Illinois Storytelling Open Mike, Do Not Submit, Homewood Stories, and the Trail Mix Festival in the South Suburbs.
Claire Podulka
Claire Podulka is a writer, editor, and cat wrangler for an education start-up. She's previously shared stories at Story Club, Is This a Thing?, and got her start right here at Storylab. She lives with her husband in Lincoln Square.
Zoe Stergiannis
Zoe Stergiannis is a semi-recent graduate of DePaul University, where she studied Anthropology and Creative Writing. She has since become a Real Estate Agent's Assistant, an online antique sales warrior, a part-time StoryStudio Chicago class scheduler, a volunteer member of the Discovery Squad at the Field Museum, and a writer whenever she can find a moment to sit down. Currently, she is working on becoming a world explorer who utilizes the creative arts as a way to increase understanding between people and generate positive change in the world, since she is not good enough at math to explore other planets. Zoe also hopes to someday live within one of those capybara hot spring communes in Japan.
NOVEMBER 2016
Anne Abel
Anne Abel is a sociocultural anthropologist. She moved to Chicago in January, 2016 from suburban Philadelphia with her husband, Andy, a visiting professor at The University of Chicago. They intended to stay for four months. However, although Anne hates being alone--it's her biggest fear--in June she decided to stay in Chicago another year, with Andy commuting here from Philadelphia. Anne hopes that the writer Willard Spiegelman is right that retiring to a big city prepares you for the end, that "[t]he anonymity of metropolitan life gets you ready for the anonymity of the grave." Anne discovered Bruce Springsteen late in life and is trying to make up for lost time.
Steve Cohen
Steve has been a Chicagoan for life, albeit with a four-year stint in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan, where he developed his passion for words and telling a strong story (on paper). Now, as a professional corporate communications writer, he does his best to humanize his content and make the complex simple. As a first-time public storyteller, Steve is excited to “scratch his itch” and finally tell one verbally, not through an email, web page or magazine article. Steve enjoys the Amalfi Coast, a proper Old Fashioned, discovering new music before you, fantasy sports and trying to get his two cats to act normal around other humans.
Nneka Dudley
I was born to lead, tell stories, and champion the [im]possible. I was also born to eat tacos and play tennis :-) I'm not a techie, but I love the magic of technology and it's ability to connect people to ideas across cultures and borders. Chicago is my home, startups are my thing, and travel is my passion.
Lindsay Eanet
Lindsay Eanet can be seen around town at shows like Is This A Thing?, Essay Fiesta, That's All She Wrote, You're Being Ridiculous and Story Jam, and next to you at your favorite bar, skipping over all your songs on the jukebox. She has a weakness for reality competition shows and cries an average of four times every episode of American Ninja Warrior. But enough about her, let’s talk about you.
Peter LeGrand
Some decades ago, Peter started one of his many professional careers as a teacher. At the time, even though he did not realize it, he had become a storyteller. Along the way, he has collected some wonderful experiences in work and life. Listing them here would be a challenge however they include: Airline owner, woodworker, boat builder, father of two sons, loyal friend, writer, pig farmer, (briefly!) tour guide, traveler, honored to be Gabi's partner, and lately, a real, honest to goodness story teller! Peter is Dutch by heritage, and has been known to ride a bike AND eat cheese at the same time! Perhaps most importantly, Peter believes in the power of a story to change lives and to make a difference in the world.
Noah Perkins
Hailing from the faraway town of Evanston IL, Noah Perkins is currently a senior at Northwestern University, studying Playwriting. While stories have always been a part of Noah’s life, he never thought about telling them until he stumbled into Rives Collins’ class earlier this year. Since then, Noah has thrown himself into the world of storytelling, performing at The Moth, Do Not Submit, and, most recently, at the 2nd annual Evanston Storytelling Festival. When he is not preparing for Storylab, Noah can be found in various Evanston coffee shops writing an immersive theatre piece that will get its first staged reading in December. Noah is unsure of where he will be after graduation, however, whatever city he ends up in will most certainly have a vibrant scene for stories.
OCTOBER 2016
Brittany Alston
Brittany is a Chicago(land) native who is so excited to make her storytelling debut at Story Lab. Brittany is a former choir and theatre geek who studied at Monmouth College in Monmouth, IL. When she’s not performing, Brittany is thoroughly enjoying her job working for an amazing non-profit organization, Heartland Alliance. She also enjoys writing, reading, coloring and lying in her bed doing absolutely nothing. Brittany would also like to thank her big family, and her own awkwardness and social anxiety, for being never-ending sources for great stories to tell.
Paul Meyer
Paul first acted at 17, performing both comedic and dramatic interp in high school tournaments. Which led him to creating comedic commercials and dramatic documentaries. Paul then worked on a non-fiction book on the Religious Right. For 13 years. Looking for comic relief from his serious book, in 2015 he took classes at Second City and Chicago Dramatists. This past March, he combined comedy and drama in his solo show, Marching Orders at Chicago Solo Theatre. Paul is thrilled to perform his latest work, Withdrawal for the first time at Story Lab.
Carol Moss
Carol Moss believes in the healing power of storytelling and regularly indulges in it through singing, writing, performing and working as a psychotherapist. Recent appearances include "Story Jam" at the Wilmette Theater and "Do Not Submit."
Nicky Pitman
Nicky Pitman hails from Southern California and is a certified Valley Girl – like, totally! Currently teaching Drama to 4th-8th graders in Lake Forest, Nicky has worked as an actress, food server, lab tech, camp director, doctor’s assistant, public relations director, and held a variety of other positions that have given her lots of fodder for storytelling.
Anne Purky
Anne Purky is an astronaut & mom who studied film at Northwestern & writing at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has performed at Louder Than a Mom, Ragdale, Tellin' Tales Theatre & will be in Story Jam in December & Story Club next year. She lives in the Fake Forest up north with her 17 y.o. amazing daughter and husband.
Sebastian Schmidt
Sebastian was born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1985, so technically born in West Germany back when there was a West Germany, After Chernobyl blew up and blanketed Sebastian with sufficient radiation his parents took him to live in Mexico City, Barcelona, Saint Louis, MO and eventually back to Mexico City. After leaving College in Houston, TX just in time for the Great Recession, Sebastian returned to Mexico where eventually he met his Wife, adopted two elderly dogs and decided to move to Chicago this year so that his wife could pursue an MBA at Kellogg. Sebastian also feel quite awkward about writing in the third person...
SEPTEMBER 2016
Tony Czajkowski
Tony Czajkowski (pronounced Sy-kowski) moved from his family farm in Hadley, MA to Chicago to pursue writing and performing, and storytelling is a natural fit since it’s both. He has studied and performed around Chicago at iO, The Annoyance, and is a graduate of the Second City’s Severn Darden Graduate Program. He would like to thank Scott and everyone who supports live performance. Tony also thanks his family, they’re pretty cool too.
Anne Gottschalk
Anne was born and raised in Colorado, and received her undergraduate degree from Carroll College in Helena, Montana. She moved to Chicago in 2007 to pursue her dreams of being an actor. She is both country mouse and city mouse In September of 2013, she married her amazing husband, Ken. Because Ken is the best, in December of that same year, she was able to quit her job to pursue her Master's Degree in Digital Media and Storytelling. If you don't know what that degree is, feel free to buy Anne a drink after the show. She can't explain it either, but she appreciates the charity. Currently, Anne is a documentary filmmaker, writer, and hustler who takes odd jobs at law firms and pot farms. She enjoys traveling, hiking, reading, listening to music, jogging, and snuggling with her overprotective dog, Moose.
Danielle Holtz
Danielle Holtz is a storyteller from Minnesota. She has performed with Knife & Fork, The Seven Deadly Sins Story Hour, Do Not Submit, Chant Royal and About Women. When she's not onstage, she acts as den mother & hype woman for the Chicago branch of Dance Dance Party Party.
Jesus Manteca
I was born in Mexico and came to the US with my family when I was ten. I've never been in a school longer than 2 years, except high school, and that almost didn't happen. I've been a perpetual transfer student, sometimes by choice, sometimes by force. I got to start over often and learned to talk to strangers right away. Received a bachelors in psychology from DePaul and now work as a content editor and bilingual copywriter.
Liz Reeves
Liz Reeves is rediscovering herself through storytelling! With a background in theater, documentary filmmaking, and counseling, she has always found the human story to be a throughline in her life. Liz grew up in Arizona, and longs to wear her shit-kickers around town and not look like a fool, but has been in the Midwest so long she’s willing to call it home. She is married to her hunky filmmaker-husband, Doug, and has two practically perfect teenage daughters, Sophie and Francie, who make every day worthwhile. Liz loves to learn new languages and traveling, and her family says she is never so happy as when she is planning her next trip!
Adam Shames
Adam is an educator, consultant, songwriter, poet, “Creativity Jam” host, and a former “Teacher of the Year” and non-profit director of an interfaith program for kids. He has designed and facilitated innovation and teambuilding events for more than 120 clients. He lived as a younger adult in San Francisco, where he founded the Kreativity Network, which put together events like this one, but returned to his childhood home of Chicago more than a dozen years ago as the slightly-disillusioned meaning-seeker he still is.
AUGUST 2016
Amanda Chang
Amanda is a hard-working, detail-oriented perfectionist who loves to be busy, but also craves time to lounge at home to watch Netflix. She most enjoys being outdoors in the rare occasion that Chicago weather lands between 60-75 degrees Fahrenheit and partly-sunny. On all other days, she enjoys being indoors playing guitar or piano. During the academic year, she can be found teaching high school engineering for the Chicago Public Schools on the west side. In the summers, she cannot be found, between long road-trips with her life partner Michael and frequenting the lakeshore at early hours to train for triathlons. Amanda first explored storytelling in a graduate school class to satisfy a public speaking requirement and has since made it her mission to tell and listen to stories regularly!
Sarah Corey
Sarah is a writer, filmmaker, digital content creator, New Yorker, Wesleyan University graduate, feminist, pop culture aficionado, Second City improviser, and avid list-maker. She works for an entertainment startup, writes for several online publications, and publishes a bi-weekly email newsletter called Pop Warrior. When she’s not tweeting @SarahHalleCorey, she’s usually usually doing yoga and/or drinking unhealthy amounts of coffee. You can learn more about Sarah at sarahhallecorey.com.
Diana Gabriel
Diana Gabriel is a teaching artist and curator, with a soft spot for handmade purses, scarves, and the perfect combination of potato chips and pickles. She emigrated from Bogota, Colombia, at the worse possible age, 14. But the hormones and moodiness didn’t stop her from sticking with school and earning a BFA from Northern Illinois University, and MFA from Illinois State University, both with an emphasis on nocturnal practices in Painting and Drawing. Diana currently teaches at Harper College in Palatine and College of Lake County in Grayslake, Illinois. Gabriel is the co-founder of TheCGProject, a creative platform for artists and audiences with a shared vision of increasing appreciation and accessibility of Art in our culture.
Joe Jekot
Joe Jekot has been fully engaged in the craft of learning all that is human in the lives of young people and adults. In his vocation as a high school teacher he has found that a well placed and well told tale takes all engaged on a quest for meaning and release. He started his thirty year career teaching religion and proved to his students that their relationship or story with God is really one “whopper” of a tale. And that somewhere out of the saga grows the art and joy of living a human life. Whether a fooll’s tale, a myth, or a personal family legend, stories are the "stuff" or the raw materials from which we create and live out our dreams. Joe has experience the pleasure of performing to all types of groups over the years including: Retirement Communities, Schools, Clubs, Churches, and Festivals.
Cheryl McPhilimy
Cheryl McPhilimy lives in Chicago and has been a car-free, grown-up pedestrian longer than anyone she knows outside of New York. Her two very different hometowns – Detroit and Libertyville – are likely to blame for her quirky worldview. She works as a writer, teacher and consultant.
Diggsy Twain
Mr. Diggs is a dreamer that envisions a world where people are more empathic by understanding each other. He believes storytelling is a powerful tool to help people understand each other. So, he is on a mission to share his experiences on both the north and south sides and hopefully other will join in and share their stories too.
JULY 2016
Brendan Cournane
Brendan grew up on the South Side of Chicago, where most people came from a similar background and an exotic trip was to the Wisconsin Dells. He followed his parents’ advice, getting a good education and became a lawyer only to discover that within that lawyer’s body is a soul filled with wanderlust bursting to get out.
Brendan scratched this itch by traveling the world. He has visited all 50 States and all 7 Continents and he’s seen the world up close as while ran marathons on the Great Wall of China, Patagonia, around Mt. Kilimanjaro and even in Antarctica. And he’s not finished yet - with plans to continue seeing the world in countries yet unvisited as well as returning to some of his favorite spots. Along the way he has collected stories of triumph, failure, love, losses and gains. Those stories have made him who he is today, and he relishes sharing his tales gathered on the journey of life.
Brendan scratched this itch by traveling the world. He has visited all 50 States and all 7 Continents and he’s seen the world up close as while ran marathons on the Great Wall of China, Patagonia, around Mt. Kilimanjaro and even in Antarctica. And he’s not finished yet - with plans to continue seeing the world in countries yet unvisited as well as returning to some of his favorite spots. Along the way he has collected stories of triumph, failure, love, losses and gains. Those stories have made him who he is today, and he relishes sharing his tales gathered on the journey of life.
Andy David
This is Andy's first time performing at Story Lab, though he has begun to attend the "Do Not Submit" storytelling open mics. While he has extensive experience as a writer, he has found the transition to storytelling an interesting challenge. He takes great pleasure in the storytelling of Garrison Keillor, the Moth Radio Hour, David Sedaris, Sarah Vowell, even Mark Twain (as brought to life by Hal Holbrook), He has attended the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee. He has found that, once you look through the storytelling lens, almost any experience has potential to make a great story.
Julia Gordon
Julia Gordon is a Chicago-area educator, actor, writer, and performer. She earned a Masters in the Art of Teaching from National Louis University, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. She has performed in various theatres city-wide, including Emerald City Theatre Company, Strawdog Theatre, and Broadway in Chicago. She values education reform above all else, and works to enrich children's lives daily.
Gene Hoffmann
Gene Hoffmann is a Canadian expat from Toronto with a life-long passion for the power and magic of words, language and story. An artist by vocation; a writer, a raconteur, an astrologer, a healer, a spiritual consultant and an ordained minister with a background in psychology and comparative religion he follows in the storytelling tradition of such philosophical entertainers as Terence McKenna and Alan Watts, creating sacred healing spaces of semantic enchantment in which people can laugh and shudder and wonder and cry as they dance with the beautiful and frightful (and often times frightfully funny) state of their lives. Gene has performed at The Second City, at Open Book on Clark Street, and is currently developing his own venue of what he likes to call interactive teaching stories.
Kari McLean
Kari McLean has lived in Chicago for several decades but was raised in Oxford, Ohio -- home to Miami University--which was a college before Florida was a state. Although she wanted to escape that area after college, she now yearns to return to the Cincinnati area. She enjoys an addiction to celery, coffee, and taxis. In between, she finds the time to tell the occasional story.
Jessy Lauren Smith
Jessy Lauren Smith is a Chicago-based writer, educator, producer, and claymation enthusiast whose plays have been produced in Chicago, Boston, Colorado, and Texas. She has been an artist-in-residence at Ragdale and Blast Theory, and a finalist for a whole mess of playwriting things. She is also Managing Director of the Chicago branch of Living Room Playmakers, a playwright-driven collective that writes plays for unusual spaces. Currently, Jessy is working on Jack’s House, a site-specific play that will premiere at Adventure Stage in November 2016. She holds an MFA from Northwestern, in the palm of her hand, for an hour each day. jessylaurensmith.com
JUNE 2016
Ali Adib
Ali Adib - Born in a developing country during war times. Have lived in 4 mega-cities in 3 different continents. Currently a project manager with an unfulfilled longing for creation, an urban-life addict, and a self-declared intellectual.
Andrew Barbera
Andrew Barbera is a 31 year old life long Chicagoan from the western suburbs. He works in the restaurant industry, and despite having an innate and irrational hatred of the word "foodie", would have to admit that he qualifies as one. (Although he would like to clarify this does not imply that he is a food "snob" in any way) He loves to travel, with his most recent trip being to Barcelona. He has told stories to his friends thousands of times, but this will be his first in a formal setting.
Megan Ensley
Megan is a writer, actor, singer, political activist, aspiring psychologist, and overall nice person. Originally from Kansas, she moved to Chicago in 2012 to pursue comedy and music. She has been seen around town performing cabarets, writing and performing sketch comedy, and singing with the band, The Mashed Potatoes. When not performing make-'em-ups, she can be found at her 9-5, watching Real Housewives, or reading scholarly journals. Megan is a graduate of Wichita State University and The Second City Conservatory.
Isabelle Libmann
Isabelle has lived in the Chicago area for 15 years but still can't answer the question "Where are you from?". She has been a theater major, an event planner, a publicist for a well-known local musician and made the logical next career move and became a personal trainer and nutrition coach in 2010. Isabelle owns IzzyFit Personal Training and coaches in Evanston. Please don't feel weird eating fried food and drinking whiskey in front of her, though; you'll likely find her eating out of your plate and ordering her own drink (Jameson or Powers neat, please). She's happy to be getting back in touch with her creative roots, though, and is thrilled to be telling her story with Story Lab.
Reba Meshulam
Reba Meshulam is a video producer, making a living telling her client's stories. Her most eye opening experience (so glad you asked) was as a photographer at the Ponderosa Sun Club, a nudist camp. A native Chicagoan, she now lives and works in the northern suburbs where her office is six steps from her kitchen. When she's not downing handfuls of sprouted cashews, she's doing down dog in her yoga studio. And speaking of dogs, she wishes people were more like them.
Eric Pedersen
Eric Pedersen grew up in the western suburb of Glen Ellyn and has lived in Chicago proper for the past dozen years. Eric gets little to no satisfaction from his middle management customer service career, which is why he enjoys performing and entertaining. When he isn't performing in improv shows or attempting to train for endurance sporting events he is usually practicing guitar, which he is still not confident enough to do in public.
MAY 2016
Dan Bush
Dan is a writer and performer originally from the south side of Chicago. Having always received very low marks in "exercising self-control" in Catholic grade school, he learned to harness his raspy energy for performing improv and sketch comedy in Chicago. Dan is a graduate of the Second City Conservatory, and has trained and performed around town at other various theatres including iO and in Chicago's Sketchfest. He, along with actor Tom Arnold, are alumni of the University of Iowa.
Melinda Deamon
Melinda Deamon (pronounced Demon - little red guy, horns, tail, pitchfork) was born in the NW suburbs of Indiana - SOUTHSIDE! Growing up in a small town instilled in her a great appreciation of all things new, unknown and scary. She is a volunteer at Tree House Humane Society, a cat whisperer, Nutella addict, disgruntled yogini and local actress. She is honored to be here with all of you.
Dave Hayes
I'm in my 9th year teaching Computer Science in Chicago Public Schools, following a career in the business and technology worlds. I also teach a CS course at a local university; I help train other CS teachers around the country; and I deliver summer CS programs to students. I believe that all students need CS education to effectively participate in our 21st century economy and in our 21st century democracy. I've had a range of great and terrible experiences as a teacher, but my students have taught me to be optimistic about the future and that "talent is everywhere, opportunity is not."
Veronica Lynn
Veronica Lynn is a teacher, director, nature-enthusiast, and lover of all types of travel. She's thrilled to be celebrating her sixth year as a middle school drama teacher and high school theatre director. Veronica studied acting and theatre education at Illinois State University, and just graduated from Roosevelt U with her Master's Degree in Directing last year. She feels very fortunate to surround herself with wonderful family and friends that love to share stories, so she is excited to give it a try and share with you!
Stephanie Medlock
Stephanie Wilson Medlock has been writing continually in a variety of venues and professions since composing and illustrating her first book of fairytales at the age of 10. She earned a journalism degree at Northwestern University, and as a professional journalist, she wrote news and human interest stories for two Connecticut newspapers and a variety of magazines. This experience led her to the University of Chicago Graham School, where she developed courses in the areas of publishing, museum publishing, and editing. In addition to her novel, The Lives of Things, Stephanie has published short stories and memoirs in such publications as “Feathered Flounder,” “Still Crazy,” “Persimmon Tree”, and “Tues/Night”. She has essays in both Celebrating Animal Rescue, and the forthcoming anthology of stories celebrating Indiana’s 150th anniversary. Stephanie is a founding member of Indigan Storyteller, a group that teaches the art of storytelling and performs in venues around Indiana and Michigan. In 2014, Stephanie also helped launch the International San Miguel Storytelling Festival in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, now in its third year.
Jim Noonan
Jim Noonan was a shoe salesman, park ranger, landscaper, fitness instructor, student, waiter, actor, comedian and nanny before deciding to become a stay-at-home dad/unemployed writer. He lives with his wife and two daughters and hopes that one day he'll have enough interesting experiences to warrant a 2500 character bio. Until that time comes, he'll be happy if he's recognized as "That one guy. You know, the one with the stories."
APRIL 2016
Jeff Baltes
Jeff Baltes is a recent transplant to Chicago, but is no stranger to the stage. In his native Ohio, he was a founding member of State of Play Improv and a frequent performer in the city’s storytelling scene. Not content to just take the spotlight, Jeff also served as Comedy Chair for the Columbus Independents’ Day Festival* for several years. Since moving to the Windy City in 2015, he has been featured in storytelling events around the city including Sunday Morning Stories, Death of the Cool, and I Shit You Not.
*not to be confused with Independence Day**, the national holiday.
**not to be confused with ‘Independence Day,’ the 1996 Will Smith blockbuster
*not to be confused with Independence Day**, the national holiday.
**not to be confused with ‘Independence Day,’ the 1996 Will Smith blockbuster
Megan Gotz
Megan is originally from the fatal loins of Florida. She moved to Chicago 8 years ago to pursue acting. In May she's giving up city life and the hustle to go live among the trees in Portland, where she hopes to learn how to not kill her house plants.
Debbie Taitel
Debra is a relative newbie to the Chicago story telling scene. After seeing a few master story tellers in action, she instantly fell in love with the craft and decided to jump in with both feet. As a life long student of watching humans "being", Debra quickly discovered that story telling is healing and transformative for both the story teller and the audience alike. When Debra is not on stage telling stories she is a Real Estate Broker, Clairvoyant Reader, Writer, and meditation teacher. Providing insight and guidance to clients around the world people Debra helps people heal and awaken to their own truth and spiritual gifts. By day you can find Debra working with her fabulous clients or clicking away at the keyboard writing. By night you can find Debra at various open mics around town, or at home snuggling with her gorgeous kitty.
Alex Kostiw
Alex has lived in Chicago for ten years now, so she's not sure she can still claim that she's from New York. She is an MFA student in design, which means she gets to spend her days making books, drawing comics, and ignoring her monstrous debt. (Fingers crossed she gets a job next year.) Alex has been watching the X-Files for the first time. She is through season 2 and in love with Dana Scully.
Jeanne Lambin
Originally, from Chicago, now living in Hong Kong, Jeanne left her lucrative career in historic preservation to pursue a new one in storytelling, improvisation and writing. She has told stories, written and done improv in all sorts of places, some sanctioned, some not. Jeanne is a co-organizer of Hong Kong Storytellers. Most recently, her work has been featured in the Hong Kong’s Top Notch Storytelling Festival, Liar’s League, Mamagushi Shanghai, Literary Death Match and the Art’s House World Voices Presents. When not working, she enjoys travel, reading, kayaking, hiking and running, not necessarily in that order or at the same time.
Gail Steingold
Gail Steingold began her journey into the world of Improv in 2009. She has completing training programs at The Second City ,IO and Annoyance. She is the other ‘senior’ half of Iguana Lounge Two Women Two Generations with Cassandra Phillips. Iguana Lounge opened the inaugural Boss Ladies showcase at the Annoyance Theater. She loves to tell stories and had the pleasure of joining Scott Whitehair’s Lab program in the summer of 2014She has reinvented herself professionally from a licensed speech language pathologist to a specialist in Long Term Care planning. . Gail still maintains her day job as principal of Burling Insurance Group LTC. She is the proud grandmother of Benjamin Robert Widdess age 19 months. Her dream is to star in Medicare and Depends commercials some day.
MARCH 2016
Caitlin Burke
My name is Caitlin. I am an environmental consultant, hot dog connoisseur and aspiring vegetarian. I've spent 6 of the last 9 years of my life in Indiana for school. I try to spend as much time outdoors as possible. I currently live in Ravenswood with my fish, who is kind of like a dog.
Kristin Cass
Kristin Cass is a Chicago-based photographer. Her work is animated by her concern for social and human rights issues, both locally and globally. Trained as a lawyer, with a background in art history and design, Kristin advocates for other artists and the arts. She is a graduate of the University of Chicago. Her work has been shown locally in several venues, including the juried show "I Am Woman" in 2015. Kristin's work will again be shown during Chicago Artists Month this year. Kristin’s work includes portraits, landscapes, and travel photography from all over the world. You can find her work at kristin-cass.squarespace.com, on Facebook at Kristin Cass, and on Instagram at KristinCassPhotography.
Kevin Clifford
Kevin is a 25-year-old whose job title is so distressingly befitting of his Millennial generation that he's left it out of this bio. He enjoys exploring Chicago by foot, completing crossword puzzles, and finding humor in almost any situation, perhaps to a fault. Kevin holds a B.A. in Psychology and Political Science from St. Olaf College, a M.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University, and an impressive amount of student debt.
Joy Ellison
Joy Ellison is a writer, activist, and teacher - and the co-creator of the world's first Quaker fashion blog. They believe that storytelling is integral to healing, transformation, resistance, and survival. Their work has been published in Story Club Magazine, Chicago Literati, Racialicious, and Electronic Intifada. Joy is currently working on their first graphic novel, a timely, nonfiction account of the power of community set in a small Palestinian village called At-Tuwani. When not writing, Joy teaches college students to be rabble-rousers at DePaul University. Their work can be found at http://jmellison.net
Diane Kastiel
Diane Kastiel is a writer and storyteller from Chicago. She’s a three-time Moth StorySLAM winner whose work has been featured on NPR’s Moth Radio HourI and its podcast. Diane has told stories on stage at the Park West, Second City, Victory Gardens, Mayne Stage and Lifeline theaters. She’s also told stories in bars, around campfires, in women’s shelters, and in the basement of a tattoo parlor – basically wherever they are ears. When not storytelling, Diane does commercial writing for businesses, nonprofits, and – well, really anyone with a checkbook. Call today for a free estimate. Please.
Turi Ryder
Turi Ryder has spent most of her working life telling stories where almost nobody can see her: on the radio. You may have heard her on Chicago’s WGN or WLS (AM or FM}. She has also offended people over the airwaves of KFI Los Angeles, “FreeFM” in New York and San Francisco, KSTP Minneapolis (where she was voted Best and Worst of the Twin Cities by the same entertainment weekly in the same year), and KIRO Seattle. After decades of hiding in a soundproof room, Turi has written a memoir, “She Said What?”, and is hoping that telling stories from it while looking in you in the eyes will force her to be nicer than she usually is.
FEBRUARY 2016
Melinda Croes
Melinda Croes is a transplant from small town Wisconsin. As a child, she devoted much of her time to reading stories. So much time, in fact, that her town named their summer reading program after her. Though her love of reading has waned, her interest in stories hasn't. Melinda spends her days as a Social Worker at a non-profit and her nights making soup and bread, and catering to the needs of her dog Maverick.
Valerie DiMambro
Lady of Laughs. Storyteller. City dweller. Know nto few as the darling of the Gluten Free movement of South Jersey. Been described as funny... no but seriously. Newish to Chicago by way of New York City and Philadelphia, Valerie DiMambro is just a girl standing front of an audience telling stories and asking them to love her. www.valeriedimambro.com
Ben Harpe
Ben Harpe is a writer and actor originally from Detroit. He performs with the improv group Devil's Daughter and the country music duo Peaches & Snakeskin.
Lee Melchior
Lee Melchior grew up in a small town on the Mississippi River, emigrated to Canada, lived briefly on the Caribbean Island of Saba, then returned to the states to work on Wall Street and later Madison Avenue. Now she lives in Evanston and works as a Third Life Coach. She’s an avid fly-fisherman.
Norma Gay Prewett
Norma Gay Prewett is the birthname and working artistic name of Gay Davidson-Zielske. As Robert Browning (or someone else--it is debated endlessly) once said when asked about the meaning of a poem, “ when that passage was written only God and Robert Browning understood it. Now, only God understands” The reason for her shape-shifting tendencies could be answered the same. Suffice to say that “Gay” has a rather unusual birth story in that she was born at home in the Ozarks and delivered into life by her great grandfather O.W. Woods, fortunately for her a real doctor. Flashing forward many years, Gay has lived about three separate lives-- as a full-fledged radical and hippie in several communes in Illinois and Minnesota; as an academic and poet/fiction writer and radio writer at the U of WI-Whitewater for thirty years; and in retirement in Chicago a singing, songwriting, guitar and harmonica student, oil painter, improv student, and now, perhaps, story-teller. Her slim volume of poems “The Perpetual Commotion of the Heart” was published in 2013 by Finishing Line Press. There are a few (dozen) copies left. She could probably hook you up with one.
Adora Wilson-Eye
Adora Wilson-Eye has minimal previous experience in oral storytelling, but does enjoy talking about herself, and also her mother was a public speaking professor, so she's hoping it'll be easy to catch up. Besides being interested in storytelling, Adora loves to knit, write, and work in many other visual mediums, and is by trade a producer in advertising. She loves connecting people, collaborating, and helping to build networks of artists. You can check out more about her at adorawilsoneye.com.
JANUARY 2016
Randy Estes
Randy L. Estes grew up in Fisher, a small farm town in East-Central Illinois, about 20 miles NW of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. If anyone has ever heard of Fisher, it is because its high school mascot is, "the bunnies". Randy earned his Bachelor & Master's degrees from UIUC in Agriculture Education-Horticulture with a minor in Botany, and Extension Education-Adult Education and Program Development, respectively. He started, owned, and operated a retail florist business in his hometown of Fisher. Randy was a professional in Continuing Medical Education (CME) for physicians for over 20 years, having worked for a variety of settings including: Medical School, Community Teaching Hospitals, Medical Education Companies and multi-hospital systems. In 2010, Randy made a major life shift and began school to become a Licensed Clinical Massage Therapist. The major defining and life altering event of Randy's life occurred on October 16, 2010, when the neighbor living below him in his vintage Chicago 6 flat co op started what would become a 5 Alarm fire, destroying not only Randy's apartment, but nearly all of his life's possessions. Randy moved back to Fisher for over 3 and a half years to help care for his Mom with Alzheimer's. He currently serves as an Ambassador with the Illinois Alzheimer's Association, serving, with others as a liaison to our state and national legislative leaders in issues for persons afflicted by Alzheimer's and caregivers. Randy is convinced that he is the real-life gentile version of George Kastanza from TV's Seinfeld, and has myriad stories and witnesses and former psychotic neighbors to provide empirical evidence of the validity of this assertion.
Mariana Green
Mariana is a performer, director, and theater educator based in Chicago. While teaching for various theater companies like The Goodman Theatre, American Theater Company, and Child's Play, she constantly contributes to theater projects with social justice aims on the management, devising, and facilitating levels. Currently she is Stage Managing for the Erasing the Distance production of Amygdala Rest (premiering February 11 & 12), Story Collecting for a devised performance of Thumbelina to be premiered at Lifeline Theater, and directing Punk Grandpa at Three Brothers' Theater in Waukegan. She is also a leadership team member of FEMelanin, group of self-identified femmes of color who wish to reclaim their voices and the voices of other femmes of color through the power of performance.
Sonja Rusnak
Sonja has a degree in theater from Ohio University, where she focused on being behind the scenes. She was lured to Chicago, a city she swore she'd never live in, for her MA from the University of Chicago in 2003. Life's been good to her here, so she never left. Instead, she escapes frequently for backpacking trips and trail runs to reconnect with nature.
Dan Terkell
Dan is a fresh face in Chicago's universe of story buffs. He began performing at open-mike venues last November after reading a Tribune feature about Chicago's network of story-tellers. A life-long city kid, Dan has been an eyewitness to, and sometime participant in the urban circus that is Chicago since the 1960s. For all of his lengthy work-life, he's held straight jobs including budget analyst and planner, technical writer, and CTA bus pilot. His favorite aroma is that of a freshly-tarred roof on a warm summer evening.
Maria Vorhis
Maria Vorhis is a writer, performer, teaching artist, and human. She believes storytelling can save the world, and currently teaches drama to adults with developmental disabilities in Pilsen. She is planning a national fall tour of her one-woman show, "Are You There, George?" about a twelve year old girl's quest to find meaning...and boobs. www.mariavorhis.com
Brooke Whoolery
Brooke Whoolery hails from a very small town in Pennsylvania that you've definitely never heard of. When not hanging out with her cats or getting wickedly drunk on the weekends, she can be found reading, listening to various podcasts, or whipping up some delicious food for her friends. Brooke has been a performer nearly all of her life and often visits open mics around the city to showcase her lovely singing voice. She is also the front-woman of a soul/funk cover band, The Mashed Potatoes, which has been her main creative outlet for the past 4 years. Brooke likes to describes herself as an Oxford Dictionary in the streets and an Urban Dictionary in the sheets, which she makes very clear on her Tinder profile.
DECEMBER 2015
Karen Genelly
I have always loved to tell stories. I am a native Chicagoan who grew up on the north side of the city and even though I have traveled a lot I always return home to Chicago. I have spent my professional life as a teacher and a counselor working for the Chicago Public Schools. My time with CPS can be described as the best of times and the worst of times-the best being the kids and the worst being Rahm Emanuel. As much as I loved teaching and being a counselor last year I decided to broaden my horizons and to test my abilities in other areas, such as storytelling, so I retired from CPS. So far it has been a great year learning new things and traveling the world. I've learned there is life outside the public schools and in India that getting on and off a camel can be a tricky business.
Tetiana Kachmaryk
I am a social justice activist for a living. 70% of time home I cook because it's the only crafty thing I can do. I absolutely love dogs, farmers markets and Bourbon. Trying to go through life embracing awkwardness instead of avoiding it.
Rachel Kanarowski
Born in a small town just outside of Yosemite National Park, Rachel became an accidental expat after a 6-month nanny gig in Europe led to 9 years in Prague. During that time she carved out a job in fashion media, eventually ending up as the Editor-in-Chief of InStyle magazine in the Czech Republic. She's back in Chicago now, working as the Director of Content Strategy at Leo Burnett and spending way too much time in Andersonville with her fiancee, his two awesome kids, and a motley crew of friends.
Renee LaCroix
Renee LaCroix holds a BFA in Theatre and Minor in Dance from Jacksonville University as well as an MFA in Performing Arts from Savannah College of Art and Design. She is an NCAA Division 1 softball player as well as being an avid fan of stuffed animals. She grew up in Orlando, Florida where Disney World was her backyard. Which now explains her quirky personality and love for all things fluffy and cute. Her dream football game would be a playoff between the Minions and The Muppets... to ultimately play the Gremlins in the Super Bowl of all Super Bowls. She also likes long walks on the beach and snowboarding :)
Baylee Miller
Baylee is a newbie to facing away from the hearth; his last onstage speaking performance was MC'ing a high school variety show up in his Northern Michigan hometown! As a longtime lover of storytelling, he's excited for the opportunity to contribute something personal back to the Chicago storytelling community that has shared so much with him.
Willy Steiner
Willy has been an executive coach for over 20 years and has been an actor, facilitator, presenter and speaker forever. His new book will be published in early 2016. He's a proud father of three and loves telling stories. He also likes golf, scuba diving and wandering around aimlessly, but counting all the steps taken.
NOVEMBER 2015
James Dyer
James Dyer is a Minnesota native who has traveled and lived extensively overseas – Europe, South America, Asia -- for much of his life. He worked as a journalist in Latin America and the Middle East and also wrote for four large metropolitan daily newspapers in the United States before he entered academia as a professor of multimedia journalism. He teaches at Knox College in Galesburg, IL, and in his free time enjoys freelancing journalism articles, river rafting, playing tennis and drinking German wheat beer – but not necessarily in that order.
David Fink
David Fink is co-owner of The Acorn Theater in Three Oaks, MI, producing and presenting world-class live entertainment. David has produced and presented a number of storytelling events at the Acorn including improvised storytelling competitions, prepared storytelling competitions, and a few storytelling shows, both series and one-offs. David also curates a monthly LGBTQ storytelling show in Chicago entitled OUTspoken! David coached, taught, judged, and performed storytelling with Indigan Storytellers at a workshop and storytelling festival in San Miguel De Allende, Mexico. David has told stories in a number of storytelling shows both in Three Oaks and in Chicago. David has told stories on the stage at the Acorn Theater, in Storylab, Guts & Glory, San Miguel de Allende storytelling festival, Indigan Storytelling, and The Moth.
Nestor Gomez
Nestor Gomez was born in Guatemala and moved with his family to the United States in the mid eighties. One of his passions is collaborating with T-shirt illustrators around the world. His design ideas have been printed by Threadless, Shirt-woot and other T-shirt companies. Nestor also enjoys dancing to Latin music, having taken classes at Latin Rhythms, Latin Street, MMA and having participated in Modern Clave dance company. He is an avid reader and self-taught poet who happened upon the storytelling community a few months ago. Since then, he has participated in several storytelling events around the city. He also has organized his own storytelling event Voces ( stories with a Latino flair) and co-hosted Do Not Submit with Scott Whitehair and the Stoop with Lily Be. He can also be found at his day job as Quality Control at S&C Electric and walking his Pit Bull dogs with his girlfriend in Edgewater. If you are lucky you might find yourself being driven around the city by Nestor as he drives under Uber and Lyft during the weekends, where you might unknowingly become a subject of one his stories. Above all Nestor's biggest passion is his family.
Natalie Green
Natalie Greene grew up in Oak Park and then left the Midwest for seven years. She has lived in seven countries and ten U.S. cities, speaks a little bit of a lot of languages, and is adjusting to being back in Chicagoland one block of cheese at a time. Natalie's true loves include learning Chinese, reading sci-fi, and riot grrl.
Mac MacDevitt
Since moving to Chicago last year from a small town in the Adirondacks he has plunged into life in the urban wonderland of the Second City with both feet. He is riding his bike in city traffic, building furniture as a member of at Pumping Station: One, fixing two wheelers at the Recyclery and Working Bikes, and singing his heart out with the sea shanty rowdies at the Atlantic Bar and Grill. He is splashing around in storytelling and buoyed up by the support and deep friendship he has with the kindred spirits in his story telling class.
Joel Pearson
Joel Pearson grew up in a small town in Northern Illinois, where he learned the importance of dedication, hard work, and a good alibi. Once he was old enough to obtain a passport, he became a citizen of Chicago, where he has primarily resided ever since. A software developer by trade, he enjoys playing the piano, making small electronic gadgets, and traveling, especially by train. While new to storytelling, his love of stories goes back to his childhood, when one day... well, it's a long story.
OCTOBER 2015
Becca Bowlin
Becca Bowlin attended the University of New Mexico where she graduated with a BA in Criminology. She works with runaway and homeless teenagers at the National Runaway Safeline for a living and is a starving artist and storyteller on the side. She enjoys painting, writing, attempting stand-up comedy, and collecting rare, expensive parking tickets. She currently lives in Chicago with her husband and couch potato pooch named Trout.
Rebecca Duxler
Web Developer by day, chef, literary artist, and athlete by night, Rebecca Duxler is always hungry for adventures. Rebecca was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs. She graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree from Illinois State University with a major in Web Development and a minor in Business Administration, and has lived in Chicago itself for about a year and a half. As a self-identified nerd, you will usually find her taking people’s breath away on a Dance Dance Revolution machine, destroying her friends at Mario Party or Super Smash Brothers, working on her blogs and websites, in the dojo training in Shotokan Karate (and getting her black belt at the end of the year), attending open mic nites, volunteering, cooking, hitting people with foam weapons in the Belegarth Medieval Combat Society, attending networking events, and trying to get on a game show, especially Wheel of Fortune! Rebecca’s ultimate goal is to be able to make a difference in the world with healthspiration (health and inspiration), spreading positivity, enjoying a randomly spontaneous moment, and sharing her contagious laughs!
Dan Finnen
Dan is a writer who has recently self-published his first novella 'Orvieto' and is also co-owner and operator of Polymyth, a Chicago video production company. Dan is hard of hearing, and in an strange twist of fate, has initials that spell out 'DEF'.
Steve Glickman
Steve is a third-generation Chicagoan. He grew up in the suburbs, but now lives in Uptown with his partner Mark and their imaginary dog "Ruffles" who gets into everything and is usually to blame for the mess in the living room. He has been telling stories at weddings and funerals his whole life to wide critical acclaim and is psyched to be doing this in public with StoryLab. Steve is a software engineer by day and a proud nerd in general. He is obsessively analytical and enjoys dissecting any topic of conversation into its sub-atomic particles, which normal people may find annoying. He is a classical music fanatic and often air-conducts whatever symphony or opera is playing on his iPod or in his head, which normal people may find disconcerting. Steve is an avid runner and tennis player and the current ping-pong champion in his office, and if you wanna play a match, he says "bring it!"
Nitsana Lazerus
Israeli-born Nitsana has always loved telling stories to others. Nitsana married a Yankee and moved to NYC in her early 20s where she had her first two children. Her children inspired her to create games, write songs, and tell more stories geared to educating the very young while containing messages for adults. The family left NYC and moved to Israel for 3 years where Nitsana took acting classes and puppetry courses while raising her children. Puppets and props joined her storytelling world, adding a variety of characters and personalities to her performances. When the family moved back to Long Island, NY, she studied puppetry with well-known author and puppeteer Carol Fijan and started a puppeteering career in both Hebrew and English. Later, the family relocated to Houston, where Nitsana's puppeteering career took off and she became involved with arts & education and arts & medicine programs. When raising her now-four children in Houston, she started teaching Hebrew, and helped lead services. In addition, she worked with many of the churches in her community, writing original stories and songs for them as well. Nitsana recently moved from Houston to Chicago. She is a storyteller and puppeteer who has performed and given workshops throughout the United States and Israel.
SEPTEMBER 2015
Anna Besmann
Anna Besmann came from Tennessee to Chicago for school and stayed for lack of anything better to do. She holds a Master's Degree in Social Sciences by way of convincing the University of Chicago to buy her a Nintendo 64 and has published a paper about human/computer social interaction. Her use of video games for global mind control purposes is forthcoming. She also holds a trophy mask in the Ink and Blood Writing Duels for a frantic ten minutes of live writing about dinosaur noir. Anna has a predilection for noticing oddities and runs "The City of Wind" photoblog, chronicling the odd sights and occurrences of Chicago living. She holds approximate knowledge of many things.
Jordan Blythe
Jordi Blythe is a native northwest suburbs of Chicagoan who is soon to be LA bound. She has no real responsibilities currently aside from feeding her 2 cats and even that she often forgets to do. You can find her reading on trains and asking people what they're reading right now. Because this book she just started is really good and she thinks you'd really like the narrative and in depth character description. She'll let you borrow it when she's done.
Paul Conrad
I moved to the northwest suburbs last summer from Kansas. I work as an engineer for a construction materials company, and I fill my spare time with volunteer voiceover work, churching like a boss, writing never-to-be-published-under-pain-of-death poetry and fiction, and hiking every chance I get. I'm 27 years old, but I've had official residency in seven states since the start of my professional career, met a ton of people, and had quite a few unconventional life experiences.
Steve Coombs
Steve Coombs grew up in Detroit in a big Catholic family. He was an altar boy at St. Mary’s, but came out unscathed. He claims to no musical, writing or artistic talents. Steve works as a Risk Manager by day and a risk taker by night. He is “left brain” dominated. He enjoys analyzing anything and everything involving numbers. Just last night, while walking to a party on Ashland Ave., he calculated the number of cars parked illegally in all of Chicago at that hour. In his spare time he flies airplanes and samples craft beer. But not at the same time. Give him a nice round of applause, as he surely will be measuring the decibel level here and comparing it to the last venue he shared a story at.
Sean Ewert
Sean Ewert is a Chicago actor, writer and puppeteer. He has performed his stories at Links Hall,Oracle Productions "B" Sides, Reading Under The Influence and The Chicago Mammals. Sean is an avid traveler, taking his first airplane ride at three years old. Originally from Los Angeles, he has lived in more cities and apartments than he can remember. For example, his six year college career spanned three presidents, three cities, two states, five cars and he lost a full head of hair in the process. Sean recently appeared in "The Anyway Cabaret" with TUTA Theatre (where he is a company member) and "The Walk Across America For Mother Earth" with Red Tape Theater/Steppenwolf Garage Rep. Many thanks to the fantastic Scott Whitehair for his amazing classes. Love to John and new dog rescue, Pilot.
Hallie Rosen
Hallie Rosen is part Jersey girl - part Valley girl having spent her childhood years equally in both New Jersey and California. Her love of stories began as a kid when her parents would read to her and continues until this day. While she has been telling stories, both made up or real her whole life, she only began preforming them a few years ago. She is the Director of Volunteers at the Chicago Architecture Foundation and lives with her family in Evanston.
AUGUST 2015
Rich Aspell
Rich Aspell has been seen telling stories on stage in the far south suburbs at Homewood Stories, at Rosa's Lounge for Stoop Stories with Lily B and Clarence Browley, and at the Black Rock Pub after taking one of Scott Whitehair's most excellent classes. He has recorded for Reading for the Blind and Dyslexic, you may remember him from his epic performance in "Introduction to College Microbiology". In real life he is as white bread as a man can be, a suburban dentist, but he hopes to overcome that someday through structured play and merriment.
Shelby Bower
Shelby grew up in lots of different countries and lived in lots of East Coast cities until landing in Chicago just over ten years ago with her two kids, Camille, 15, and Jackson, 13. By day she organizes everything for everyone on many screen sizes, and in her spare time you can catch her carting her kids around Oak Park, in the Chicago Fringe Festival with the League of Miscreants, or making barbecue with her team, Beer & Smoking in Las Vegas. She has a love for ridiculous hats and always uses the word "sparkly fun" before everything she googles. She credits her kids and friends with helping her to live a life interesting enough to get her up here to tell you a story about it.
Amy Chick
Amy Chick isn’t exactly a storyteller by choice. Instead, she stumbles into ridiculous, often funny situations that turn into stories that beg to be told. Amy is a fundraiser by profession, but a people-loving, over-sharing, awkward, up-for-anything goofball by passion. Her work can be seen in the inboxes of long-distance friends, notes taped to her refrigerator and, most notably, in the 2008 and 2009 editions of Naperville Central High School’s Flight yearbook. Amy lives in Chicago with her husband and their four-and-a-half bikes.
Dan Frysinger
Dan is a passionate environmentalist, design strategist, and occasional unicyclist. In the winter you can find him cross-country skiing, ice sailing, and exploring ice caves. Professionally, Dan helps create new products and solve social issues by taking a human-centered design approach. As design strategist, Dan draws from research to develop insights that guide design teams in creating concepts. In the end, Dan is determined to create solutions that actually respond to the user and business/community needs. Outside of winter sports and design strategy, Dan can be found unicycling, juggling, or playing carillon.
Mikee Pourhadi
Mikee is a semi-recent college graduate who has yet to use his college degree to any significant end. Born near Chicago, and having lived within city limits for near six years, he's beginning to feel a little restless and hopes to start new adventures in new cities relatively soon. He plays drums, and loves to create music in his free time, secretly hoping that one day someone will pay him in real currency for his musical services. He's not good at telling stories. Please bear with him.
Marnie Shure
Marnie Shure is a Chicago-area native who is unlikely/unwilling to ever dislodge herself from the Midwest. Marnie studied poetry and French at Knox College, allowed her poetry and French to fall into disuse, spent some time in a surprisingly rewarding gig at a transcription agency, and now serves on the editorial team of The Onion. While writing and performing are among Marnie's chief interests, she has never presented any of her stories to an audience without holding a reassuring sheet of paper in her hands.
JULY 2015
Amelia Aldred
Amelia Aldred was raised by a folksinger and a lawyer in southern Indiana, leaving her with incurable sincerity and the need to check facts. She lives in Chicago, IL, runs two rag-tag writing groups, and is a foot soldier in the war of the Oxford comma. Learn more atwww.ameliaaldred.com
Elizabeth Cambridge
Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio Elizabeth has lived in Chicago for 6 years. She originally came to Chicago for the food and to attend school but stayed because of the great performance atmosphere. She is heavily inspired by RuPaul and hosts a weekly podcast called Random Conversations with Elizabeth.
Lena Krause
A New Jersey native, Lena attended Northwestern University where she studied theatre, French and Arabic. She recently returned from teaching English for a year in France and in September will be leaving to study oral storytelling and education in Morocco with a Fulbright research grant. In the meantime, she's soaking up all the city has to offer: mostly biking, eating and scoping out as many music and theatre events as possible. She's excited to one day call Chicago home.
Enid Munoz
Enid Muñoz is the first Illinois native in her family line. This means she learned never to put ketchup on a taco nor a hotdog. She moved to Chicago 4 years ago and hasn't looked back. Except for when her mom invites her to eat tamales. She became a Theatre graduate a year ago and since then has stayed busy performing and writing. Most recently she has taken up capoeira. Beware, she can kick over your head.
Wesley Ringfelt
Wesley Ringfelt is a husband to his wife, a son to his parents, a brother to his....brother, and a servant to his dog. He teaches high school English and sometimes people laugh at things he does. He often sees the good in people and really, truly believes he's better at Connect Four and Wheel of Fortune than anyone he's ever met.
Drew Love
Andrew Rios is the co-founder of Yost & Rios Enterprises, Inc. and publisher of Golf+Life+Business the digital golf and business lifestyle publication. He is currently working with social enterprise partners The Chi Chi Rodriguez Academy and Midwest Association of Golf Course Superintendents. He previously worked with Mark W. Travis on Life Stories. Mark Travis is regarded by many in Hollywood to be one of the world’s leading authorities in the art and craft of film directing. He previously worked with Julie Hudash, the Founder and CEO of Team Kids, which is an Orange County, CA based nonprofit that runs school-based community service learning programs. He was also mentored by Candace Silvers of Candace Silvers Studios.
Jen Roehm
Jen Roehm is an actor, performer, and occasional writer based here in Chicago. She originally hails from the small town of Clinton, Indiana. She has performed with Chicago-based theatre companies such as Curious Theatre Branch, Jackalope Theatre Company, The Right Brain Project and is a proud company member of The Ruckus. Her regional theatre credits include The Human Race Theatre Company and Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati.
JUNE 2015
Mario Contreras
Mario is a documentary filmmaker, photographer and teacher at Harper College. You can find his work online at The CG Project and Sixty Inches from Center. The next installment of his webseries, My Father's Knee, will come out this fall. He's also editing digital content for the Brave New Voices live poetry competition in Atlanta next month.
Jeanne Lambin
Originally, from Chicago, now living in Hong Kong, Jeanne left her lucrative career in historic preservation to pursue a new one in storytelling, improvisation and writing. She has told stories, written and done improv in all sorts of places, some sanctioned, some not. Jeanne is a co-organizer of Hong Kong Storytellers. Most recently, her work has been featured in the Hong Kong’s Top Notch Storytelling Festival, Liar’s League, Mamagushi Shanghai, Literary Death Match and the Art’s House World Voices Presents. When not working, she enjoys travel, reading, kayaking, hiking and running, not necessarily in that order or at the same time.
Susan Fruth
Susan hails from the near west suburbs of Chicago, but because she's walking distance to the green line, claims she's really from Chicago. She studied vocal performance in college, and although she loves to perform in front of a crowd, please don't ask her to "just sing something right now." But she will gladly take requests after a beer or two. Currently she has a lovely day job at the University of Chicago that allows her to pay for things like food, housing, races (mostly for the free tee-shirts), and transportation to all the wonderful opportunities to embrace her creative nature.
Kimmy Higgenbotham
Kimmy Higginbotham is a West Virginia born actress and artist who has been living in Chicago for the past 5 years. She studied theatre at Fairmont State University, The Conservatory of Stella Adler in NYC, and The Conservatory at Act One Studios in Chicago. She is currently taking classes to join the Chicago Roller Derby scene, and working for a staging company, and auditioning her butt off. Kimmy has a collection of ever-growing lists that never get finished, speaks nothing fluently, and owns no fewer than four guitars, a keyboard, and a flute, but unfortunately, owns no musical talent. It should be mentioned that her bike is also completely useless, as she also has no talent for things that require balance. What she does have talent for is being a lifelong student who is always trying to learn new things, being the coolest aunt in the entire world to her seven nieces and nephews, acting, painting, drinking whiskey, quoting Gilmore Girls, Scrubs, and every song she's ever heard, eating nachos, MAKING lists, and dancing like an idiot while giving exactly zero fucks. Telling stories is something she'd like to add to her list of talents.
Joe Lambin
Joe Lambin grew up in Chicago and studied history and dead languages at UIC. He now lives with his family and pets in the wilds of Racine, Wisconsin. Following a Guitar Craft workshop, he played with the Chicago Guitar Ensemble, and still plays the guitar and piano. Restless soul that he is, he has recently taken up running, and has slogged his way through a few marathons. He also expends that restless energy on family hikes in state parks and re-learning dead languages. This will be his first official storytelling performance.
Lisa Maggiore
Lisa Maggiore is the author of a children’s picture book, Ava the Monster Slayer: A Warrior Who Wears Glasses (SkyHorse Publishing Fall/2015) and a fiction short story, Pinterest Saved My Marriage. Lisa is a hybrid author (and you thought that title was only for cars) and is working on other awesome writing projects for traditional and self publishing. Before her writing career, Lisa was a social worker for twenty years. Lisa is a Chicago native and resides in the Irving Park neighborhood with her husband and four children.
MAY 2015
Nancy Brown
Nancy has been a fan of storytelling for many years. She has three adult children and three grandchildren who are the love of her life. She is an inclusion advocate for individuals with disabilities and has a consulting/public speaking organization with her daughter Bridget who has Down Syndrome. Nancy also oversees a free summer camp for children with limited resources. She loves the outdoors and her favorite time is sitting around a campfire with friends and family listening to stories and telling stories. She has often been told that she could be a professional laugher!
Michael Grossman
I moved to Chicago 4 1/2 years ago to study religion at UChicago. Since then I've done some odd jobs, mostly adjuncting writing and philosophy at community college. I'm headed to law school next year, though I'm still not sure which one. I live in a co-op on the south side and am excited to be performing in my first show.
Christina Kolski
Christina Kolski is a lifelong Chicagoan of Mexican and Polish descent and has coined the phrase “Polican” to describe herself. A School Social Worker with Chicago Public Schools for 11 years, she hears some of the most heart-breaking and heart-warming stories. She is fortunate enough to have two passions in life – working with youth and performing. A theatre and psychology major at the University of Notre Dame, Christina realized the two areas weren’t so unrelated – they both involved an understanding of people, though she admits she is still trying to “figure out people.” After undergrad, she went on to receive her Masters in Social Work from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Christina is a big I Love Lucy fan with a dog, Desi named from Desi Arnaz.
Sami Nerenberg
Sami Nerenberg is one of seven siblings born to hippy parents. Her father is a champion powerlifting jewish psychologist and her mom helped ignite the car-sharing movement in the 90's in San Francisco. Despite being responsible, adventure is in Sami's DNA. She's been an extra in a Nepalese film, a model in Mexico while apprenticing as a wood-worker and once spent the night in an airport bathroom on a blow-up queen sized mattress. During the day, Sami runs Design for America, a national student organization that tackles social issues through design.
APRIL 2015
Kelly Connell
Kelly J. Connell M.S.Ed., C.A.S.H.S.E. has a Master’s Degree in Human Sexuality Education from the University of Pennsylvania and a Certificate of Advanced Study in Human Sexuality Education from Widener University, which means she completed everything for her PhD including her dissertation proposal and then ran out of money. She has many years as a sex educator, counselor and consultant under her belt and has taught sex education to just about everyone from 12 year old kids to people in their 90’s. Kelly works a lot with persons with chronic illness/disability and health care providers but has resolved to never miss an opportunity to talk about sex. She is the Owner and CEO of Kelly Connell Consulting which offers sexuality education, counseling and consulting services Educator, public speaker, wedding officiant and more, Kelly’s alter ego SexpertKelly comes out at night to host Sex Trivia. Check her out on Facebook www.facebook.com/pages.sexpertkelly Or follow her on twitter @sexpertkelly
erica driesbach
erica dreisbach is an artist, writer, and coder in Chicago. She doesn't make meaningful distinctions between art, writing, and code. Her recent projects include: a Game of Thrones recap series on YouTube, a monthly blog review of the Harper's cryptic crossword puzzle, a slam poetry Midwest mini-tour in April 2015, and improv classes at Second City. Learn more about her work and upcoming performances at ericaricardo.com and on Twitter @ericaricardo.
Kim Nelson
Kim Nelson is a writer/performer, retired roller derby skater, avid camper & kayaker, and parent to three rescue animals. A graduate of Columbia College, she has lived in Chicago for the last 18 years. Kim has performed sketch comedy at Donny's Skybox and stand up and storytelling with The Kates. She is also an original member/regular contributor of DrinkersWithWritingProblems, a literary blog based out of Chicago. You can follow her on Twitter @ponytailup.
Jill Schacter
Jill Schacter is a writer and communications professional who works in a Chicago area public library. On her breaks, she can be found roaming the stacks. Every day she takes out books and every day she brings a few back. Jill has written extensively about the healing power of writing on her blog: The Heartbreak Diary. She is a highly experienced widow and a single parent and some of her stories are about death and cancer, so watch out. If you're lucky, you might get a happy tale! For example, a bed without a partner has lots of room to store books.
Jonathan Schmierer
Jonathan Schmierer grew up in California, but has lived in Oregon, the Czech Republic and Ethiopia. He moved the Chicago just in time for winter 1 1/2 years ago. He works in Global Health and travels around the world organizing medical trainings. He has also worked as a wilderness ranger, a peace corps volunteer, rental car manager, motel maid, and assistant manager at a theatre. His free time is spent drinking cider, meeting people and discussing ideas.
March 2015
Amanda Claire Buckley
Amanda Claire Buckley is a writer and composer whose work--which ranges from political essays to comedic operas--has been performed and published in Chicago, New York, Vermont, London, and Italy. She is currently a company member and marketing director for Off-Color Comedy and works as a Social Media Assistant for the Chicago Writers Conference. Currently, she is a writer for "In Fraud we Trust: The Live-Action Sitcom" going up at Stage 773 this April and her play "The Out of Tooners" will be performed this summer at Capital Fringe in Washington, DC.
Kristin Klade
Kristin Reed Klade is a local Lutheran seminary student from Fort Worth, TX, and is finishing her 4th and final year this May. She once dreamed of being a ballet dancer and studied dance for most of her life. Now she moonlights as a ballet and contemporary dance teacher and at a couple studios in the Chicago area and adores her 8-18 year old students. Kristin fell in love with religious studies in college at the University of Oklahoma and is now pursuing her Master of Divinity degree with an emphasis in interfaith dialogue at the Lutheran School of Theology in Hype Park. On that note, she'll never say no to a good Iftar dinner. Her most recent side-job has been working as a chaplain and as a perinatal bereavement counselor at a hospital in the west burbs. She currently lives in La Grange Park with her husband, John, and their beautiful Saint Bernard mix, Shirley. Kristin is a pretty positive person, but if you want to see a different side of her: say something stereotypical about Texans... I dare you.
Mac MacDevitt
Since moving to Chicago last year from a small town in the Adirondacks he has plunged into life in the urban wonderland of the Second City with both feet. He is riding his bike in city traffic, building furniture as a member of at Pumping Station: One, fixing two wheelers at the Recyclery and Working Bikes, and singing his heart out with the sea shanty rowdies at the Atlantic Bar and Grill. He is splashing around in storytelling and buoyed up by the support and deep friendship he has with the kindred spirits in his story telling class.
Gail Patejunas
Gail works as a copy editor in a big ad agency and wishes she were as perfect as she insists others be. A Chicago native, she was raised a Cub fan in the heart of White Sox territory; her mother taught her about sports; her dad taught her how to sew. Gail enjoys playing ukulele and drawing, and she can be found dancing all across the country (although she will admit that flying is faster). Her first true, personal story, written with a fat pencil in the second grade, was about how her pet toad “Bitsy” would glow in the dark after she fed it fireflies. Tonight’s story is her first told in front of a live audience, and she’s hoping it’ll leave a little something in you.
Christine Sisson
East coast by birth and Chicagoan since the early aughts, Christine has worked among designers in various roles that have taken her from High Point, North Carolina, to Prague. She is currently a knowledge manager at an architecture firm, but spends her free time cycling, scouring estate sales and coveting shiny objects and geometric patterns. This is her first live storytelling experience.
February 2015
Mackenzie Boyer
Mackenzie was born to tell stories. At a mere five years old, she hosted "The Big Max Show" in her grandmother's living room in Texas. She managed to make her late night (7 pm) talk show a hit despite the lack of guests or lights or cameras or transitions between thoughts. All she needed was the attention of her extremely patient and supportive family members. Years and years and years later, at 23 years old, she has moved past the fame and glory of The Big Max show and has moved herself up to Chicago- exploring various other methods of sharing stories; screenwriting, sketch writing, stand up comedy, and now just straight up Storytelling. She is quite enthused for her Story Lab debut and hopes that this Chicago audience finds her stories as compelling as her family pretended to.
Dan Frysinger
Dan is a passionate environmentalist, design strategist, and occasional unicyclist. In the winter you can find him cross-country skiing, ice sailing, and exploring ice caves. Professionally, Dan helps create new products and solve social issues by taking a human-centered design approach. As design strategist, Dan draws from research to develop insights that guide design teams in creating concepts. In the end, Dan is determined to create solutions that actually respond to the user and business/community needs. Outside of winter sports and design strategy, Dan can be found unicycling, juggling, or playing carillon.
Nestor Gomez
Nestor Gomez was born in Guatemala and moved with his family to the United States in the mid eighties. One of his passions is collaborating with T-shirt illustrators around the world. His design ideas have been printed by Threadless, Shirt-woot and other T-shirt companies. Nestor also enjoys dancing to Latin music, having taken classes at Latin Rhythms, Latin Street, MMA and having participated in Modern Clave dance company. He is an avid reader and self-taught poet who happened upon the storytelling community a few months ago. Since then, he has participated in several storytelling events around the city. He also has organized his own storytelling event Voces ( stories with a Latino flair) and co-hosted Do Not Submit with Scott Whitehair and the Stoop with Lily Be. He can also be found at his day job as Quality Control at S&C Electric and walking his Pit Bull dogs with his girlfriend in Edgewater. If you are lucky you might find yourself being driven around the city by Nestor as he drives under Uber and Lyft during the weekends, where you might unknowingly become a subject of one his stories. Above all Nestor's biggest passion is his family.
Lisa Kampwirth
Lisa Kampwirth is an early childhood educator from Chicago. Although she gives workshops on how to help young children tell stories, it never occurred to her to tell her own stories until a few months ago. She took a class thinking it was about children’s stories, and it turned out she had to tell her own. Now she is hooked, and her stories are definitely not for children.
Ray Teresi
Ray Teresi is a enthusiastic story collector and sometimes storyteller who believes in the power of stories to transform lives. Since entering the Chicago storytelling scene over a year ago, He has enthusiastically lent his support in many ways to the storytelling community and is now co-producing a storytelling series called Storytelling: Missionary Style, a charitable event that has some of Chicago’s finest storytellers and takes them beyond the city boundaries to spread their art far and wide. When not concentrating on storytelling Ray spends his time working at WBEZ as the Membership Coordinator: Pledge Drive Producer and on NPR’s ‘Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me’ as Volunteer Coordinator for the live show in Chicago. He also produces a segment called “On Location” for the Chicago arts & entertainment podcast fuse:chicago where he focuses on telling people’s stories. Ray lives in Lincoln Park with his black & white cat Audrey.
Tyler Prinz
Tyler B. Prinz is an actor, solo performer, and writer. Prinz has a theatre and performance background, where he focuses primarily in solo performance. Prinz has performed with Chicago's The Public House Theatre with their monthly installment of Share-a-Show, where he performed his solo performance piece "Satisfaction". Also, he has performed his full-length solo performance show "Mental Furniture" at the 2014 United Solo Theatre Festival in NYC, at an LGBTQ based organization in Naperville, and originally in Savannah, Georgia. This is his first time with Story Lab and is excited about it. You can check out his website at: www.tylerbprinz.com
January 2015
Karen Genelly
I have always loved to tell stories. I am a native Chicagoan who grew up on the north side of the city and even though I have traveled a lot I always return home to Chicago. I have spent my professional life as a teacher and a counselor working for the Chicago Public Schools. My time with CPS can be described as the best of times and the worst of times-the best being the kids and the worst being Rahm Emanuel. As much as I loved teaching and being a counselor last year I decided to broaden my horizons and to test my abilities in other areas, such as storytelling, so I retired from CPS. So far it has been a great year learning new things and traveling the world. I've learned there is life outside the public schools and in India that getting on and off a camel can be a tricky business.
April Hiller
Don’t be fooled by April Hiller’s pasty white complexion – she’s actually a recent transplant from San Diego, California, which is why most of her stories take place there. By day, April is a technical editor and writer for an industry you’ve never heard of and is kind of hard to explain. By night, she can be found at different venues around Chicago telling stories, most of which make you glad you’re not her. She also loves Corgis to the point of obsession. (Like, seriously, it’s becoming a problem).
Kenny Kelly
Kenny Kelly was born and raised in Northern California and studied English Literature at Chico State. He is currently a graduate student at Columbia College Chicago working on an MFA in Fiction Writing. He is also a graduate of The iO Theater's improv program and has performed at various theaters and bars (mostly bars) around Chicago. His fiction has appeared in Watershed Review and in the dumpsters outside Ploughshares.
Heather Mangan
Heather Mangan used to lie awake at night telling stories out loud to the dark room. Her brothers often pounded through the wall to tell her to shut up and she aggressively responded, “I am practicing for Oprah!” Heather is originally from South Dakota and moved to Chicago seven months ago to take a writing position with a service organization. A former journalist, she has a terrible habit of making everyone she meets recount his or her life story. But she also likes to tell her own story, you know, in case Oprah ever wants to chat.
Amy Merrick
Amy Merrick is a writer and teacher in Chicago. Her work has appeared in the Poynter Institute’s Best Newspaper Writing series, the New Yorker online, the Wall Street Journal, and Crab Orchard Review, among others. She performed at last year's Side Project Theatre Storytelling Festival.
John Park
John Park is a Chicago based writer, cartoonist, and filmmaker. He has had stories read and published online and is currently working on a comic book where animals where suits and work real jobs.
December 2014
Laura Bollin
For Laura Bollin, a visit to “This Much is True” inspired her to get up on stage and share her own stories. A lifelong Chicagoan, Laura enjoys walking along the lakefront, visiting museums, and hanging out at the Chicago Cultural Center. A few years ago, Laura decided to go on 100 dates with 100 different men – and write a book about it. In a few short months, Laura will be marrying date number 100. In her spare time, she likes to try new recipes and visit new restaurants. A recovering newspaper reporter, she hopes to save the world through working at a nonprofit. She gave speeches as a child, but this is her first time sharing a story she wrote on stage.
Scott Kanter
Contrary to popular belief, Scott Kanter is not a cyborg. He hails from Skokie, IL (The Sapphire of the North Shore). He works at The Center for Gifted and Glenview District 34, and hopes to have a classroom of his own soon. When not binge watching or explaining obscure pop culture references to his wife, he practices magic and writes sketch and stand-up comedy. He is a connoisseur of bacon, riddles, puzzles, board games, graphic novels, and other ten-year-old tastes. If you enjoy his performance, please don't offer to buy him an alcoholic beverage. Pie or doughnuts are preferred. He dedicates his performance to one of his favorite storytellers, Grandma Eva.
Sara McCarthy
"A self proclaimed workaholic, fortunately, Sara loves what she does for a living. But...balance in life is important, right? At the end of her life, Sara doesn't want to be known as a good Realtor....but as a person who is contributing to the world positively. Beyond being passionate about Chicago real estate, Sara's "joie de vivre" include people, places, puppies, paddle boarding and....composting (yes, composting!). She is #22 out of 23 siblings (crazy & yes, true). Loves spontaneity & random acts of kindness (more importantly, witnessing people's reaction to them). Believes everyone should "do something that scares them" to grow...and that's why she is here! Ultimately, the act of "paying it forward" is what propels Sara in life!"
Marina Murphy
During the day Marina works as a therapist and spends her time listening to other people talk about themselves, so naturally, in the evening Marina prefers to talk about herself. She lives in Chicago with her husband and cat and can often be found knitting, drinking coffee or getting overly concerned about various TV show characters.
Mindy Park
Mindy Park was born and raised on the northwest side of Chicago, but did a stint in Los Angeles for 3 years to pursue a career in comedy writing. She made the decision to return home last year, because she missed her family, pizza, and the Italian subs from Bari’s with mild giardiniera, a condiment the West coast has never heard of. Currently, she works for CPS and enjoys it. She hopes one day that Hollywood will buy something she’s written, for lots and lots of money.
Michael Reed
Michael Reed has been studying storytelling and telling stories since 2002 when he first appeared on stage at Live Bait Theatre as part of a workshop with Brigid Murphy. Michael has been involved in live event show production ever since he borrowed his mom’s suitcase and went on tour with Barry Manilow in 1977.
Michael currently owns Reed Rigging, Inc., the largest event rigging company in the Midwest.
Michael currently owns Reed Rigging, Inc., the largest event rigging company in the Midwest.
November 2014
Kristen Anderson
Kristen Anderson is a school librarian in Evanston where she lives with her husband and daughter. Although she prefers reading and telling stories over running the circulation desk, she can tell you the Dewey number for any subject and loves learning about the world alongside her students. A recent storytelling class in Oaxaca, Mexico inspires Kristen to spend more time making sense of her world through writing. Kristen was a 2014 cast member of Listen To Your Mother Chicago.
Amy Berrafato
A Chicago native, Amy is known for her curly hair, loud Italian laugh, and love of anything pumpkin-flavored. She is a Marriage and Family Therapist in private practice downtown, where she has the pleasure of helping people improve their relationships. You can usually find her running, reading, or telling stories over a drink on a patio somewhere. She knows all the words to Gangster's Paradise, and is grateful to be storytelling, not rapping, in front of all of you wonderful people.
Angelica Davila
Angelica is a product of immigrants, thereby making her a speaker of two languages and master of none. Her life's goal is to be a "re-enactress" on an Investigation Discovery crime show. Failing this, she would settle for being a published author.
Jim Herbert
I started my storytelling career at age 6 when I got up in front of my first grade class and told them a story about how the ant and the dinosaur became friends. I’ve pretty much been retired since. Until now! On a whim I attended the Story Lab Chicago event in August and without taking too long to talk myself out of it I signed up for an undetermined upcoming event. Apparently the Universe thinks this is supposed to happen sooner rather than later because within days of that first encounter I was slotted for the stage in November. By day I’m a Maitre D’ at one of Chicago’s famous eateries. On the side I teach a little yoga, cook, drink a little wine and apparently I tell stories. Here goes nothing!
Helen Lambin
I grew up in Iowa and have lived in Chicago for more than a half-century, so both are a part of me. I have been wife, mother of three, grandmother of one, and pet caretaker (or server) happily. And I am the widow of Henry J. Lambin, teacher, husband, friend, psychologist by profession, and father by nature. Thank goodness the children take after him. Over the years I have been: student, attempted nun, secretary, social worker, event planner, film extra, and part-time writer. At an age I refuse to reveal truthfully, I got my first tattoo—the first of a rather large number someone nicely described as a gallery. So I will claim that. It has also served as a bridge, across age, gender, racial, ethnic, social and any other borders you want. And because of my senior status and the Ink I’ve been profiled in print, TV and Internet. I still do some free-lance writing,but this is the first time I have tried story-telling, where if people like or don’t like what I say, they are there to tell me. My daughter Jeanne, herself a teller and lover of stories, got me into this. Well, she didn’t have to push very hard, I love stories and have had quite a bit of time to live them. I just didn’t realize it until along came Story Lab and….
Melissa Perrin
Melissa is a trained observer who collects stories on a daily basis. In her day job she teaches, gives consultation and helps folks rewrite their personal narratives. When she isn't working, she spends her time chauffeuring her daughter, patronizing coffee shops across the North Shore, writing, chatting and observing. Melissa is a native of the North Shore. She secretly wishes that she had been born and raised in Phoenix Arizona so that she could introduce herself as a Native Phoenician. [She just likes how that sounds.]
October 2014
Bill Hillmann
Bill Hillmann is the author of award winning internationally acclaimed Chicago novel, The Old Neighborhood. His writing has appeared in The Toronto Star, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and NPR. He's the creator of The Windy City Story Slam, a former Chicago Golden Glove Champ and works as a union construction laborer.
Arthur Hjorth
Arthur moved to the US three years ago after spending three years in the UK and 28 in Denmark. He has slowly been living life forwards while understanding it backwards ever since. Arthur is a PhD student whose research focuses on civic education and video games. When he is not attending storytelling events in Chicago, he might be running, or drinking beer.
Tetiana Kachmaryk
I am a social justice activist for a living. 70% of time home I cook because it's the only crafty thing I can do. I absolutely love dogs, farmers markets and Bourbon. Trying to go through life embracing awkwardness instead of avoiding it.
Tess Lennon-Dorn
Tess Lennon-Dorn was born and raised in Chicago. She attended the Chicago Waldorf School’s Early Childhood program where everything was covered in rainbow scarves. Seriously, everything. She was then homeschooled, where she wore ill-fitting overalls and questioned authority. In the sixth grade she decided she was done with alternative education and wanted to get serious, so naturally enrolled in the Sunflower School. The school was parent run, but in retrospect she wonders if she would have been better prepared for selective enrollment high school had it actually been run by sunflowers. From a young age she has enjoyed the performing arts, particularly acting. Tess is currently a student at Columbia College Chicago where she is majoring in Theatre with a concentration in Comedy Writing and Performance. Tess’s ultimate goal, other than riding around on a dragon thingy like in the movie Avatar, is to professionally write and perform stand up and musical comedy.
Dhamana Shauri
One of Dhamana Shauri's favorite things is having deliciously interesting conversations. She loves to meet people, discover new things, and she thinks it's a must to have fun along the way. In her work as a teacher and social worker, Dhamana has had experiences that range from the ridiculous to the sublime---and everything in between. Those experiences are great fodder for stories---stories that inspire, inform, and entertain. Sharing our stories breaks down barriers. Peace.
Vincent Truman
Vincent Truman likes to be introduced at parties as a playwright, not because he can make a living by it, but it is the most fulfilling of his creative ventures. His play, "The Observatory", was named one of the top 20 independent plays of 2010. Its follow-up, "Venus Envy", which flip-flopped the genders and their inherent strengths and shortcomings, inspired tremendous discussion and debate during the show's many talkback sessions. His latest play, "Featherstone", is a comic critique of the current gestalt of America post-911 and its bloodlust to find a bad guy in any situation. This play is set, appropriately enough, in a marriage counselor's office. When he is not writing provocative plays, Vincent battles with his social awkwardness by engaging in storytelling, having performed at Truth or Lie, Pungent Parlour, Do Not Submit, the Chicago and Portland Moths, among others.
September 2014
Emily Brouilette
Emily Brouilette is a financial planner who doesn't particularly enjoy math. She loves animals, ice cream, the Rolling Stones, and talking to strangers. She is a slightly reluctant gym rat and has never drunk a glass of milk.
Tyler Clark
In 2009, Tyler Clark moved to Chicago for a woman and a political campaign. He lost both. Now, he works as an Arts & Leisure editor for the Groupon Guide to Chicago, where he's written about everything from Thanksgiving parade balloons to the stories behind an arcade's high scores. He's appeared on stage at Mortified, Story Club, and Rock Trivia! The $10,000 Newlywed Match Gong Pyramid Feud. In his spare time, he's a DJ for CHIRPradio.org, and a member of the Blue Ribbon Glee Club (Chicago's only punk rock a capella group).
Penny Fields
I have been a writer my whole life but didn’t try to publish since I needed to make money. Mundane I know. My business, www.ur-pal.com, is 25 years old. If you look at my website you’ll notice humor is used to teach serious subjects of corporate health and safety. I write serious life topics the same way. I’ve always believed we remember humor. Like everyone, we all have stories and all our stories are lessons for each other. Live Lit has been a whole new world. The story tellers have been inspiring and educational. I look forward to joining in with Story Lab.
Johnnie Grozenski
Johnnie Grozenski, after staying away from the Chicago Literary circuit for one and a half years, has come back with work from his new solo show he is developing titled 'In a Different Life: Testing till death do us part'. Johnnie explores the idea of commitment, five years after his husband of 15 years has suffered a stroke and is living with aphasia. He is currently studying a solo workshop at Chicago Dramatist; he has read at Speak Easy Speak Hard, This Much Is True and My First Time. He hopes to be chosen to perform his solo show at RhinoFest coming in January.
Justin Sikes
After spending three balmy years at Arizona State University earning an MFA in fiction writing, Justin Sikes decided that he missed subzero temperatures and snowdrifts the size of his car, and so he returned to his home region of Northwest Indiana. By day, he coordinates accreditation and quality improvement for a community mental health center. By night, he commutes to Chicago to tell or listen to stories whenever he can and to goof off with the Second City, where he has completed the writing program and is having a blast with the Improv program. Justin also likes to run, to hike, to pretend he knows how to use his digital camera, and to add to his whiskey collection.
Elise Taylor
Elise has been told more than once that she’s could give the Most Interesting Man in the World a run for his money. She grew up in Texas, got out of there as fast as she could. She moved to Chicago three years ago on a whim after she fell in love with the city on vacation. These days, she manages a team of trainers where she gets to tell stories every day. Among other things she’s done: played in a competitive billiards tournament; run a marathon; and snuggled a panda.
August 2014
Maddy Goodreau
Maddy has been touted as "the kind of person who makes the world go 'round" by a teenager who she switched seats with on the bus so that he could sit next to his friend. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she is growing weary of incredulously being asked why she now lives in Chicago. Before landing in the Windy City for graduate school in social work, she volunteered full-time for two years as a teacher and at a family emergency shelter. From a young age, she had a solid appreciation for the little things and later in life developed a belief in the power of words to turn little things into big ones. Maddy has been drawn to storytelling in all of its forms since then.
Laura Haney
Laura Haney is a Chicago native who is also a freelance graphic designer and illustrator. She has worked on various film and animation projects including a piece for Northwestern Memorial Hospital. She is a comic art enthusiast and enjoys creating her own comics, doing improv, trying out new cuisines and cosplaying. Her recent travels include New York City and Israel. She also has worked for the Chicago Botanic Garden for 5 years and champion’s environmental issues as a result. If you would like to learn more about her or her art please visit her website at www.laurahaney.net .
Claudia Jaccarino
For Claudia Jaccarino, a memoir writing class at the Irish American Heritage Center (yes, shameless plug) was the impetus to get the stories of her life out of her head and onto paper. Bedtime stories shared with her only child about her "former incarnations" as a dancer, (not exotic) New Yorker, (not rude) and Pan American World Airways Flight Attendant, (definitely quasi unbelievable) are the fodder for her writing. Aspiring to be an enigma, Claudia is simultaneously delighted and terrified to be here.
Jocelyn Pinkerton
I am a proud CPS high school teacher of English who is awaiting the demise of our mayor - the Tiny Dancer. I borned and bred five children who are now adults (except for my daughter Lillian who passed away last year).
I am new to storytelling on stage but already fully vested in the effort. I presume my audience to suppose that I have led a remarkable life even though it doesn't include stints with improv, 2nd City, or notable literary contributions. On my behalf it should be noted that I look forward to sharing my modest funds with the guys who stand in the middle of the Belmont hwy exit with small cardboard signs (that need editing from an English teacher) and all of my students get $5 on their birthdays. These acts should assure my safe passage to Heaven when the time comes for such things.
I am new to storytelling on stage but already fully vested in the effort. I presume my audience to suppose that I have led a remarkable life even though it doesn't include stints with improv, 2nd City, or notable literary contributions. On my behalf it should be noted that I look forward to sharing my modest funds with the guys who stand in the middle of the Belmont hwy exit with small cardboard signs (that need editing from an English teacher) and all of my students get $5 on their birthdays. These acts should assure my safe passage to Heaven when the time comes for such things.
Devo Sullivan
Devo has been storytelling since she found out what the word exaggeration meant. She's from Chicago- fine, ok the suburbs- has studied comedy at all the usual places, and has two guinea pigs, Minkus and Lil Karl. She loves performing standup, sketch, and improv, but storytelling makes her feel giddy. heydevo.blogspot.com
July 2014
John Dudley
John spent much of his childhood living in Bangkok, Thailand, where he spent countless hours searching the markets for American comicbooks. When visiting the USA for the summers, he spent most of his time in South Carolina, where his parents were born and raised. When he moved back stateside, he traded the heat and humidity of Thailand and South Carolina for the utterly perfect temperatures to be found in, ahem... Minneapolis, Minnesota. The good news about this jarring move to the land of ice and snow? John lived less than a mile from an actual comic shop! It wasn't long before he wrote his first comic script. In the years since, John's love for all forms of storytelling has grown exponentially. After earning his degree in history from the University of Richmond, John learned that there are very few open 'historian' positions to be found. And so he became a ski bum in Montana instead, sharing his love for comics, history (and his favorite subject: the history of comics!) with anyone unlucky enough to be stuck on a ski lift with him. He then moved to Chicago, where he earned his Masters degree in Public Administration from DePaul University. He now works as the Business Development Manager for a web development firm that specializes in work for the public sector and non-for-profits. John still writes comics. He's somehow conned several extremely talented artists to lend hundreds of hours, pro bono, towards the goal of bringing life and movement to his crazy ideas.
Elizabeth Gomez
Elizabeth Gomez is a storyteller, stand up comic, and tiny dancer. She is the world's most renowned expert on Anna Nicole Smith and has never played Legend of Zelda. Elizabeth can be seen at various open mics and storytelling events around the city. She also is a writer at drinkerswithwritingproblems.com.
Archy Jamjun
Archy Jamjun is a writer, storyteller, and Chicago's Biggest Liar! He competed in the Moth Grandslam in May and had "Game of Phones", a show he co-wrote, go up at Second City this past spring. For more information or inquiries email him at ArchyJam@gmail.com.
Ben Kass
Ben Kass is a Chicago voice actor, and has been heard on national and regional radio and tv playing such niche roles as "Man 1" or "Guy". He has performed improv and sketch comedy iO Theatre and Second City and been a contributing writer for The Paper Machete Live Podcast. He loves playing comedy music around town, and likes to eat sweet potatoes. Ben co-stars in the new comedy web series, "Lowe Maintenance."
David Richmond
David Richmond is a Manufacturing Supervisor, an Army Veteran, and a Chicago native. Growing up, he lived all over the city (has never lived in the same place for 3 years straight). He is one of the few people that loves all of Chicago's seasons. David was introduced to Storytelling events by a friend last year and was instantly hooked. He has told stories at Do Not Submit, and Grown folks Stories but his best stories were told in his Grandmother's house around his cousins and drunk uncle.... Man, you missed it.
Joanne Singleton
As a wanderlust runner Joanne has completed marathons and ultra-marathons. She has participated in city marathons with thousands of others, to remote races in Alaska with just a few hundred people. She documents the remote adventures using the 'long arm' given there's seldom anyone else around to take the picture. As a pediatric transplant social worker she has seen the joy and heartbreak of what life and death has to offer. Her patients and families inspire her to find the best in all things, though she admits if marooned on a desert island she'd probably have a very difficult time coping, given she much prefers a snowy mountains to a sandy beach!
June 2014
Morgan Crouch
Morgan Crouch is a writer, performer, storyteller and pseudo-raging feminist from Chicago. She is a graduate of iO and the Second City Writing Program and is currently studying in the Second City Conservatory. Over the past year, Morgan has successfully become one of those dog owners, which is emphasized by the magnet on her fridge that reads "who rescued who?"
Jen Janke
A resident of Oak Park, Jen Janke teaches, writes, and improvises in faraway places known as the suburbs of Naperville and Aurora. Yes, these places exist. She specializes in ESL and bilingual education. Jen is obsessed with interviews, and will try to work in a reference to some random podcast during virtually any conversation. She appreciates motorcycles, dreams of lakes, and likes to drink.
Rick Marzec
Rick has spent his entire marketing career crafting very important stories about his clients, such as: why XYZ Bank’s checking account is better than bank down the street; what makes ABC fork lift truck so durable; and how buying toilet paper for your factory’s rest rooms from TMI Company will impress your boss. Now, Rick is turning his attention to telling less important stories by orating chapters from his own life. He lives in Chicago’s North Park neighborhood with his husband and their dog. Rick kindly requests that no one call his house while HBO’s "Game of Thrones" is on.
Dan Murphy
The best concert Dan ever went to was Wilco at Summerfest, in 2008. He is hafu, which means half-Japanese. Dan grew up in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago, and went to college at a small liberal arts school in Ohio. He works at Apple and has three different Apple hoodies, except his girlfriend stole one. Dan is more used to reading stories than telling one and this will be his first time sharing one on stage.
Rachel Singer
Rachel Singer has been exploring the intersections of art and healing to connect mind, body and spirit. In 2008 she co-founded an intentional arts co-op in Rogers Park to build community through the arts and healing. In recent years she has traveled extensively, building a network of individuals working in the field of Arts in Medicine. In 2012, Rachel trained in Dance for Parkinson's and Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida. In these two programs the work was focused on the intrinsic healing properties of art, holding space for the artistic process with the individual, and not pathologizing, analyzing, or diagnosing. The Arts in Medicine program gave Rachel the opportunity to use interdisciplinary art in settings ranging from a juvenile detention center to various units in a hospital. She has been teaching dance in the Chicago Public Schools since 2007. This year Rachel trained at Yogaview to become a certified yoga teacher and is thrilled to now be sharing this sacred practice in private lessons and group classes. Currently she is creating a puppetry and dance show called The Blind Cartographer. Rachel is working to expand the development and access to arts in medicine programs in the Chicago area.
Rose Zaccone
I was born in New Hampshire to a librarian and a printer and lived in N.H. until I was 13. My mother and I moved to the little town of Walnut, IL (the hometown of "Archy and Mehitabel" writer Don Marquis - literally the only interesting thing about Walnut, IL). I studied English at Northern Illinois University while working two jobs and watching unhealthy amounts of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Netflix. And what was I going to do with that expensive English degree, you ask? Teach, you ask? Don't be silly. I'm a rebel. I go against the grain. I excel at instantly doing the opposite of what people suggest. Now I'm in logistics. I moved to Chicago and got a temp job in the call center of C.H. Robinson, a third party logistics company located in Lincoln Park. It was soul-suckingly awful and I used to cry every morning on the walk to work from the train. But then I was promoted to full time and now work with a small group of nice guys who buy me cake pops from Starbucks whenever I ask for one. The work is simple, I get health insurance, and there is an abundance of natural lighting.
April 2014
Amanda Dodge
This is Amanda's second time with Story Lab Chicago since October 2011 and she's very excited about coming back. She has been living in Chicago for 10 years, but she happily refers to Louisiana as her first home. She is currently the Secretary and Database Manager for the Chicago Fringe Festival and for real money, she works as a Processor for a mortgage company. Her vocabulary includes such phrases as “Woof,” “Girl,” and everyone’s favorite, “I cannot go back to jail.” She likes mustaches on men, women and children, but not on animals. That’s just ridiculous.
Jesse Giallombardo
Jesse Giallombardo is a musician, fiction author and filmmaker; hobbies linked by the joy of telling a story. Working around an adequately paying day job, he currently performs in multiple music projects and is nonchalantly laboring on two screenplays, a novel and a collection of 55 Fiction. Jesse also hosts We're So Lost, a bi-weekly conversational podcast with a recurring storytelling segment. He is obsessive about objects which have no importance to his contemporaries, such as his newly-acquired pre-1973 Parker Jotter pen with brass fitment and dome button, for which he purchased new old stock Schmidt 8900 Super Bowl refills on Ebay. Grounded in reality, he does not hesitate to scratch his inner ear with this pen. Jesse's approach to life is the opposite of his typing style and he is a vocal opponent of the Oxford comma.
Alex Hough
Alex Hough, a native of Richmond, Virginia, attended the Cleveland Institute of Music and George Washington University, graduating with a degree in philosophy, which seemed like a good idea at the time. He has written for Chicagoist and the now-defunct (not his fault) online city guide Centerstage, and has performed with professional orchestras in Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Virginia, and professional law firms in Illinois and Washington, D.C. A certified yoga teacher and non-certified project manager, Alex was also recently trained in CPR, so come over here, baby, and let him give you some mouth-to-mouth. Alex rents in Wicker Park.
Andy Mitchell
Andy Mitchell is a writer, editor, musician, comedian and quizmaster. He grew up in St. Charles, Ill., and previously worked as a newspaper and public radio reporter. By day, he edits content for Aggrego, a subsidiary of the company that owns the Chicago Sun-Times. By night, he makes music under the name Bigger Children, hosts Geeks Who Drink pub quizzes and studies at Second City. His favorite kind of pizza is Hawaiian.
Claire Podulka
Claire Podulka is a writer, editor, and startup cat wrangler. She founded the travel blog Go Go Go and is producing the forthcoming superhero web comedy Two Redheads.
Molly Strzelecki
Born and raised in Chicago's south suburbs, Molly Strzelecki is a writer and editor who likes to throw parties in garages, and cook and bake things and then take pictures of them. Sometimes the pictures aren't blurry, and she has yet to drop her camera in a bowl of batter. When not in the kitchen you can usually find her at the library checking out entirely too many books to read in a single sitting, or teaching the cats that live in her home to act like dogs.
March 2014
Joel Ebner
Writer, musician, and graphic designer Joel Ebner is excited to be making his storytelling debut at Story Lab Chicago. A former associate editor for the music website Pitchfork Media, he is now the primary creative engine behind the art-pop band City States. The group just finished producing its first full-length album, Geography, which will be available to the public later this spring. Ebner lives in Bucktown with his girlfriend and her 3-year old Shiba Inu, David Bowie The Dog.
Monica Geick
Writer, avid bike rider, and people observer Monica is currently having a quarter life crisis (yes, it’s a real thing…maybe). She just moved to the Pilsen neighborhood in August. She is currently enjoying all the city has to offer. A few random facts about her: She used to have a pet miniature opossum named Tiko, she used to break into churches with her best friend in high school, and she once relocated her neighbor’s lawn ornaments just for the fun of it.
Suzy Krueckeberg
After a successful career as a psychologist, Suzy Krueckeberg is having the best midlife crisis ever by becoming a performer. She has trained at the Graham School, Story Studio, Second City, and IO. Suzy’s writing has been featured at Write Club, Story Club and Guts and Glory. She also does stand-up comedy with The Kates.
Dave Maher
Dave Maher does stand-up comedy around Chicago, and he improvises with the groups K.C. Redheart and Big Trees, a house team at the Upstairs Gallery. He co-hosts an open mic called This Is Not an Open Mic in a Humboldt Park gallery basement, and he has a podcast called The Sweetness, which features comedy, music and conversations about the creative life. He recently released an EP called "My Fake Comedy Album," which is available through the podcast now.
Sandra Mazuera
Sandra Mazuera is a traditional illustrator. Her work has been showcased through RawArtists: Chicago and the Evanston Galleria. She spends her days tutoring algebra full-time for CPS, working box office for the Second City, and training for her second marathon. She'll be turning the big 3-0 in April, and she is happy to check this off her bucket list.
Marty Pack
Marty Pack is a lot of things. First, she is a single mom raising two brilliant and beautiful girls. She is a documentary film maker, bringing to light the social injustices of our educational system and domestic violence in illegal immigrant communities. She is involved in her local community, helping to improve her neighborhood High School. She is an Athlete, at the age of 45, slowly lifting an increasing amount of weight and to her amazement, running. In May she will be starting her Masters in International Relations, with the intention of studying/filming abroad, the cultures of Eastern European women and their roles in emerging democracies. Born and raised in Columbus, OH, she is a diehard Buckeye and should never be disturbed during OSU football games. How does she do it all? Liquor and Coffee.
February 2014
Jenn Barthold
Jenn Barthold is from Michigan, so she talks funny, or so she's been told. She grew up in suburbia, and moved to the city proper after college. Jenn works as a graphic designer both 9-5 and after hours (i.e. freelance design). She is tall, crafty, and slightly off kilter. Jenn really hates talking about myself.
Sarah Bunger
Sarah Bunger grew up in one of the smallest towns imaginable outside of Dayton, Ohio (think: flashing caution light, a gas station/Subway sandwich duo, and lots and lots of cows). Since moving to the big city six years ago, she is adjusting to the long winters and nearly complete lack of cows. She teaches English to sophomores and seniors, relishing every minute she gets to re-experience Holden Caulfield, Blanche Dubois, and Nick Carraway. She is new to the storytelling scene, but hopes to tell more stories in 2014 and beyond.
Michael Cullinane
Michael Cullinane has a knack for connecting life's interesting moments to classic episodes of 80's sitcoms. He has been a high school English teacher for 12 years, two of those spent in a small town in Northern Japan. Some of Michael's favorite experiences have been inside his Creative Writing classroom showing (not telling) young people the wonderful worlds they can develop through personal storytelling. Many of his own personal stories have been fueled by his love for travel and attending bizarre concerts and music festivals. Michael is an avid fan of both highbrow and lowbrow culture, from Ernest Hemingway to Ernest Scared Stupid. He looks forward to telling you his story and hopes that you'll really like it!
Buddy King
Buddy feels like Richard Nixon writing about himself in the third person. He (I) will have been a professional actor for fifty years next year. Appearing around the country as Baby Jon to Riff Raff, I am now enjoying Improv and Storytelling as an even more complete method of communication. Synchronized swimming is next.
Maureen Muldoon
Maureen Muldoon is here to have fun, laugh and not take things too seriously. She comes from a long line of storytellers, entertainers, gypsies and alcoholics. She grew up in Jersey and has live in 20 different homes from New York to LA. Spent 20 years in Hollywood as an actress and was one of the first characters killed off on Dexter. She is the creator of VoiceBoxOakPak.com and loved nothing more than a good story and a PB&J.
Ellen Wessel
Ellen is a massage therapist in the city of Chicago. She is a late bloomer in the sense that she has only now realized that creative output is connected to her physical well being. Telling stories is one of many steps.
January 2014
Michael Kopp
Trained in college to be an advertising copywriter, Michael made a conscious choice to use his powers for the forces of good rather than evil. A promising career writing restaurant reviews for a Chicago tourism magazine was cut tragically short when he ran out of synonyms for the word "delicious". After discovering his latent abilities as a geek, Michael managed web site development for a major Chicago radio station, an infamous theatrical producer and a New York City business school. Having confirmed his suspicion that economists are the least funny people on the planet, Michael continued down the twisted path that led inevitably to Story Lab.
Rose Lannin
The product of nine years in San Francisco and eight years in St. Paul, Rose Lannin is happy and still a little surprised to have lived in Chicago for almost a decade. A graduate of Loyola University Chicago's Creative Writing program, she has been an editor for Gapers Block's Book Club and Slowdown sections, an online coupon writer, technical support for car dealers, and many more things involving the Internet and writing in some capacity. These days, she sells websites and mobile applications by day, and tries to write funny and interesting stories by night. Rose lives with a guy, a cat, and many comic books in Roscoe Village, which she secretly calls Mayberry.
Molly Metzig
Molly is from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and moved to Chicago in 2010 after graduating from a college in Oregon. Her life goals include learning "Heart of Gold" on harmonica, visiting Greece, and telling a story in front of an audience.
Natasha Mulholland
Natasha Mulholland was born and raised here in the Chicagoland area, but believes herself to be a west coast person by nature. She lived in Seattle for a few years and has returned here to finish her graduate degree in secondary education. The transition back has been trying but she hopes to make the most of it. While she enjoys city life, she also desires adventure and wishes her life were more outdoorsy. Natasha has an undergraduate degree in fine art from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, which enabled her to realize she's more of a writer than a visual artist. She currently teaches yoga, has a couple part time jobs, and writes the blog: Aviva O'Byrne's Melting Pot. (www.avivaobyrne.com) She felt inspired by storytelling events and her new years resolution was to get serious about writing and share some stories herself.
Chris Padar
Chris Padar is a father and business professional living in the north-west suburbs. He enjoys a wide range of hobbies including music, travel. writing, acting, and camping. He's worked a variety of jobs from Envelope Inspector to Process Improvement Manager. Holding degrees in Computer Science, Speech Communication, and Technology Management as well as being a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Chris is currently an independent process consultant (aka unemployed). It would be wise not to engage him on the topics of Star Wars, Backyard Chickens, or Aquaponics unless you have a few hours to kill. If you experience a conversation lasting over four hours, consult a physician immediately.
Natasha Samreny
Natasha Samreny is a writer and storyteller based in Chicago. She can often be found writing sketch, or laughing too loud at her own jokes at an open mic. She cannot often be found at a baseball game drinking craft beer. But if the weather's nice, Natasha's probably hunched over her computer, editing audio stories or writing (natashasamrenywrites.tumblr.com). She doesn't have a smartphone so she has no real friends. But her sister calls her Bird, so it makes sense that she tweets - @NatashaSamreny.
December 2013
Craig Fitzgerald
Hailing from Miami, Fl, Craig Fitzgerald has called himself a Chicagoan since 1999. He enjoys dancing (poorly), playing his guitar (even more poorly), and drinking chai tea lattes (he’s actually pretty good at that one). He has taken improv classes at IO and did some theatre in college, but he hasn’t performed for quite some while. He has also worked in the non-profit and public service sector for the entirety of his adult life and once upon a time attended grad school. Craig is half Puerto Rican and half Irish, which is probably funny. He knows how to say “beer” in Korean, so if you’re ever going to visit Seoul he’s the man to talk to.
Eleanor Hyde
Eleanor is a theatre producer, bread baker, bike rider, and maker of canned goods. She works at Emerald City Theatre. Previously she was a company member and managing director of New Leaf Theatre. A transplant from the Northeast, Eleanor has been in Chicago for eight years (non-consecutively), but still holds on to her phone number from Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Kelley Johnson
Born in Chicago, Kelley has also lived, worked and studied on three continents, primarily in French-speaking places. She loves that her home city allows her to hang out with all sorts of different people, local and global, and is almost always up for trying something new. While she can't seem to stick with one job for more than a year and a half, Kelley has primarily worked in the non-profit sector doing things like refugee resettlement, immigrant rights advocacy, and disaster response, with a little bit of language education thrown in. She currently pays the bills helping travelers solve problems out at O'Hare International airport and in her down time can be found (surprise, surprise) doing things like salsa dancing, trying new foods or hanging out with friends swapping stories and getting uber-philosophical about the way the world works.
Jillian Lohndorf
I was raised by an Irish-born mother and Air Force father who moved around a lot during my childhood, contributing to my travel obsession and outgoing personality. These days, I'm a librarian at a psychology graduate school here in the city, so I spend a big chunk of my time with budding psychologists. When I'm not there, I fulfill the librarian stereotype by hanging out with my cat and making books by hand. Thankfully, I counteract these activities with a deep love of bourbon, a commitment to music at least once a week, and a pretty kick ass group of friends. I can never find my keys, talk to my mom every morning before work, and always up for a good story.
Andi Nelson
Andi works for NASA. Although she is a scientist, she's not an astrophysicist (but, she can do the science and the math). When not translating science research and concepts from scientist to public, she practices the alchemical arts of turning nothing into something through spinning, knitting, weaving, sewing, soapmaking, gardening and cooking. She's the one you want to be with if there is Zombie Apocalypse. Andi's greatest accomplishment is her 16 year old daughter. While she has told stories everyday for over twelve years, and has a long term relationship with the stage, she is only beginning to combine the two experiences.
Kelly Swails
Kelly Swails is an editor, author, and recovering microbiologist. She grew up in a small town in southern Illinois and has recently moved to Chicago with her husband. She has been telling stories her whole life. Sometimes those stories are even true.
November 2013
Kelly Butler
Kelly moved from Texas to Chicago six years ago to pursue a second career in advertising. She’s now a freelance copywriter and teaches at the ad school once a week. She’s a sci-fi nerd and an avid scotch drinker, which makes for a dorky drunk. Kelly used to do stand up in Houston for years but found it limiting, so she’s now honing her storytelling skills. Kelly also thinks it’s a little weird to write about herself in the third person like this so she’s going to wrap it up.
Jake Cowan
Jake Cowan is new to storytelling. He has performed at several open mics while taking classes at Story Studio Chicago. By day, he works at the Urban Libraries Council and generally tries to make the world a better place. When not engaged in this noble pursuit, Jake watches shows like So You Think You Can Dance and imagines the alternate universe in which he is able to break dance. He recently completed a streak of running a mile every day for 500 consecutive days. He's a Midwestern boy at heart, raised in St. Louis. Find him on twitter @BaconJedi.
Amy Dittmeier
Amy Dittmeier is the owner of HEAVEmedia.com, a local website full of columns, features, and other things people like to read. She's taken the quiet path of the writer and editor for most of her career, but caught the storytelling bug when her website started sponsoring The Button Down, and has since performed several times within the series. A native Chicagolandian, Amy enjoys all the city has to offer - mostly its vast selection of couture hot dogs and comic book shops.
Misty Emmons
Misty has lived in Chicago since March of this year. She received a Bachelor's Degree in Theatre from Bradley University, where her favorite pursuits included foley sound, writing,and improv. Since then, her varied work experiences have ranged from a summer studio Props Artisan to a Supervisor at a Pharmaceutical Company to a residential Cleaning Lady. This is her first storytelling event.
Amy Krzyzek
Amy Krzyzek grew up listening to the stories of her very large extended family, and was inspired to be a storyteller, too. Previous experiences include: telling many elaborate lies to her two sisters, creating amazing adventures for her pets, and imagining the strange lives of the customers at the grocery store where she worked for 4 years as a teen. Currently, Amy works as a youth developer/educator, and she uses people's stories to teach students about local and global social problems. She hopes to become even better at using stories as tools for meaningful learning, self-expression, empowerment, and building communities.
Mare Swallow
Mare Swallow is a professional speaker and public speaking coach. She is also the founder and Executive Director of the Chicago Writers Conference, an organization that helps writers grow their careers. Learn more at mariannaswallow.com, or at chicagowritersconference.org. She loves red wine.
October 2013
Clarence Browley
Clarence Browley is a former musician who is new to the storytelling scene, and co-host of Stoop Style Stories.
Stephanie Chavera
Stephanie Chavara is an actor, storyteller, and teaching artist. She has worked with Signal Ensemble, TimeLine, Adventure Stage, Remy Bumppo, Collaboraction, and The Agency. In addition she has collaborated as a dancer and puppeteer with Rooms Gallery, Champagne and Milk, and HERE Theatre Company. Her original stories have been heard at Salonathon, Lifeline's Fillet of Solo, and 2nd Story-where she is also a company member. She devises theatre with kids so can frequently be found fighting dragons, making up songs about eggs, and having dance-offs.
Mark A. Child.
Mark Anthony (A.) Child is an actor, who has also dabbled in the world of radio producing and writing (stand up, fiction, and creative-nonfiction). He has acted for the radio, stage, and camera in a number of audio dramas, commercials, theater productions, and short films all while seeking to join an agency, so he can begin working professionally. Initially wanting to become a voice actor mainly, Mark’s varied interests made him decide to just try some of everything. He recently graduated from Columbia College Chicago in May 2013, where he majored in Radio and minored in Acting. From January to September 2013, Mark interned for the radio shows ‘The MusicVox’ and ‘The Mixtape’, both of which air on Vocalo 90.7FM, a radio station that is a part of Chicago Public Media. His voice can be heard briefly on WCRX 88.1fm in their latest radio dramatic series, ‘Writers at the Edge’ (for which he was also a writer), airing this Fall. Whether it’s acting, writing, or producing, Mark always has a story to tell!
Bethany Hubbard
Raised in a small New England town (pop. 929), Bethany came to the Midwest in 2002 to study theatre and English at Northwestern University. She has since performed at the Goodman Theatre, The American Theater Company, Donny’s Skybox Theatre, iO Chicago and Stage 773, and has been performing with Storytown Improv since August of 2009. In 2011, her love of storytelling brought her back to Northwestern, where she recently earned a Master's from the Medill School of Journalism. She currently serves as publications editor for Science in Society at Northwestern, where she helps graduate science students become better communicators. She now knows way more about carbon nanotubes, graphene oxide and quantum chemistry than she ever thought she would.
Nicole Matos
Nicole Matos is a Chicago-based writer, professor, and derby girl. Her written work has appeared in such publications as Salon, The Classical, THE2NDHAND txt, Chicago Literati, Vine Leaves, and others. You can catch her blogging for Medium and publishing tappable stories on Tapestry, too. She competes as Nicomatose #D0A with The Chicago Outfit Roller Derby, proud member of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA), where skaters are the primary owner-operators of their leagues, and all leagues have a voice.
September 2013
Dacey Arishiba
Dacey Arishiba writes and performs sketch comedy with Stir Friday Night, sings in a punk rock choir called The Blue Ribbon Glee Club and improvises with his team Thunder Bunny. He sometimes writes music for shows he is in including an ode to Jeppson’s Malört. He has also done sketch comedy for kids in “The Ankle Todd Show”, co-produced the Paranormal Adventure League, and performed in Big/Little productions. In a previous life he was a professional musician, and has a song 17 minutes into “D2: Mighty Ducks Two.”
Josh Berling
Josh has used the exploding Chicago storytelling scene as a wonderful excuse to get back on stage. As was the case with most men in their 20's who live within 30 miles of the city, Josh was in a comedy troupe as one of the founding members of Big Dog Eat Child. Since he left the group, he has spent his spare time writing, gaming, drinking, and working in his decidedly uncreative job. Now, he's taking his neuroses, his awkwardness, and his near supernatural ability to put his foot in his mouth to fuel his stories about growing up and finding his place in the world. He's performed at The Button Down, Grown Folks Stories, as well as any other stage that will have him, including The Moth at Haymarket where he was the May StorySlam winner.
Alex Blanchette
Alex Blanchette is an occasional performer, freelance film-maker, and fifth-year resident of Chicago. A graduate of Bradley University's Radio/TV, Music, and Theatre programs, he currently makes his living watching wedding videos. Other things he has watched through a camera monitor include a season of minor-league baseball, three days of tech discussion he still can't comprehend, and two films he will never fully explain to his grandparents. A native Midwesterner and survivor of five years in retail customer service, Alex has accepted his permanent bafflement at humanity, but is at least fairly nice about it.
Susan Gidel
Susan Gidel is a writer from way back (starting with pen pal letters in grade school), but just recently has embraced the storytelling form—and loves it! She made her storytelling debut as part of the 2012 festival at side project theatre in Rogers Park, and will do an encore performance in the 2013 festival. Please visit www.susangsays.com for more about her day job as a marketing copywriter and astrologer. Many thanks to Story Lab for this opportunity to get even more hooked on storytelling!
Anita Mechler
Anita Mechler has been an off and on-again writer from whatever tender age forces you to keep diaries and journals. She is a librarian, archivist, and Japanophile. Her love of storytelling comes from being steeped in Mexican folklore and the superstition of her hometown of San Antonio, Texas. In her free time, she likes to avoid writing by riding her bike, rubbing elbows with colleagues in her field, going to museums and shows, hanging out with her cat, and drinking. You can follow more of her writing on drinkerswithwritingproblems.com.
Kathy O'Neill
Kathy O'Neill is a writer, journalist, special events producer and publicist. She works for the Irish American Heritage Center and Prop Thtr. She has been a writer for NewCity Newspapers and was the Midwest Correspondent for ABCNews.com. She has also worked for Redmoon Theater, the Democratic National Convention, Nightline, Good Morning America and World News Tonight, with Peter Jennings. She has read her short stories and poetry about growing up Irish Catholic in New Jersey at the iBAM! Irish Books, Art and Music Celebration and her next reading is at iBAM! on October 13 at the Irish American Heritage Center. She lives in Logan Square.
August 2013
Marta Johnson
Marta is a social worker by day, hobbyist by night. Recently, she has been dabbling in ballroom dance and stand-up comedy. Marta is fond of cycling, cooking, and running around with her charming (but very naughty) border collie, Leroy. On most days you can find her drinking lots of water and following the rules in Logan Square, where she lives together with her younger sister, Laura.
Ruth Kaufman
An attorney with a master’s in TV/Radio, Ruth Kaufman earned multiple national top performer awards at two companies while pursuing acting and writing on the side. Eight years ago, she left corporate America training and marketing to act and write full-time. Credits include on-camera roles in independent films and commercials and narrating dozens of e-learning courses and medical projects. Writing accolades include Romance Writers of America®’s Golden Heart® Award, a National Indie Excellence Award and runner up in the American Title II contest. Visit ruthtalks.com to learn more.
A.J. Platt
A.J. traveled to Chicago in 2008 from the great State of Iowa, and has found it very difficult to leave. He is a graduate of UNI, the iO training center, the Second City Conservatory and Writing Programs, and The Annoyance theater. You can find A.J. behind the bar at the Goose Island Clybourn Brewpub, or on the more fun side of the bar at any of the other Brewpubs in the city. Also, please watch for him Co-starring in the Fall release of the new web series Lowe Maintenance.
Wolfgang Stein
Wolfgang Stein is an actor and writer. He recently stared in the short film Running Buddies by Micah C. Gardner. He hangs out at The Annoyance Theater and annoys people with Fire & Beer, Stitched, Oprah and anything that might upset his mother. Stein performs improv. Stein directs children in an improv ensemble and a group of Russians that you should never mess with. Stein is working on a screenplay. Stein enjoys a good patch of green grass to lay on next to the lake. Click on these links: steintime.tumblr.com, www.jackandthewolf.com, www.shortvision.com.
Dan Terkell
Dan is a fresh face in Chicago's universe of story buffs. He began performing at open-mike venues last November after reading a Tribune feature about Chicago's network of story-tellers. A life-long city kid, Dan has been an eyewitness to, and sometime participant in the urban circus that is Chicago since the 1960s. For all of his lengthy work-life, he's held straight jobs including budget analyst and planner, technical writer, and CTA bus pilot. His favorite aroma is that of a freshly-tarred roof on a warm summer evening.
Melissa Wood
Melissa has called Chicago home for the past 4 years. Chicago is the 11th place she’s lived, because she is proud to call herself an ARMY brat (although South Carolina is “home home”)! Her love of books led to a career in publishing, and currently works at the mecca for all bibliophiles, the American Library Association. At night, she volunteers at Gigi’s Playhouse, takes advantage of weird Groupons, enrolls in whatever new dance class Old Town School of Folk offers, and spends WAY too much money entertaining herself in this amazing city. Live music is her most expensive habit, and is a sucker for an outdoor festival.
JULY 2013
Kevin Dudey
Kevin Dudey is a graphic designer, musician and part-time cat wrangler. Although he likes to travel whenever he can, exploring his hometown of Chicago is one of his favorite activities. Despite being half-Asian, he is not particularly fond of math or nail care, however he does like photography and being first in line. Kevin is typically very bad at remembering song lyrics and has an affinity for tater tots. Finally, he knows the last number of pi, which consequently happens to be his age: 32
Kaitlyn Grissom
Kaitlyn Grissom moved to Chicago from Newark, Ohio (It's nowhere. Don't worry about it.) to do some theater. Since arriving in the city, she has worked as a freelance scenic designer and carpenter at places like Black Ensemble Theater, Pure Artistry,and Redmoon. And yes, some day jobs, too- like waiting tables, nannying, and driving one of those little bike rickshaws at Cubs games. You can find her at standup comedy open mics and showcases all around town.
Barry Joe Lorberbaum
Motivated by anger, frustration, pain and disgust I see the downside of every situation. The costs always out-way the benefits. As a product of the Chicago Public School System and other Chicago institutions I am living proof that life in Chicago should be a felony. After 58 years of exposure I’ve been on both sides of the shoe-shine rag. I am detached but not isolated, writing and painting and creating in near silence. 2000 poems-500 painting-3 books, outdoor installations and some short stories. Few people know me, fewer people know what I do. Discomfort is my closest friend. Old, sick, unemployed and broke; telling one of my stories to a group of strangers is something I need to do. I am an optimist.
James Rickel
James Rickel grew up in Waukegan Illinois were he still lives and works today. As he was growing up in Waukegan he did theater until he went to college, and went from being homeschooled his whole life to a college life. He will be a senior at the University of Illinois at Chicago, in industrial design. Before his transfer to UIC, he went to the College of Lake County and was on CLC speech team for two years. He is a passionate home brewer were he tries to capture a memory into a beer.
Laura Scruggs
Laura's first role was a green bean in the play "Clarence the Carrot," at the age of 6. Other favorite roles are: Wendy in "Peter Pan," Mrs. SWAK in "Meet Me on the Ceiling" and The Mother of Victim in "Bully: The Hip Hop Musical," which has been touring various Chicago Public Schools this school year! She can be seen performing her one-woman show, "Punk Grandpa," this year at the Chicago Fringe Festival! Laura also enjoys playing the piano, puppetry, doing research about how to become a fairy and really loves her husband of almost 10 years, who let her have a Wizard of Oz-themed wedding reception!
JUNE 2013
Ken Brezinsky
Ken Brezinsky has been telling stories for years, ones with almost no plots, no characters and no drama since they have been scientific stories told to captive students and conference attendees. At last he decided it was time to get out of the lecture hall and into Chicago story telling venues where he can add humor, conflict, pathos, tragedy, and drama to his stories. Since that decision about eighteen months ago, he has presented almost fifty new vignettes based on personal and decidedly non-scientific experiences.
Brittany Bookbinder
Brittany Bookbinder is an actor, playwright and frequent train rider. She hopes, someday, to be described as "that girl on that show," "ukelele sensation" and/or "Amy Poehler's other best friend." She dreams big. She is currently celebrating two and a half years of living in Chicago. She enjoys cooking, kittens, sci-fi, sitcoms, and sitting near large bodies of water on warm-weather days.
Erin Diamond
Erin grew up in Arlington Heights and is a proud resident of Chicago's Northcenter neighborhood. After attending her first storytelling event last September (The Moth GrandSLAM), Erin was hooked! Recently, she left her rewarding but consuming job working in mental health in order to focus more on writing and performing. She is a die-hard Third Eye Blind fan...and she doesn't care who knows it!
Karen Genelly
I have always loved to tell stories. I am a native Chicagoan who grew up on the north side of the city and even though I have traveled a lot I always return home to Chicago. I have spent my professional life as a teacher and a counselor working for the Chicago Public Schools. My time with CPS can be described as the best of times and the worst of times-the best being the kids and the worst being Rahm Emanuel. As much as I loved teaching and being a counselor last year I decided to broaden my horizons and to test my abilities in other areas, such as storytelling, so I retired from CPS. So far it has been a great year learning new things and traveling the world. I've learned there is life outside the public schools and in India that getting on and off a camel can be a tricky business.
Ben Kass
Ben Kass is a Chicago voice actor, and has been heard on national and regional radio and tv playing such niche roles as "Man 1" or "Guy". He has performed improv and sketch comedy iO Theatre and Second City and been a contributing writer for The Paper Machete Live Podcast. He loves playing comedy music around town, and likes to eat sweet potatoes. Ben co-stars in the new comedy web series, "Lowe Maintenance", which launches later this summer!
Felissia Mae
Traditionally, performer bios are written in the third-person. Traditionally, they contain a predictable compilation of semi-personal information. My name is Felissia Mae, and I'm non-traditional. Something very close to my psyche is the belief that true life stories are the pure and succulent product of a life well-lived. The better the stories, the better the life. When I'm dead, my memoirs will be my legacy. When you share story-time with me, our legacies touch fingertips. Swapping experiences - it's a collaborative effort in constructing that collage of divinity, the collective unconscious.
May 2013
Alan Brouilette
Alan Brouilette is an entertainer. Like most creatives, he's got a cat, a sketch comedy troupe, and a huge self-destructive streak. He is also a runner, a gambler, a cook, and a sucker for aimless road trips. He prefers Gonzo journalism to the regular responsible kind. He writes books, magazine articles, and scripts, and especially loves kicking down the fourth wall.
David Fink
David has attended a number of storytelling events but this is his first official performance telling an entire story to an audience. David usually works behind the scenes at the Acorn Theater in Three Oaks, Michigan. The Acorn regularly presents a storytelling event called "Adult Education" hosted by Scott Whitehair. Scott has pestered David to tell a story on stage long enough to wear him down and, in a moment of weakness, agree to perform in Storylab. Please be gentle with him.
Virginia Fox
Virginia Fox is a rewired actress after retiring from corporate marketing jobs a few years ago. She lives half the year in Puerto Vallarta and the other in Chicago. You guess which one. She loves playing character roles in film and on stage and thinks Story Lab is a highlight of her rewiring! She's been writing poetry, journalism, and short stories forever.
Katie Jones
Katie has worked as a director, teacher, improviser, dramaturg and puppeteer in the Chicago area for the past seven years. During that time, she has worked with Northlight Theatre, American Theatre Company, Citadel, Second City, Improv Olympic, Steppenwolf’s Crosstown Teen Ensemble, the International Centre for Women Playwrights, Director’s Lab Chicago, Civic Leadership Foundation and Von Orthal Puppets. In 2012, she performed as part of Theatre Zarko’s He Who in the Steppenwolf Garage Rep Series, and directed a workshop of Small Game by local playwright Lily Mooney. Katie is the Founding Co-Artistic Director of Wishbone Theatre Collective, which is now in its fourth season. Through Wishbone, Katie has directed productions of Incendiary; Maybe, Baby, It’s You; Vigils,; and Wishbone’s original Spandex, an investigation of the superhero which performed at the Chicago Fringe Festival last September, and will move on to Edinborough in August 2013.
Annette Radziszewski
A native Chicagoan, Annette Radziszewski’s writing has been featured in the Chicago Reader, Chickpea Vegan Quarterly Magazine, and her personal twitter feed, @annradtweets. When not developing marketing campaigns for health and wellness companies or working on freelance videography projects, Annette can be found developing her improvisational skills at Second City, making food-centric experimental films, or indulging her curious yet sincere predilection for Malort shots.
Ozzie Totten
Ozzie has claimed Chicago as his home for the past seven years. He's actively involved in 2nd Story, where he serves as a company member and the manager of the podcast program. In his free time, he's a die hard Minnesota Twins fan. Yes, you read that right.
April 2013
Hilary Barry
Hilary Barry’s performing experience is primarily in the singing and dancing arena. A regular song and dance girl, she is currently a non-profit professional by day, a student of marketing by night, and (in her free time) the Artistic Director of Chicago Verge Dance Theatre. Hilary rarely speaks on stage and is therefore almost more afraid of public speaking as she is of missing the newest Mad Men episode. She is grateful to be able to tackle her fears with the support of the wonderful storytelling community in Chicago. Thanks to the wonderful audience, her friends, family, and husband-to-be, Philip.
Nancy Hannibal
Nancy Hannibal grew up in “Pleasantville” (aka West Lafayette) Indiana. Even as a small girl, it was hard to fence her in. She always was a bit of a rolling stone, a vagabond, a dreamer with wonder & wanderlust She traveled the globe for 30 years working for companies who were inventing or re-inventing themselves by helping them create and implement new ideas, products & brand identities. Nancy jumped off the corporate treadmill a few years back and signed up for the Peace Corps (Kenya 2005-2007) where she found out that the less she owned and possessed the bigger her life could be ... and also realized it is the small encounters that give us the "forever moments" that connect us to one another. She now lives in Chicago, in a teeny-tiny nest overlooking her lake, reinventing herself from corporate marketing guru into a Storyteller.
Pat Monahan
Pat Monahan is the CEO of Riverside Graphics and The Ink Spot on Halsted. He is a serial entrepreneur who has created and built two highly successful businesses. Along the way he has also been a Democratic Precinct Captain; a member of the National Guard, famously charged by Mayor Daley with responsibility for “Preserving Disorder” during the 1968 Riots. He also has devoted many years coaching Youth Baseball; was elected, and served on a School Board; also served on the Boards of a Hospital, and a non-profit Foundation dedicated to helping Women-owned businesses. Pat enjoys reading, fishing, gardening and golf. He loves the White Sox, and does not hate the Cubs.
Kasey O'Brien
Kasey O’Brien is an actor/director/writer and all-around art enthusiast from northern Idaho, land of meth & Mormonism. She co-wrote Sockhopapocalypse: a rockmusicalclownparody of Lord of the Flies which was performed last summer at the Underground Wonder Bar. She is also an ensemble member of Abraham Werewolf, an experimental theatre company based in Chicago. She doesn’t trust equestrians or children. She loves snail mail and a stiff drink.
Peter Papachronopoulos
A New Hampshire native, Peter Papachronopoulos has spent the past two years working as a staff writer in Groupon's Editorial department. A sketch writer and performer and graduate of comedy programs at both Second City and The Annoyance, Peter loves to make with the jokes onstage. Though terribly named, Peter's "Pretentious Title That Makes You Hate This Play Before It Has Even Begun" was recently selected as a finalist for Stage Left's DrekFest 2012.
Belinda Woolfson
Belinda Woolfson is a New Hampshire native who moved to Chicago three years ago to pursue improv and comedy. She enjoys writing, blogging, traveling, and laughing. She plays the piano and is obsessed with NPR, documentary films, and interior design. She lives and works in Lincoln Square, and is actively trying to figure out what she wants to be when she grows up.
March 2013
Sean Cooley
Sean Cooley is a journalist, actor and Connecticut native. He won the Ratcliffe Hicks Public Speaking Contest his senior year of high school for an essay about his infomercial addiction (did you know George Foreman has five sons named George AND a daughter Georgetta?). He has worked as a digital editor at the Chicago Tribune, has a Master’s from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism and is the City Editor for Thrillist.com covering Chicago’s bar and restaurant scene. He can be seen improvising each Saturday with The Second City’s house ensemble and has performed standup at Zanies and The Laugh Factory. His half-baked musings are tweeted @SeanCooley
Greg Ledger
Greg Ledger is waiting in hot anticipation for his AARP card to arrive this year, dreaming of all those senior discounts he’ll get to enjoy. His long, checkered career of stints as a vocalist for a punk rock band, a librettist, a panhandler, a writer, a book reviewer, a poet, a graphic designer and a web developer has nonetheless not adequately prepared him for his new passions: improv and storytelling, but he’s giving it the old college try anyway. He is really excited to be participating in Story Lab for the first time.
Bailey Pickens
Bailey Pickens is a small person with a loud voice. She's a freelance translator by day and a baker with a cavalier disregard for recipes also by day, since her bedtime is pretty early. She accidentally ran a marathon in October (that's a story for another time) and is going to a fancy East Coast university for graduate school in the fall, but she's still not sure anybody should be taking her seriously. When she's not working (and also when she is), she can be found typing in capslock on the internet and missing Kyoto to a degree that is unseemly.
Byron Roussin
Byron
Roussin is a St Louis native who’s been performing in Chicago for several
years. He’s a writer, comedian, actor, stage manager, and
storyteller. He’s a graduate of IO and Second City’s Conservatory
programs, as well as Second City’s writing program. He’s performed at Second
City, IO, Stage Left, and Gorilla Tango; as well as appearing in the webseries
Yard Times. He’s been a storyteller around Chicago for about a year now.
He’s stage managed productions at Zoo Studios for Chicago Mammals, Gorilla
Tango, the Apollo Theatre, and IO. He’s currently stage managing the show
Thirsty at the Apollo theatre. He looks forward to telling as many stories as
possible for as long as people will listen.
Klaudia Siczek
Klaudia is reveling in the fact that the collection of embarrassing moments throughout her life have indeed had a purpose! She has a background in architecture, a love of song and theater, and is actively trying to create a more musical, architecturally-appreciative world. She pioneered the architectural music video: youtube/klaudiacious
Tamale
After earning her BS in Agricultural Education and Agricultural Technology Management from the University of Arizona, Tamale wanted to focus on her first love- comedy. She moved to Chicago and went through I.O. Chicago, Second City’s Conservatory Program, and Annoyance Theater. She began performing stand up, sketch, and improv comedy, far and wide. She also began exploring and performing burlesque, drag, fire dancing, and belly dancing, and was invited to tour with the Windy City Blenders on several international tours. She partnered with members of the Blenders and developed the full-length gender performance revue, The Lola Project. Soon, she began developing installation and multi-disciplinary art, earning her MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts and Media from Columbia College Chicago. She now also produces Brass Chuckles Comedy: "comedy that kicks ass!" and writes personal narrative work. More awesomeness at TamaleRocks.com and BrassChucklesComedy.com!
February 2013
Lily Be
Lily Be has been sharing stories since 2009. It was not something she thought would go anywhere. She considers herself an average woman with a son, a life, a family and now, storytelling. After her debut at Grown Folks Stories in Wicker Park she caught the bug and has been performing ever since.She’s performed at almost every storytelling event in the city and have been featured on Chicago Public Media stations WBEZ and Vocalo. She’s also introduced her 16 year old son Xavier to storytelling and most recently her younger sister Lisa. Lily Be has begun hosting her own storytelling event, Stoop-Style Stories in Chicago’s Humboldt Park/Hermosa neighborhood at Rosa’s Blues lounge every 4th Thursday of the month.
Lisa Holmes
Lisa Holmes’s short stories and essays have appeared in the literary journal “After Hours,” on WBEZ’s Radio M, and on her own blog: www.whimsycity.blogspot.com. In her past life as a playwright and sketch comedy writer, her work was presented around Chicago in places like Steel Beam Theatre, Chicago Dramatists, the Midwest Playwriting Fest, and Second City. And yes, she truly grew up with a monkey.
Jim Markus
Jim Markus lives in almost complete seclusion at the corner of Edgewater and Eternity. He writes nonsense, non-fiction, and sometimes short stories. On occasion, he helps organize intricate, public games as part of a motley band of eccentric fools. Tonight, he is telling a story to a handsome group of strangers.
Seth Montague
Seth Montague writes grants for a large nonprofit organization. While raising money for great causes is deeply satisfying, he prefers writing stories, poems and random nonsense. Seth learned to tell stories while growing up in a small Texas town, listening to old men talk over coffee and cigarettes at the local gas station then repeating and embellishing everything he heard to his friends at school. He moved to Chicago in 2007 and likes taking notes as the city rolls past his balcony.
Erin Johnson
Erin Robinson is an actor/singer who grew up in California, went to Rice University in Houston to study voice, and then moved to Chicago. This is her first time reading at an event like Story Lab, so y’know – be nice!
Rich Wamsley
Rich Wamsley lives in the urban oasis known as Rogers Park. Raising two cats on my own. Hey, it’s harder than it looks! Still trying to make sense of our changing world… or maybe I should stop making sense. Apologies to Talking Heads. Have written a few screenplays… if one sells I can live the life I dreamed about – welcoming guests on Fantasy Island. Hey Boss, the plane, the plane! Find it very hard to walk past bakeries. I would drive down to Key Largo for Key Lime Pie anytime.
January 2013
David Boyle
David Boyle is a musician, actor and storyteller born and raised on the south side of Chicago. He enjoys swimming, smoking, eating and drinking (in that order).
Charlotte Hamilton
Charlotte Hamilton is a 33 year old former East Coaster who moved to Chicago eight years ago to get her master’s degree in social work. Since graduating, she has worked with hospice patients, recent immigrants, and adolescents. Her writing and storytelling resume is similarly eclectic. She has been published in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency and on her Twitter page, @charluhamilton. Last year, her work was performed on stage in the NYC show, Blogologues. She made her storytelling debut at the Solo in the Second City Reading Series and has gone on to perform at her grandmother’s 90th birthday party. Charlotte’s skills include coffee drinking, staying up late, and kicking your butt at Scrabble.
Glenn Jeffers
Since he was a child, Glenn Jeffers has often exemplified Confucius’ adage: “May you live in interesting times.” Mind you, Confucius meant that as a curse and at 35, Glenn really would like to get off that roller coaster. Since receiving his B.S. in Journalism (and truer words were never uttered), Glenn has worked for the Chicago Tribune, the South-Florida Sun-Sentinel, Ebony, Black Enterprise, N’Digo and written for The Washington Post (the Post deserving the “and” credit). Glenn also co-wrote and produced his first play, “The Marker,” which premiered this past February in Louisiana. He currently works as an instructor for a journalism workshop based out of Columbia College and writes for whomever will pay him. And mourn for him, for he has no website.
Ellen Lekostaj
Pie baker, soup maker. Petter of cats, wrestler of dogs. Road trip queen. Pedaler of bicycles. Harbinger of cheer. Devourer of books. Ellen Lekostaj lives in pursuit of a good anecdote.
Jim Padar
Jim Padar is a Chicago native and a retired Chicago Police officer. He has been writing as long as he can remember, initially attracting attention as a University of Illinois college freshman with a piece published in The Pier Glass. (U of I at Navy Pier? He must really be old!) Post college he was first published in Flying Magazine, writing about an experience as a student pilot. In 2011 he started a blog (www.OnBeingaCop.org) drawing in part on his experiences as a homicide detective. The blog has logged over 65,000 views from more than 65 countries. Readers tell him he writes cop stories with soul and compassion. While he has trouble remembering where he put his car keys, he somehow seems to recall murder cases from 40 years ago. Most recently he has done memoir readings at the Irish American Heritage Center and is also a two time winner at the Moth StorySLAM.
Laura Stark & Holly McDowell
Note – This was a story duet!
Laura Stark (left) came to monologues by way of improv where she found it’s easier to tell a true story than to make something up. She has been involved in storytelling and readings on and off for the past ten years and has been seen in Chicago at Tuesday Funk, Holiday Hangover, and You’re Being Ridiculous, among others.
Holly McDowell is the author of a new serialized thriller, King Solomon’s Wives. The first episode is available now: it’s a contemporary suspense story about women alive today who descended from the women in King Solomon’s ancient harem. The second episode comes out in February. Find out more at her website, hollymcdowell.com.
Laura and Holly became friends after meeting at a literary event here in Chicago, so it only seemed natural they would end up telling a story together.
Laura Stark (left) came to monologues by way of improv where she found it’s easier to tell a true story than to make something up. She has been involved in storytelling and readings on and off for the past ten years and has been seen in Chicago at Tuesday Funk, Holiday Hangover, and You’re Being Ridiculous, among others.
Holly McDowell is the author of a new serialized thriller, King Solomon’s Wives. The first episode is available now: it’s a contemporary suspense story about women alive today who descended from the women in King Solomon’s ancient harem. The second episode comes out in February. Find out more at her website, hollymcdowell.com.
Laura and Holly became friends after meeting at a literary event here in Chicago, so it only seemed natural they would end up telling a story together.
December 2012
Sarah Goldenburgh
Sarah Goldenberg is a certified teacher who works 10 different jobs that include substituting, tutoring, to coaching college and high school speech teams and working in retail. She hopes to be a full time teacher soon or she will flee the country to teach full time in Korea or Israel. Her interests include storytelling, improv, fashion designing, and finding things on Pinterest to test in real life. She is excited to share her story with Story Lab Chicago!
Karen O'Donnell
From a family of 11 children one way for Karen O’Donnell to get any attention at all was to tell stories. Being half-Italian she tells her best stories when her hands are busy. Dr. Karen says she is blessed to be able to tell stories to captive audiences of hopelessly mute while her hands are busy doing dentistry. Professionally she has been calling herself a story teller as she found some people still fear dentists, but it is rare for a person to be fearful of a story teller. She does allow her patients to speak for the first 3-5 minutes of their appointments, but then it is story time …ala dental chair. She has studied Improvisational Theater at Comedy Sportz in Chicago and believes you learn seven times faster when you are having fun. Dr. Karen sings soprano with the 130 voice South Suburban Chorale and went on tour in Europe. Trained by Tony Robbins, and other leaders in the personal development field, this will be her Chicago debut. drkarenodonnell@sbcglobal.net
Note Sangern
Note Sangern is Chicago-born and raised and is your normal, average everyday kind of guy, except when he’s not. He’s the city’s #1 premiere free-agent, both in terms of love and work. He lives for sports, especially his chicago teams and his beloved Illini. He enjoys writing, listening to, and telling stories – not necessarily in that order. Among other things, he loves eating, tweeting, and repeating any and all quotes from ‘the simpsons’ to ‘anchorman’. If you’re not careful, he’ll make you laugh.
Paul Teodo
Paul Teodo is the second ever Chicago Moth Grand Slam champion. He has 2 great sons and a love for writing,theatre, storytelling,music, movies, and hanging out with family, “family” being whoever is willing to hang out with and eat with. He was raised in an Italian family on the south side of Chicago that could not hang together unless there was lots of food and lots of stories. One of his favorite sayings in life is this: “The sign of a truly rich man is not he who has the most, but rather he who needs the least” He trys to keep things simple and focus daily on what is really important. His real job is serving as the Chief Operating Officer of an inner city hospital on the south side of Chicago. The hospital is run by a group of caring and committed nuns from Lithuania.
Ray Teresi
Ray Teresi is a enthusiastic story collector and sometimes storyteller who believes in the power of stories to transform lives. Since entering the Chicago storytelling scene over a year ago, He has enthusiastically lent his support in many ways to the storytelling community and is now co-producing a storytelling series called Storytelling: Missionary Style, a charitable event that has some of Chicago’s finest storytellers and takes them beyond the city boundaries to spread their art far and wide. When not concentrating on storytelling Ray spends his time working at WBEZ as the Membership Coordinator: Pledge Drive Producer and on NPR’s ‘Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me’ as Volunteer Coordinator for the live show in Chicago. He also produces a segment called “On Location” for the Chicago arts & entertainment podcast fuse:chicago where he focuses on telling people’s stories. Ray lives in Lincoln Park with his black & white cat Audrey.
Shawn Wilson
Hailing from Quincy, Illinois, Shawn Wilson has spent the last three years in Chicago pursuing comedic and theatrical endeavors, and singing more karaoke than is probably healthy. He is thrilled to be making his story-telling debut, and hopes it will prove to be the merely the first of many.
November 2012 - No Show
October 2012
Johnnie Grozenski
Johnnie Grozenski, 45, has always dabbled in writing since he was very young. In the fourth grade he won the Young Author Award for his colorful story, “Sammy the Seal.” He earned a minor in fiction writing at Columbia College, Chicago in 2000. He has lived in Chicago for 12 years and currently resides in the Edgewater neighborhood where he is a partner in two businesses and looks after his husband of 12 years, Paul who suffered a stroke in 2009. He has studied with Arlene Malinowski in her Writing Workshops for the past three years and has performed his personal essays at Speak Easy Speak Hard and most recently at the hit show, “My First Time” During his husbands stroke recovery, Johnnie began writing again after many years. His personal essays focus on him as care-giver to his husband, insights of his gay childhood, friends, family and life in general. Johnnie brings understated humor and lightheartedness to stories of deep emotion. He is currently working on a compilation of those stories to hopefully publish one day. inadifferentlife.com
Kelin Hall
Kelin Hall fled the East Coast for the University of Chicago. There, she thrived among the nerds while earning a B.A. in Why You Can Never Save the World So Stop Trying and Become an Academic. Now she listens to low-income immigrants’ stories and helps to turn them into legal arguments accompanying visa applications. These stories are far more compelling than her own; but she’ll probably talk about herself when you watch her. Kelin maintains her writing skills by falling for journalists who live far away. This is her Chicago performance debut. She is terrified.
Rebecca Marquardt
Rebecca Marquardt is a certified PADI scuba diver and intends to use that certification soon. Her interests include storytelling, storyhearing, improv, sketch comedy, making silly and fun videos, and
playing a wide and weird array of musical instruments (favorites include keyboard and ukulele, but an accordion may have been added to the mix; watch out). Thanks to Texas for raising me, Louisiana for giving me a college degree (Geaux Tigers!), and Ohio for giving me the Masters Degree in Oboe that launched my comedy career.
rebeccamarquardt.com
playing a wide and weird array of musical instruments (favorites include keyboard and ukulele, but an accordion may have been added to the mix; watch out). Thanks to Texas for raising me, Louisiana for giving me a college degree (Geaux Tigers!), and Ohio for giving me the Masters Degree in Oboe that launched my comedy career.
rebeccamarquardt.com
Jenny Melnick
Since she left her old life in San Diego, Jenny Melnick travelled for about two years, including a solo bicycle trip across the country. She arrived in Chicago last June and hasn’t left yet. She has been a circus performer as well as a kindergarten teacher. She continues to hone the skill of not fitting in, but not standing out.
Valentine Soposky
Valentine Soposky has spent the recession tuning in and selling out. Since graduating with a Theatre degree from a private catholic womens college at the height of the financial crisis she immediately started juggling two jobs and later added running a Republican congressiona campaign, even though she’s a Democrat, and a woman. She moved to Chicago a year and a half ago and soon started attending the many great storytelling events found here. Her first storytelling appearance was as an open mic competitor at Here’s the Story, and she won a featured slot for the next event! Valentine competed in the triumphant return of the Skald Storytelling competition. She has told stories in multiple Moths and finally won! She’ll be competing in a Moth Grand Slam later this year. Valentine is pleased to find that preparing for these story events is really fast tracking her memoirs!
September 2012
Robin Gelfenbien
Robin Gelfenbien is a comedian, writer and storyteller who has written jokes for Rosie O’Donnell and starred in a commercial directed by Spike Lee. Her original comedy songs have played on Sirius Satellite Radio, and her solo show, “My Salvation Has a First Name (A Wienermobile Journey),” premiered at the New York International Fringe Festival. Robin has performed at The Moth, RISK!, Mortified and she is the creator of the storytelling series, “Yum’s the Word,” that features her homemade ice cream cakes. She was recently featured in “Oy! Only Six? Why Not More? Six-Word Memoirs on Jewish Life” along with Henry Winkler and Larry David, and she will be performing at the Chicago Women’s Funny Festival on Saturday, June 9. www.robingelfenbien.com @robingelfenbien
Carolyn Guido
Carolyn Guido is an acting/dance teacher for VIVA Performing Arts School primarily in DIxon, IL, grant based organization with the goal of bringing the arts to rural IL. After a year of Chicago city life, she gave up the two hour commute and now hails from Dekalb, IL. She grew up in New Orleans, LA and moved the the frozen tundra.-the midwest- for college at Northern Illinois University where she received her B.A Theatre Studies. She has been telling children’s stories for many years at venues around the country.
Jill Howe
Jill Howe has never backed down from a new career choice or an opportunity to tell a story, and sometimes the two have overlapped. The path of her professional life reflects everything she loves; from teaching high school English, film study and journalism, volunteering at 826Chicago (all of you should too!), to now dealing mostly in sparkling diamonds. Inspired by her urban tribe of creative friends, Jill is attending and producing many storytelling events throughout the city this year and loves developing new and unexpected opportunities for great people to connect, share, and grow. Her Mount Rushmore of inspiration would have the faces of Joseph Campbell, Werner Herzog, Cornel West, and Jane Austen.
Greg Poljacik
Currently, Greg Poljacik teaches stage combat at The Second City Training Center, The International Stunt School, works as a Sword Cutler, providing the best stage weapons in the industry, and owns his own business selling Blood Jam, the only stage blood that looks real, washes out of clothes and skin with hot water and is safe to eat. Currently you can see his Choreography in Woman in White at Lifeline. All of his work follows the principles of “Safety, Story, Substance.”
Julie Sadowski
Julie Sadowski is not comfortable talking about herself in the third person, but one must do what one must. Julie is a local gal and graduate of Columbia College. During the week you can find her playing super nanny and on weekends she snaps away as a wedding/event photographer for her own company www.grayscalephotography.com. Her likes include cold beer on hot days, dance parties, group mediation and perusing Craigslist. Her dislikes include parking tickets, tourists, slow people in general and awkward silences. Julie is longtime company and former staff member of www.2ndstory.com. It’s been a few years since she has been in the chair as she has been behind the scenes producing, directing and dabbling in sound design. Her sudden desire to take this risk has been inspired by all of the brave talented first timer story tellers that she has had the pleasure of directing. She is certain that she learned more about her own voice while helping them realize their own. And for that she is forever grateful.
Philip Siegel
Philip Siegel grew up in New Jersey, just down the block from a veritable Real Housewife. He graduated from Northwestern University and promptly moved out to Los Angeles, where he became an NBC page. He likes to think that the character of Kenneth on 30 Rock is loosely based on his life rights. Currently, he works in downtown Chicago by day while he writes novels at night and during his commute sandwiched in between colorful characters on the El. His plays have been performed on stage and radio, and he is currently writing a young adult book series.
August 2012
Rachael Smith
Chicago native. Writer. Reiki practitioner. Notary. Peanut M&M enthusiast. Rachael Smith is almost done writing her first novel, Forever Maybe, and will share it with the world soon. She excels at lifting heavy things, apologizing and finding parking.
Margaret Burk
Margaret Burk’s lifelong study of mythology, psychology and world spiritual traditions infuses her work as storyteller, actress and educator. She is Director of the Fleming Center which teaches classes in leadership development: living into our full creative talents. As Director of Development for the Chicago Sinfonietta, Margaret was named as “100 Women Making a Difference” in Today’s Chicago Woman Magazine (July 1997). Margaret believes there is power in story to touch the heart, to inspire a sense of hope, to spark the imagination, to embolden the spirit, and to remind us of the greatest of human potential! Margaret has a B.A. in Theatre and M.A. in Communication. She is on the Board of Illinois Storytelling, Inc. and is co-artistic director of a Storytelling Concert Series at Village Players Performing Arts Center in Oak Park, IL.
Paul Dailing
Originally from the birthplace of the sock monkey, Paul Dailing is a Chicago-based freelance journalist whose work has appeared in the Tribune, the Sun-Times, the Bangkok Post, France 24, the Agence France-Presse wire service and more. He also recently duped an area university into letting him teach a class on media ethics. He accomplished this by blackmail. Paul writes about life in 21st-century Chicago at 1001chicago.com, his attempt to re-create reporter Ben Hecht’s Chicago Daily News column from the early 1920s.
Lindsay LaVine
Lindsay LaVine grew up in the northern suburbs and is thrilled to appear in her first storytelling event. She’s an assistant attorney general by day and blogs at Ehilarity.com at night. Prior to attending law school, Lindsay was a journalist with NBC in Raleigh and CNN in Atlanta. She graduated from the Second City Training Center’s writing program and regularly speaks to performers and bloggers about protecting their intellectual property rights.
Debbi Welch
Debbi Welch has been telling other people’s stories for over 20 years and has finally decided it’s time to tell her own. She’s also writing a book for middle grades – that is, when she’s not weeding the garden, sorting through boxes that haven’t been opened in five years and doing anything else she can think of to avoid her computer. Debbi’s president of the board of Young Chicago Authors, a 21 year old organization offering writing, performance and publication opportunities to young people throughout Chicago.
Ben X
A native of South Texas and graduate of Antioch College, Ben X has called Chicago home since January of 2009. In addition to teaching music, DJing, producing and performing with his band Immovable Types, Ben hosts regular events at the Sun Palace for DJs and firespinners, and does freelance video, web and graphic design.
July 2012
Susie Allen
Susie Allen grew up in Palo Alto, CA, and currently lives in a faraway land known as “Hyde Park.” She studied English and French literature in college; somehow, despite this great hardship, she is currently employed. She can often be found applying hand sanitizer, writing, and avoiding writing.
Drew Dorrman
Drew Dormann is a software engineer who has worked on top-selling Playstation and Xbox video games, high-frequency trading applications, and DVD production suites. He has no experience writing and could be dyslexic for all he knows. Drew has has been showing growing interest in getting a beer soon and would like to know if you want one too.
Sheila Gagne
Sheila M. Gagne is currently a senior pursuing a BA in Creative Writing and a minor in Writing for Television at Columbia College Chicago. Before that, she competed on the College of Lake County’s speech team, placing nationally both years. She is a Second City graduate in improvisation and frequent attendee to the Mixer, a weekly improv jam at the Playground Theater. She is interning for the summer at ARU Chicago and is also an aspiring voice actor. Follow her on Twitter: @SheilaMGagne
Jesse Harper
Originally from Indiana, Jesse Bob Harper spent the last twenty years of his life living and working in what is simply, the greatest city on earth; Los Angeles. The fact that he states that without the slightest bit of irony or use of hyperbole, probably tells you everything there is to know about Jesse Bob.
Rob Putnam
Chicago native Rob Putnam is an avid writer, traveler and skilled napper. He’s a contributing writer with Los Angeles’ Music Connection magazine, for which he scribes the Producer Crosstalk column, as well as a number of other features. A graduate of the Second City writing program, he’s penned several sitcom spec scripts and is proud of his many and varied friendships. Both of them. He’s told stories at The Moth and enjoys writing more than performing. Similar feelings have been expressed by his audience, usually behind his back and more commonly scrawled anonymously on his Facebook wall. His shortcomings include being a vegetarian, single (yes, ladies: single) and Tee’totaller killjoy.
Emily Sutherlin
Emily Sutherlin is a transplant from Washington State, now residing in Wicker Park. She works in conference services at a Chicago-area university, and is intensely interested in language and communication. She spends her free time rock climbing and listening to more public radio than is probably healthy for any one human. She’s quite the introvert, so speaking at story lab is going to rip her little safety bubble wide open.
June 2012
Eileen Dougharty
Eileen Dougharty has found storytelling to be the much needed squeeze cheese addition to a life that was once just macaroni. After dabbling in sketch comedy writing at Second City, she decided that the true tales of her life were better than fiction and certainly easier to come up with. When she’s not writing, she’s brainstorming captions for New Yorker cartoons or flying around the country handing out drinks, snacks, and snark to the general public, which beats having a real job. She has performed with 2nd Story and Reading Under The Influence and is currently working on a screenplay for a buddy picture road trip flick…think Easy Rider fueled by lady power. More of her musings and poorly developed metaphors can be found at www.whowritesyournonsense.blogspot.com
Jason Kelleher
Jason P. Kelleher moved from Ireland to Chicago 14 years ago. Graduated from UIC with a degree in architecture. He is perusing a masters of psychology this fall. Writing has become his new passion, and loves the support Chicago writers have given him.
Lily Mooney
Lily Mooney is a playwright and performer originally from Boston. Three years ago she put her material possessions into a U-Haul and trucked them to Chicago, stopping to sleep in the town of Independence, Ohio, which seemed significant at the time. Since arriving, she has worked for and with wonderful artists at places like Chicago Dramatists, The Neo-Futurarium, The Annoyance Theater, and Northwestern University. In her picture, Lily is the one in the foreground.
Luis Perez
Luis Antonio Perez is a local radio host and producer at Vocalo on 89.5 FM, sister station to WBEZ. Born and raised on Chicago’s north side, he brings his energy and love for storytelling to Story Lab with his first effort at performing a fully processed work of exposition. Luis, a natural raconteur, has won a recent Moth StoySLAM, was a finalist in this year’s Windy City Story Slam, and can be seen sharing stories every month at Grown Folks Stories. You can follow Luis on twitter @NorthsideLou, Tumblr, (northsidelou.com), or hear him online weekdays at 4:00 pm on Vocalo.org. He is Puerto Rican and Colombian, which he has been told is the perfect Latino combination. He says, “it is at the very least delicious.”
Jack Ryan
Jack Ryan is an actor, dancer, writer and teaching artist. As an actor he has played in many children’s programs with Chicago DanzTheatre Ensemble telling “Tales from Around the World” and Imagination Theater teaching kids fun ways to “Ease the Tease” and “Show some Respect.” He has also performed one person shows for children. With Imagination Theater he wrote “E-etiqutte” a program about cyber bullying and internet safety for third to eighth graders. As a teaching artist Jack has taught many after school programs with Chicago DanzTheatre Ensemble, Imagination Theatre, and The Institute for Positive Living. He has taught programs for kindergarten to high school on various topics such as literature, art, performance, dance, respect and healthy communication. Jack also performs for adult audiences and addresses adult topics as well. He recently co-developed and performed in “Mirrors.” Inspired by the poems of the Sufi mystic Rumi, “Mirrors” incorporates dance, puppetry, acting, and multimedia image projections to tell the story of four couples mirroring each other through joy, sorrow, confusion and many of life’s twists and turns. Other on stage roles include “Doctor Atomic,” “The Subject was Roses,” “Candida” and “An Inspector Calls.”
May 2012
Laura Hawbaker
Laura Hawbaker has written for all the Chicago newspapers at one point or another. She holds a Bachelors in Fiction Writing from Columbia College Chicago and a Masters in Linguistics from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is a Fulbright Scholar and organizes her bookshelves by color.
Cyrus Irani
After receiving universal acclaim for his uplifting portrayal of Fab Morvan—aka the darker skinned half of Milli Vanilli—in his 7th grade variety show, Cyrus Irani joined the likes of J.D. Sallinger, Dave Chapelle, and Right Said Fred and decided to leave the art world on top. He looks forward to making his long awaited return at Story Lab. He also blogs infrequently at www.cyrus2k.blogspot.com
Emily Johnson
Emily Johnson is an editor and writer living in Chicago. She is a professional copywriter, yoga instructor, and pro bono philosopher, and has written for various magazines and newspapers on the subjects of relationships, psychology, and communications. Check out her stuff on emjohnson.net
Erin Kahoa
Erin Kahoa has been living life backwards. Salaried job before part time minimum wage work. Marriage before casual dating. Home owner before grungy bug infested apartments. Director of a university theatre program before big city auditions. But, since resetting and moving to Chicago, he’s never been happier. You can catch him as the evil villain on stage in Rough Magic at The Raven the last weekend of July.
Monte LaMonte
Monte LaMonte is a neck breaker. Shit taker. Love maker. And an excellent photographer. http://monteism.blogspot.com/
Sondra Morin
Sondra Morin is a Chicago poet and a small town New Englander at heart. She is an alumnus of the Juniper Summer Writing Institute and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Poems and prose appear or are forthcoming in The Rumpus, Curbside Splendor,Two With Water, and vis a tergo. She is a regular contributor to Chicago Publishes. In 2010, she created Radical Snail Poetry, a contemporary poetry magazine under construction, and published her first chapbook, Inviting the Expanse. She keeps a little blog about snails: Snails Are Good For The Environment, Too.
April 2012
Aria Alexander-Manifold
Aria Alexander-Manifold is from Lafayette, Indiana and has lived in Chicago for almost exactly one year. She has a degree in Fine Arts with a concentration in drawing, which has inexplicably landed her in a cubicle job in which she listens to audiobooks all day long while dreaming of a job that requires any pretense of brainpower. She has written two NaNoWriMo novels that she has not yet allowed anyone to read, as well as about half of a collaborative attempt at a Harlequin romance. The project was dropped when Aria and her collaborator realized that they had already written all the fun parts. Her favorite thing about Chicago just might be the storytelling culture and all the amazing people involved in it, and she’s grateful to be involved in even a small way.
Jeff Bakkenson
Jeff Bakkenson was born and raised in Andover, MA, and started writing books about his stuffed animals at a young age. At Georgetown University, he had the opportunity to complete a creative writing thesis under the tutelage of Jennifer Fink. Jeff was a runner-up for the Mary Ora Phelam Poetry Prize in 2008, and contributed editorials and fiction to the Georgetown Voice. More recently, he was a finalist for Line Zero’s 2011 Fall Fiction Contest and shortlisted for the Bridport Prize, also in 2011. Jeff’s work has also appeared online at Vestal Review. For the past year and a half, he’s worked at Urban Prep Academies. Jeff has seen the lakefront via Segway and always wears a helmet.
Dale Cocca
Dale Cocca moved to Chicago from upstate New York a year ago to pursue so many of his interests. He hosts trivia nights at a few bars in Chicago, despite being pretty bad at playing trivia himself. When he’s not doing that, he’s an adventure guide with LivingSocial Adventures. He regularly performs in “The Boy Scout Musical” at the Annoyance Theatre, and is a founding member of the critically acclaimed improv team, “Vehicular Man’s Laughter”, and does some stand-up comedy on the open mic circuit. In the large chunk of time that he’s not doing those things, he’s scheming on how to make the world more fun.
Jeff Grabowski
Jeff Grabowski took an interest in math and science at a young age and eventually received two engineering degrees. During school, he avoided as many English and humanities classes as possible, and did not find enjoyment in reading or writing. That all changed recently when he wrote a best man’s speech and a eulogy in honor of his grandmother. Reflecting on these important people in his life nucleated a new-found interest in writing. Since Sept of 2011, he has written more than 10 personal stories for Chicago non-fiction blog “The Third City.”
Sara Kaplan
Sara Kaplan currently performs on the Award-winning iO Harold team, “Inkling.” She can be seen performing throughout Chicago with her independent improv teams, “Your Neighbors” and “Velvet Rope.” She also does stand-up, story-telling, and will be co-starring in Wishbone Theatre’s new production, “Incendiary.” Sara would like to thank Chicago and its people for all the opportunities and love, especially Zach.
Lydia Stux
Lydia Stux‘s adopted twin sons provide fodder for her blog, RAISING ROMULUS AND REMUS (www.raisingromulus.blogspot.com). Since there is a momentary lull in the near-constant chaos her boys create, Lydia has been recycling some of the blog essays into storytelling pieces. This is her first original story, developed specifically for performance. In addition to maintaining a blog, Lydia acts, writes, travels and sings with WHQODJY (We-haven’t-quit-our-day-jobs-yet) Singers at the Old Town School of Folk Music.
March 2012
Gipsy Escobar
Gipsy Escobar (no, no relation to Pablo) is a Colombian-born criminologist (no, not like CSI), who teaches classes with depressing names at Loyola University Chicago. She has lived in the US for almost ten years and is going on her third year in Chicago, where she lives with her funny-man husband (who doubles as an excellent cook) and their two hair-producing machine dogs (who also double as excellent poop-producing machines). This is her first time doing storytelling of any kind that doesn’t involve three gallons of whiskey beforehand, but she’s excited to be in Story Lab, and to perhaps drink three gallons of whiskey after telling her story.
Ben Gibson
Ben Gibson grew up in Texas and will likely be buried there, since he proudly occupies a seat on the board of the Gibson Family Cemetery. He currently works for a publishing company but would not object if a publishing company one day wanted to work for him. He loses socks with disheartening regularity and has failed to earn the respect of Siri, the polite genie who lives inside his IPhone.
Kate Herold
Kate Herold grew up in St. Louis, attended college in in Iowa, has lived in Chicago for the last seven years, and expects any day now she’ll make peace with the idea of being a lifelong Midwesterner. As both a writer and a nurse, Kate is interested in the importance of narrative and oral story-telling in the profession of nursing, and finds that most of her writing these days reflects her experiences working as a nurse and midwife. When she’s not catching babies, Kate can usually be found hovering around iO (formerly Improv Olympic), taking improv classes, seeing shows, and learning to take life less seriously.
Camille Izlar
Camille Izlar hails from Durham, North Carolina. She is twentysomething working on discovering her professional calling. In the meantime, she enjoys dabbling in poetry, fiction writing, fiction reading, cooking and long walks in the snow.
Andy Kerns
Andy Kerns is an up-and-coming young something or other, and a writer. He has dabbled in screenwriting, social satire, sketch comedy, and short fiction, but his preferred genres are emotionally exposed emails about the trials of modern manhood (sent to his younger sisters) and flirtatious texts (sent to unavailable women). He lives in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago with his dream to one day live in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago with a dog.
Zack Meyer
At 6 years old, Zack Meyer was going to college fairs hell bent on finding the right business school to suit his entrepreneur-y aspirations. Now at 25 years old, he teaches people how to sword fight and spends his summers on a pirate ship. His mother is sooo proud. Zack is a Chicago Actor, Fight Director and is the Assistant Artistic Director of the Tall Ship Windy on Navy Pier. Whether it is a historical retelling, a ghost story, or some saga told over brews, Zack has always loved story telling. He dedicates his story to his 90 year old grandpa. Here’s to 90 more years of stories!
February 2012
Jen Daniels
Jen Daniels is a writer and independent filmmaker currently based in Rogers Park. She recently completed a short entitled, “Clothes Optional” which is featured on the DVD release of the feature film “Act Naturally.” She lives in an intentional artist community with her scheming radical compatriots and enjoys making mischief, music, and love.
Dana Jerman
Dana Marie Jerman. Came from western Pennsylvania. Living in Chicago 3.5 years. Have been to all 50 states and lived for a brief time in Portland, Maine and Anchorage, Alaska. As well as southern California and Washington, DC. My writing has been published over a dozen times in the USA. Also India, Australia. Writer of mostly haiku and poetry. Dabbling also in flash fiction and playwriting. Self-published a poetry collection available for purchase online. (through Blurb.com). Currently working on a graphic novel collection of short fictions. Goals for 2012 include riding in a hot-air balloon and teaching a 1-day creative writing crash-course in a bookstore.
Louis Knapp
Louis Knapp is an avid reader, cancer researcher, and student of Chemical Engineering at Northwestern University. Fascinated by mathematics and the internet, some of Louis’ generative art can be seen at loumachine.appspot.com.
Kerry Maiorca
Kerry Maiorca received an MFA in Writing from the University of San Francisco, and soon after moved back to her hometown of Chicago because California winters do nothing for one’s character. Having spent her grad school experience immersed in short fiction, she has recently discovered a love of reading and writing nonfiction, and currently writes what she reluctantly calls a blog at ThinkingYogi.com. Kerry is a yoga instructor and the director of Bloom Yoga Studio in Lincoln Square.
Mike Manship
Mike Manship is recently transplanted to Chicago from Boston, where he wrote and performed in a variety of shows that no one in Chicago has heard of, including T: An MBTA Musical. He recently published his first novel, Cambridge Street, and is happy to report that people who review books on amazon.com are liking it. You can learn more about him at darkandstupid.info.
Blake Richter
Blake Richter grew up in Kansas and has lived in the Midwest most of his life, finding his way to DeKalb,IL (Yes, we are part of Chicagoland!) in 1997. He continues to hold down third chair in the trumpet section of the legendary Big Band, Shannanigans, and will tell anyone who will listen about how much he loves his Schilke 6L trumpet, a 50th birthday present from his wonderful wife. In addition to playing semi-professional trumpet every now and then, he is also an award-winning video producer for Umbrella Group Arts, and a pastor at the Westminster Presbyterian Church in DeKalb, IL.
January 2012
James Davisson
James Davisson is a native Chicagoan with almost no knowledge of the city he lives in, because he mostly stays at home. The main reason he has stories to tell is that his friends and relations drag him into the sunlight from time to time, or, more often, that he needs leave the house to make money. He studied linguistics in college and no, he doesn’t speak any languages other than English or Spanish, thank you, but he can tell you whatever you want to know about grammar in American Sign Language, word order in Biblical Hebrew, or the etymology of English words, and if he can’t he will happily fib convincingly enough to satisfy your curiosity.
Jodie Daquilanea
Jodie Daquilanea is a first-generation American, fire performer, and poet who has most recently performed at the Metro, Abbey Pub, Schubas, Exit, Bridgeport Art Center, and the North Halsted Halloween Parade, among other venues. She is one of the planners of the largest regular fire and drum jam in North America, and she now performs regularly with Environmental Encroachment, a magical circus marching band based in Chicago (http://www.encroach.net). Professionally, she is a sociologist and social researcher, and she is currently Project Director and Subcontracting Principal Investigator of a study on religious life throughout the United States. She is a research nerd at heart. She has a deep appreciation for creative community and is ever grateful for the people around her who are doing great things and who give her so much inspiration, encouragement, and support. When she’s not pouring herself mind, body, heart, and soul into her work and play, she likes to cook, read, do yoga, and rock climb.
Brenda Kelly
Brenda E. Kelly is excited to be a part of StoryLab. Her favorite roles include Ellen in TWO ROOMS, Shawna in COYOTE ON A FENCE and Little Red Riding Hood in WHEN FAIRY TALES…ATTACK!!!, a one act play she also co-wrote. Brenda is a network playwright with Chicago Dramatists and also the president of the Women’s Theatre Alliance of Chicago, an organization devoted to supporting, promoting and showcasing Chicago’s female theatre artists.
Joanna Lind
Joanna P. Lind is terrible at writing bios. It’s an area in which she hasn’t improved in her 26+ years as a performer and writer, mostly because she finds it horribly difficult to distill so many varied experiences and interests down into a few sentences to express who she is artistically. As a child, Joanna loved creative writing, music, theatre, and dance, and that has not changed. A native Chicagoan, over the years she’s appeared in venues from the Lyric Opera all the way down to your local park. She enjoys her day job with the locally touring children’s theatre company, American Eagle Productions, as well as performing in other plays and musicals when the right show comes along. Joanna really loves making stuff, is the thing, including music (she’s a singer/musician/songwriter), theatre (especially staged readings, new works, and Shakespeare), and baked goods (cookies are her specialty). These days Joanna is most excited about two pursuits in particular: the band she is in (The New Switcheroo) and that she is writing more again (stories, poetry, songs, plays). She is also excited to share her stories with you!
Bart Longacre
Bart Longacre is the youngest child of an arson investigator and a school nurse. He tells everyone he grew up in Montana.
Denise Santomauro
Until recently, Denise Santomauro was pursuing an acting career here in the city. But in a stroke of financial genius, she gave that up to pursue a writing career. Needless to say, she will probably die broke. Since beginning to pursue a writing career, Denise has managed to eek out a chapter book for middle schoolers, a few essays and short stories and submitted a few random things to a couple of random publications. About seven months ago, one month before her 29th birthday, she decided she was sick of living in safely and set a goal of taking a risk everyday of her 29th year of life. To keep her honest, she chronicles her adventures and blunders in a daily blog: www.littledbigyear.wordpress.com. And yes, speaking at StoryLab will get it’s own post.
December 2011
Brian Barasch
Brian Barasch is a promoter, producer, marketer, advocate and admirer of the arts. Growing up in Cincinnati, Ohio, Brian realized his complete inability to act or memorize lines during an agonizingly terrible high school production of The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail and henceforth decided to shift his focus to the non-performance aspects of the theatre. After completing a degree in theatre management from DePaul University, Brian set out on the glamorous and lucrative career path of non-profit arts administration. Today, Brian works in the marketing department at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and also spends some time on the side working with The New Colony – a young theatre company of super-talented hipsters whose best creative ideas come after at least two cans of PBR. Aside from his artistic pursuits, Brian can name all forty-four US presidents, enjoys the oddly relaxing affects of creating excel spreadsheets and prides himself on knowing exactly which CTA bus will get you to your destination the fastest.
Alexandra Boroff
Alexandra Boroff is an actress originally from Boston, Mass. In her 3 years in Chicago, she has been a superhero for Corn Productions, an undead child for Blunt Objects Theatre, a pirate for Tall Ship Adventures, and can currently be seen in her most breathtaking role as “Assistant Manager” at Starbucks Coffee at her store in Boystown. She really likes coffee. Like, a lot.
John Brewster
John Brewster hails from Austin, Texas, where he drinks sweet tea and Lone Star Beer while two-stepping in his borrowed cowboy boots. John has six years of experience in Chicago as a writer and actor, performing in the past at IO, The Annoyance, Stage Left, Playground, and Strawdog Theaters, and is a founding member of the Chicago-based sketch group GERMANS. John currently oversees health and environmental marketing campaigns in Austin and performs with Scout at Coldtowne Theater.
Pete DeBolt
Pete DeBolt is a Chicagoland native born to a large family of master storytellers with big personalities. His 15 year career in sales, marketing, and international trade sent him around the world, presenting to hundreds of corporate audiences. But corporate presentations are typically boring consisting of endless, mind numbing PowerPoint slides. Any attempts to incorporate his talent for storytelling into his presentations were crushed by bullet point obsessed management. Friends and colleagues recognized Pete’s talent, passion, and need for storytelling and encouraged him to write of book of his stories. In the summer of 2011, he began to transfer his stories from memory to paper.
Carrie McDonald
Carrie McDonald is pleased as punch to be appearing at her first story telling event. Carrie made her acting debut on TLC’s What Not to Wear, where she sported muumuus and rocked her own style, which was a fashionable mix of teenage boy, old lady, and cheap 80s throwback. As a return Peace Corps volunteer, she made a difference by chain smoking, drinking moonshine, and chasing after French doctoral students in the jungle. In addition to be an excellent human being, she enjoys performing stand-up comedy, pretending to go to the gym, and her never end quest to quit smoking.
Sarah Michaelson
Sarah Michaelson is studying writing with Arlene Malinowski. She has performed at ’SpeakEasy, Speak Hard’ and ‘Here’s the Story’ as well as publishing her essays in YogaChicago. Sarah’s the producer of a short documentary film, “The Voice Box” based on her friend and muse, Ellen Frohardt. Sarah is also on the board of Creative Artists in Service Together, an organization that promotes the arts to the human services community.
November 2011
Kevin Dolan
Kevin Dolan is an improviser around the Chicago area. Having studied at iO, he was recently featured in the Inertia Series run with Theatre Momentum. He has also performed in the Rocky Horror Picture Show with the Catalyst Collective. He can currently be seen playing with the improv groups High Sobriety and Cool Dancing Turkeys.
Noah Ginex
Noah Ginex is an artist, musician, and puppeteer who, among other accomplishments, has created a music video for Barenaked Ladies. He is also a company member of WNEP Theater. For more info, click here.
Jessie Mutz
Jessie Mutz is a theatre director and performer originally hailing from Florida. Since making her home in Chicago, Jessie has worked with groups such as Brain Surgeon Theater, Poetry Magazine, 20%
Theatre Company, and The Unrehearsed Shakespeare Company. She currently has the greatest job ever doing outreach with the Tall Ship Windy. At one point in her life, Jessie studied environmental contaminants by dissecting alligator eggs; more recently, she rappelled down a 27-story building. As for storytelling –she has always enjoyed her step-dad’s stories the best, but he would never tell them on command, only when he felt like it. Here’s to you, Steve!
Theatre Company, and The Unrehearsed Shakespeare Company. She currently has the greatest job ever doing outreach with the Tall Ship Windy. At one point in her life, Jessie studied environmental contaminants by dissecting alligator eggs; more recently, she rappelled down a 27-story building. As for storytelling –she has always enjoyed her step-dad’s stories the best, but he would never tell them on command, only when he felt like it. Here’s to you, Steve!
Patricia Savieo
Patricia Savieo has lived in Chicago nine years and can’t imagine being anywhere else. In particular, she is super-glad to not be living in Arizona. Social worker by day, she is a co-founder of Hubris Productions and is currently undertaking her second NaNoWriMo challenge. She loves the Blackhawks, pizza, and a guy named Brian. Also, she recently agreed to make her beautiful niece’s wedding dress.
Natasha Tsoutsouris
Natasha Tsoutsouris is excited to have found the storytelling community and is even more excited to have a bio. She is also well versed in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu so if you don’t like her stories, she’ll choke the hell out of you.
J. Weintraub
Over the past 35 years, J. Weintraub has published a variety of fiction, essays, poetry, and translations in in all sorts of literary reviews and periodicals, from The Massachusetts Review to Modern Philology, from Gastronomica to Prairie Schooner. He has been an Around-the-Coyote poet, a StoneSong poet, and a featured writer at the Twilight Tales reading series, at Tuesday Funk, and at “March Madness, Murder & Mayhem” for the Uptown Writers Space as well as with the TallGrass Writers Guild at the Bourgeois Pig. This Fall his short stories, “The Year the Padres Won the Pennant” (depicting the disastrous effect on a marriage of the Chicago Cubs meltdown in 1984) and “Afloat” (a tale blending a traditional sci-fi with the legend of Faust) will appear in anthologies published by Main Street Rag Press. Currently a network playwright at Chicago Dramatists, he has had one-act plays produced in New York, Naperville, and Middleboro, MA, and a staged reading of his one-act play “Security, Inc.” will be part of the Saturday series on Nov. 5 at Chicago Dramatists (2:00 pm; Chicago & Milwaukee). Samples of his work can be found here: http://jweintraub.weebly.com
October 2011
Dennis DiClaudio
Dennis DiClaudio is the News Editor of Comedy Central’s Indecision website and the author of four nonfiction humor books, including The Hypochondriac’s Pocket Guide to Horrible Diseases You Probably Already Have and Man vs. Weather: Be Your Own Weatherman. He has been living in Chicago for the past two years with his wife Gipsy Escobar, who is named after a Hungarian waltz, and his dog Hazel-rah, who is named after a rabbit.
Amanda Dodge
Amanda Dodge was born in Mississippi, but spent 19 years growing up in southern Louisiana. No, she’s not from New Orleans, but did live in a haunted house there for a summer. And she wasn’t affected by the hurricane Katrina, but lived through plenty of others. She graduated from the University of Louisiana (Lafayette) with a Bachelors in Fine Arts, has done stand-up comedy in Lafayette and Baton Rouge, and wrote sketches for different shows around the area. Amanda moved to Chicago in 2004, and has performed at The Annoyance Theater, worked as an actress and stage manager at Raven Theatre in Edgewater, and helped to bring Chicago its first two Fringe Festivals.
Miles Horton
My name is Miles Horton. I am a 44 year old attorney. I live in Evanston with my first wife. We were both reared in Evanston. My favorite joy and well-being activities are social and competitive West Coast Swing dancing, and skateboarding in concrete skateparks. My story is about my father. He died in Evanston on New Year’s Eve of 2009. He was ninety years old.
Rebecca Kling
Rebecca Kling is a Chicago-based artist interested in exploring the performance of identity. Her multi-media productions – composed of storytelling, video, movement, playful skips and jumps, enlightening self-discovery, accusatory glances, awkward pauses, and more – question gender, self-expression, and what it means to be at home in one’s own body. Rebecca has performed her material at The Athenaeum Theatre with New Suit Theatre Company, Temple Gallery, Fringe Festivals in Chicago, Kansas City, and Indianapolis, at Links Hall, Roosevelt and Northwestern Universities, About Face Theatre, Center on Halsted, with Caffeine Theatre at the DCS Storefront Theatre, and elsewhere across the Midwest. She has been praised by The Chicago Tribune, TimeOut Chicago, Newcity Stage, and Centerstage Chicago, and more. Rebecca has been a recipient of the Chances Dances Critical Fierceness grant, and regularly speaks at high schools and universities across Chicago. A graduate from Northwestern University’s Department of Performance Studies with an Adjunct Major in Animate Arts, Rebecca Kling is also an instructor at the Piven Theatre Workshop, on the Pride Films and Plays board of director, and a syndicated blogger with BlogHer.
Paulette McDaniels
Paulette McDaniels has more then 25 years of experience in the arts. She is the author of A Deathly Silence commissioned by the Department of Health and Human Services for World AIDS Day. Ms. McDaniels has served as a community organizer in the Middle East, Europe and America. The grandmother of two, she studied at Northwestern University and Yorkshire College in the UK. She is co-author of Achmed’s Return: Legend of the Lost City, and is currently working on a Christian comedy, 10 Plagues.
Erin Pieschke
Erin Pieschke is a Nebraska native who has lived in Chicago for the past two years. A senior site specialist with Fisher Scientific, her outside interests fall to more creative endeavors. She enjoys acting, improvising, comedy writing, and crocheting things that are flat. She’s really good at making scarves. You can see her (backside) in the upcoming Samwell video, “Just Be Free”.
September 2011
Jonas Simon
Jonas Simon is the author of the wildly popular* blog “Zen and the Art of Waitering” as well as the best selling** book of the same name. A veteran of Chicago’s stand-up, improv, and sketch comedy scenes, he can currently be found performing nightly to crowds of enthralled audience members in downtown Chicago – usually at a chain restaurant that rhymes with “Schmeezecake Factory.”
*(according to his mother) **(currently ranked #242,128 among Amazon.com’s Paid Kindle “Best Sellers”).
*(according to his mother) **(currently ranked #242,128 among Amazon.com’s Paid Kindle “Best Sellers”).
Philip Buuck
Philip Buuck has long been interested in the way people turn their lives into stories they tell. Born in Indiana, Philip studied theater in New York City and is currently improvising with the groups Hugs and Pullups here in Chicago. He is also the host of the podcast So Far So Good, which asks its guests for the biggest decisions they made in the narratives of their own lives. http://sofarsogoodcast.com When not performing Philip is probably helping one local business or another with their web design and internet marketing needs. His goal is to be as widely traveled and well fed as Anthony Bourdain, though he wonders if he will be able to visit the Caribbean and convince himself to leave again. He has a wonderful girlfriend that supports him and all his crazy ideas, and whom he loves very much.
KT Lark
KT Lark is a Pittsburgh native who has spent most of her life in Chicago. In addition to studying improv at Second City and iO Theater, she is a graduate of Clarke University in Dubuque, IA. KT is a member of the Gorilla Tango Theatre improv teams Carlos Santana and Candy Hand. She can also be found giving tours in her role as a docent at the Lincoln Park Conservatory. KT is very excited to be making her storytelling debut at Story Lab. Finally a chance to write down and tell a coherent story instead of rambling on to anyone who will listen! She would like to thank R.A.M. for being her own personal storyteller.
Katie Pryor
Katie Pryor is a member of Serendipity Theatre Collective and the resident nunchuk skills expert. She currently serves as a producer of 2nd Story and can be found lurking in the corners at shows and bossing people around. After producing numerous shows, she is finally taking the leap into storytelling and hopes she doesn’t royally suck at it. Many thanks to Scott and the whole StoryLab crew.
Jim Stevens
Jim Stevens studied film and theater in Chicago and Paris. He is currently an artisan, filmmaker and an inconspicuous eclecticist. He still treasures the Most Improved Bowler trophy he received… at age 11. More recent accomplishments include selling a condo in this market, getting the last of his wisdom teeth removed and being at his current job for 14 ½ years. Jim is excited to be a participant in the storytelling community for the first time.
Michelle Renee Thompson
Michelle Renee Thompson grew up in Columbus, Ohio, where she received a BFA in Theatre Performance from Otterbein College…Yeah, you know…one of those degrees that guarantees a fast track to the big bucks! Since moving to Chicago in1992, She has performed with several different theatre companies, including: Chicago Actors Ensemble, Touchstone Theatre and The Bailiwick Repertory. She is a founding member of Corn Productions, where she has performed, directed, choreographed and written several plays. She also performs stand up comedy, improv comedy and has appeared in a few independent films and commercials. Michelle can currently be seen as “Sister” in “Sunday School Cinema” at the Royal George Theatre and as “Oprah” in “Oprah! A Comedy! Live Your Best Laugh” at the Annoyance Theatre.
August 2011
Rhiannon Koehler
Rhiannon Koehler is an actress, writer, and student at Loyola Marymount University in LA. Recently, she has studied at the London School of Economics, where she worked for Graham Allen MP. She has been published multiple times in the Parliamentary Press and Nottingham North News and is a staff writer for the Los Angeles based social justice magazine, “Passion.” This summer she has been focusing on voiceover and her work with Steep Theater. She is very excited to be a part of storytelling in Chicago.
Willy Nast
Willy Nast graduated from Northwestern University, where he studied creative non-fiction. He loves beer, boxing, and greyhounds, though not necessarily in that order. He updates (far too infrequently) his own blog about writing at trustmeimawriter.blogspot.com. His greatest accomplishment is being the only Willy Nast on Facebook.
Maggie O'Keefe
Maggie O’Keefe would not deem herself as a storyteller. With a B.A in Theater however, Maggie finds it necessary to find many more ways to express herself. Maggie has been to Black Rock before and thoroughly enjoys their burgers – try one. Instead of listing off the things she may be working on right now, she wants to thank you for listening and she hopes it was super enjoyable.
Marie Scatena
Marie Scatena is a second generation Chicagoan who appreciates stories about growing up especially with teenagers who ask why questions. Her years at the Chicago History Museum included the gift of working with Studs Terkel. Marie is learning to be a better listener and teaches oral history at Columbia University in New York.
Dustin Sharpe
Dustin Sharpe is an improviser, actor, and singer residing here in Chicago. Mr. Sharpe started performing in South Florida in the late nineties. Dustin was a founding member of Mod 27 productions in West Palm Beach and with them has performed at numerous improv festivals around the continent. He went to Palm Beach State College when it was known as Palm Beach Community College on a theatre scholarship and figures the name change allows them to receive more money from the government. Good for them. Dustin has completed the training program at IO and has performed sketch and improv at numerous theaters around Chicago since arriving in 2009. His last two recent shows, Emotives and Triens has been the more rewarding work he’s done in years. This will be his first attempt at telling a story to people forced to listen to him.
Eva De Souza
Eva De Souza returned to the Greatest City in the World in 2007 after living and working abroad for several years. Thinking that her riotous life on three other continents might make good reading, she completed an MA in Creative Writing from Northwestern University in June 2011. During the course of her studies, Eva discovered that she preferred writing fiction, but will dig through her sordid memory file for something to tell at Story Lab. Unlike many SL participants, Eva is not funny. She rented an apartment in the same building as Del Close one summer and waited tables with Stephen Colbert when she was a toddler, but, alas, their talent didn’t rub off on her.
July 2011
Beth Cummings
Beth Cummings can most often be seen sewing funny pillows and otherwise being surrounded by fabric and thread. Since she spends her days talking to no one but her dog, being in front of a room full of strangers and telling her secrets should fulfill her quota of human contact for a week or so. So thanks for that. Oh, and she makes a mean lasagna.
Amy Gorelow
Amy Gorelow is an actor, musician, and preschool teacher. Six years ago, she moved from Atlanta to Chicago, where she feels much more comfortable. She’s a member of Piccolo Theatre in Evanston, has been a pirate clown at Navy Pier, and played bass in the closing ceremonies of the 2000 Summer Olympics. See more at amygorelow.com.
Jerrod Howe
Jerrod Howe is a transplant to Chicago and new to storytelling. He comes from a comedic and stage production background, as well as a life lived in service. He believes he has found his home in Chicago and finds new ways to contribute and thrive amongst the artistic community. He wants to improve his writing ability and believes storytelling is the next step towards finding his true artistic voice.
Mary Lorenz
A New Orleans native and Saints fan by default, Mary Lorenz’s decision to move to Chicago four years ago was influenced largely by a desire to try something new and minimally by a craving for Rainbow Cone. By day, Mary is a copywriter in the sexy, exciting and sometimes dangerous world of B2B marketing. By night, Mary dabbles in improv, sketch and stand-up comedy, and has performed around town at venues such as Lincoln Lodge, Cornservatory, The Playground Theater, The Annoyance and Second City. Today, she can be seen performing regularly at Chemically Imbalanced Comedy with the house team A Dozen Red Roses or as a cast member with Laugh Out Loud Theater in Schaumburg.
Michael McCauley
Michael McCauley edits financial modeling research papers for a living. He is a graduate of the University of Alabama’s MFA Program in Creative Writing. His stories have appeared or are forthcoming in The Clackamas Literary Review, DIAGRAM, Eleven Eleven, and Painted Bride Quarterly.
Casey Pilkenton
Casey Pilkenton is pretty geeked to be here. A transplant from rural Georgia, she does her best to hide her southern accent unless she’s drinking. Casey is currently an employee at the Second City, co-hosts the web talk show “Pop Culture Shock.” Visit the PopCultureShockShow channel on YouTube to check it out. She performed throughout the south and (somehow) Las Vegas, Nevada before bringing her nonsense to Chicago. Casey’s most recent project, her original one-woman show Trapped in a Box, was just produced at CIC. Passion for the written word was evident early on in her life. Her first song, “If You Have Love, You’re Rich, If You Have Money, You’re Poor,” was a hit among her 2nd grade classmates. Here’s hoping this material has a bit more substance! Many thanks to Scott for this opportunity, family members for their dysfunction, and you…for your ears.
June 2011
Rachel Bierma
Rachel Bierma grew up all over the east from MI, NC, GA, FL, AL, IL, NH, and back to IL. She has a degree in Marketing and minor in Logistics with a side concentration in Art, and has had various careers in sales, operations, law, and local government. Currently, she works part time for two different law firms in the west loop and is trying to grow her jewelry business recycling leather in her spare time. Rachel has a passion for “weird” encounters, which is why storytelling appeals to her.
Eric Bjorlin
Eric Bjorlin grew up in Ohio but ventured west (to Chicagoland) for college, then left to live the life of a nomad for 4 years before returning last summer. In his short (but getting longer) life, he’s worked as a paperboy, bank teller, camp counselor, math teacher, lifeguard, and recruiter, among other jobs. He currently works on the education team at Active Transportation Alliance, advocating for more and better walking, biking, and transit in the Chicago area. He attempts to write daily (though rarely succeeds) and has performed a few pieces at open mics and student shows in various capacities.
Amanda Cohen
Amanda Cohen did Second City Conservatory, ComedySportz U, Annoyance classes, and a bunch of teeny improv and sketch groups you never heard of. She makes a living as a face painter and a PowerPoint specialist, doing just enough of each so that she won’t get bored with the other. She also sometimes plays JoAnne Worley in a local live game show. Back in her pre-Chicagoan era, she was a stand-up comedian. She’s mostly over that now.
Sheri Reda
Sheri Reda is a writer, editor, and performer who commutes spiritually and mentally between publishing and theatre. She sometimes performs in schools and churches as a storyteller of Biblical and other foundational myths. Sheri has served as a dramaturg at Oakton College and as a director at MLTS and Lincoln Square theatre (LSTC) and has acted in productions at Prop, Mary-Arrchie, Free Street Theatre, Artistic Home, and others, including the venerable old Organic and Center Theaters and the Vic. She’s a past member of the TranceSisters Performance Art Collective and a fan of WNEP Theatre.
Hector Reyes
Hector Reyes has been in and out of the Chicago Improv scene since 1998 and has performed in such venues as iO, Second City, The Annoyance Theatre and The Playground. He recently took up acting and was trained in the Meisner Technique by Kathy Scambiatterra at The Artistic Home. He has also trained in Mime with The Mime Company under Amanda Brown as well as clown with 500clown under Molly Brennan. He was in the award winning short film “At Last! Okemah” and is in preproduction for the film “The Catastrophe“. His life is much more exciting when you put it that way!
Shane Skeldon
Once upon a time, Shane Skeldon was in a creative writing program. He had very good teachers. But Shane was an irascible sort, and he was asked to leave. He was left with this advice: Get out of school and into the world … wait tables, meet people … the stories will come. Shane hopes they’re starting to arrive.
May 2011
Theresa Ohanion
Theresa Ohanian was born a nomad and just by chance found her feet in Chicago about a year and a half ago. An actor, improvisor and teacher who studied at Emerson College in Boston, Theresa will be making her storytelling debut with Story Lab. She is not sure she is interesting yet, but finds other people endlessly fascinating. When she is not crashing her bike or doodling, she is working on creating the perfect theatre in her head (which you are all invited to, by the way, when she wins the lottery). You can see her perform with Theatre Momentum at the Apollo Theatre or leading the TUTU Workshop, a home for wayward artists, on Tuesday nights. You should stop by. Thanks for listening!
Peggy O'Neill
Peggy O’Neill was born a poor white child, and now is a poor white middle-aged woman. She was an un-supermodel in her youth, in addition to 50 million other jobs. She studied improv back in the dinosaur ages at 2nd City. She currently does voice-overs, ‘middle-aged’ modeling, commercials, and most anything else someone will pay her for…well, almost anything. She started writing workshops with Arlene Malinowski about a year ago. This is her 3rd time performing a story for an audience, at least an audience that wasn’t cornered by her at a dinner party or drunken barbeque.
Aaron Pagel
Aaron Pagel is a semi-new transplant to Chicago from Los Angeles, where he was pursuing a career in stunt work. Currently, he works for Groupon as a Quality Assurer and is excited to talk about horrific things that he’s done instead of actually doing them.
Timothy David Rey
Timothy David Rey–is a Chicago-based writer/performer whose plays and performance pieces have appeared at Scott Free’s HOMOLATTE, THE CHICAGO CALLING ARTS FESTIVAL and STRAWDOG THEATER’S Hugen Hall Cabaret–as well as other venues—since 1996. He has been interviewed by WBEZ’s (Chicago Public Radio) Nick White (‘Hello Beautiful’) and Jason P. Freeman (chicagopride.com). His writing has appeared in After Hours: A Journal of Chicago Writing & Art, national magazine, Black Child and in the e-zine SWELL as well as on WBEZ’s Amplified Series. Timothy’s current on-going body of work is entitled: Upon The Threshold: New Plays and Performance Pieces for Multicultural Casts and Actors. Learn more about Timothy and his work on Facebook or contact Timothy by email at: canuputthatinwriting@yahoo.com
Jon Sales
Jon Sales is a current (and past) Theater Momentum ensemble member with this season’s shows happening at the Apollo Theater Studio. Originally from Pennsylvania, he was an improviser and a founder of the Philadelphia Improv Festival (now in its 8th year!). Jon has been inspired by the many storytelling events around the city (particularly This Much Is True) and looks forward to sharing. Jon wishes to thank his wife Diane as well as
family and friends, fellow storytellers, oh and Scott and Story Lab crew for their encouragement and support.
Audery Naomi Smith
Audery Naomi Smith is a Chicago native, whom currently resides in Bensenville, IL. Her humble beginnings as an aspiring writer came at the age of 9 when she won her first (of four) Young Authors’ Award. She is currently a Theater: Acting major with a minor in Playwriting at Columbia College Chicago. Audery was recently in Post Mortem under Don Hall of WNEP Theater. She is the recepient of Columbia’s Fresh Play Prize for Love Song Vignettes, a play she wrote. Audery can be seen in one of Joe Janes’ Fifty Plays directed by Rebecca Langguth.
April 2011
Bente Engelstoft
Bente Engelstoft grew up in the tepid suburbs of Houston, TX. At the ripe age of 14 she was shipped off to Denmark for boarding school for undisclosed but surely lewd reasons. She received her BA in theatre at the University of Glasgow. While in Scotland, she formed her first company, I Must Admit Productions and had the pleasure of working and performing with Palazzo Theatre. Improvised and devised theatre beckoned her to Chicago where she has studied with Second City and IO. Bente can currently be seen performing with the improv troop High Sobriety and improvised theatre ensemble Theatre Momentum.
Alice Kim
Alice Kim is a cultural organizer, writer and activist. She is the director of The Public Square, a program of the Illinois Humanities Council that creates spaces for public conversations. She blogs about adventures in activism, culture, and every day life on her site, Dancing the Dialectic. She has worked closely with prisoners and their family members to abolish capital punishment and to end torture with impunity in Illinois and nationwide. She also teaches as an adjunct for the Gender and Women’s Studies Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago and serves on the editorial board of In These Times and the advisory board of the Children and Family Justice Center.
Conrad Lawrence
Conrad Lawrence is a novelist, screenwriter, playwright, short story writer and visual fine artist who did time in a corporate bank for the crime of making a bad life decision. He’s on parole now at a job development agency. Conrad is also a visual fine artist who does surreal mixed media of digital and photography, as well as a fine arts photographer.
CJ Leavens
CJ Leavens is so happy to be telling a part of her story for the first time via Story Lab. CJ owns and on-line Vegan Baking company called The Leavening Bake Shop, www.theleavening.com. She can be seen as a catholic nun, Sister Mary Marzipan, in Hubris Production’s group: Cabaret H. Also, CJ is a proud cat lady who enjoys a good mixtape. Thanks to Scott and the Story Lab crew for all of the wonderful encouragement.
Matt Ulrich
Matt Ulrich is very excited to be a storyteller this month! He first moved to Chicago after leaving the US Army in 2007. He regularly performs in theatres throughout Chicago, but calls the Annoyance theatre his home. Ask him anything, and he will give you an honest answer!
Paul Whitehouse
Paul Whitehouse, Programming Manager of 2nd Story, is a Chicago based theatre artist and has performed with Chemically Imbalanced Comedy Theatre, Improv Playhouse Touring Company, Redmoon Theatre, The Morris Brothers Educational Tour, and Theatre Momentum. His one-man show, ½ Caf Chronicles , was produced as part of Redmoon’s First Annual J.O.E. Festival at Belmont Harbor in fall 2010. He has taught Shakespeare and improv at Traveling Players Ensemble in the woods of Virginia, helped young Chicago actors script their stories in the loop at Goodman Theatre with the General Theatre Studies Program, and has been a guest teaching artist at Dexter High School in pure Michigan. He is also a proud Kalamazoo College graduate.
March 2011
Michelle Conrad
Michelle Conrad is a patented software designer/wanna-be storyteller. She has ZERO storytelling experience but has been inspired by the many incredible storytellers she has heard across various venues in the city and finally decided to throw her hat in the ring. This will be Michelle’s first, and likely only, story in Chicago, as she will be leaving this great city at the beginning of April to head to the SF Bay area.
Erin Elizabeth Orr
Erin Elizabeth Orr is tickled to be playing storyteller this month! She has been lucky enough to work with the Right Brain Project on such productions as “Chalk”, “And They Put Handcuffs On The Flowers”, “Put My Finger In Your Mouth” and “The Modern Prometheus” and is currently in production with “My Filthy Hunt”. She has also been seen in multiple productions with The Factory, Speaking Ring Theater, WNEP Theater, InFusion Theater, Per Diem, Point of Contention Theater, Silent Theater, Bootstraps Comedy Theater, and most recently in The Mammals’ “Seven Snakes”. She was also lucky enough to play with Don Hall and Joe Janes in this year’s Sketchfest 2011! Originally from Texas, she spent time as an acting intern at Milwaukee Repertory Theater before making her move to the Windy City. Her next projects will be working on the second installment of The Nine and Joe Janes’ 50 PLAYS PROJECT. Thanks to Scott for this opportunity! Xo
Lisa Scott
Lisa Scott is former business reporter who now tries to write only for fun and shock value. She has performed personal stories for New Town Writers’ Group and the Estrogen Fest, while her plays have been developed by Stage Left Theatre and Stockyards Theater. Lisa formerly was a member of the improv group Valid Hysteria.
Tom Wolferman
Tom Wolferman majored in English with the dream that he would someday be hired as a retail copywriter to promote overpowering fragrances for men. It set the tone for a provocatively scented career. As a freelancer writer, he has since marketed surgeon’s gloves, pinball machines, cement and other less glamorous products. His humor has appeared in the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Reader. Tom once applied for a custodial job as a “Mopper” because the position was misspelled as “Moper.” (Honest.) Although highly qualified, he wasn’t hired. www.tomwolferman.com
Adam Ziemkiewicz
Adam Ziemkiewicz continues to mine his experiences as a former dogwalker, mime, baker, religion teacher, office cleaner and personal driver for a sex therapist, among his countless jobs both odd and soul-stirring. A current ensemble member with Theatre Momentum, he will be directing Emotives at The Apollo Theater Studio in April. When not looking for permanent employment — Benefits? What are those? — he continues to mold a children’s adventure story he is certain will make you glurb.
February 2011
Dominique Lewis
Dominique Lewis is new to the storytelling scene, but very excited to share her stories. She’s been in Chicago for about the past five years and loves it. Dominique has worked in the improv scene in Chicago for the past few years and currently performs with the lovely ladies of Valid Hysteria across the city.
Jenna Marotta
Jenna Marotta is an improviser who writes, most recently for Chicago magazine and timeoutchicago.com. Her journalism school thesis was called “Lady and the Tramp Stamp: The Stigma behind Lower Back Tattoos,” and she once played an extra on Saturday Night Live named Eileen Dover.
Eric Paskey
Eric Paskey has been an ensemble member with BackStage since 2006. He is a graduate of Kent State University and the ImprovOlympic training center. Credits with BSTC include Denise Druczwski’s Inferno (Phil Ligras), The Skin of Our Teeth (Telegraph Boy), Medea (Son), and The Ruling Class (Dinsdale). Eric has also had the pleasure of working with the National Theatre for Children, Collaboraction, Signal Ensemble Theatre, Dramatis Personae, Rubicon Theater Project, Halcyon Theatre Company, Arts/Lanes, and New Leaf Theatre. He is a devoted fan of Cleveland’s professional sports teams and a pitcher for the Second City and iO softball teams. Little known fact: as a child, Eric had Who Framed Roger Rabbit completely memorized! Completely memorized.
Craig Rennak
Craig Rennak is a Chicago based improvisor. Currently he primarily works
with ComedySportz and the Playground Theater and has twice competed in
WNEP’s Maelstrom improvised storytelling competition. His great american novel is stuck at page 2, his one-man-show had no dialog, and this will be his first time telling a prepared story for an audience.
He hopes you enjoy it.
with ComedySportz and the Playground Theater and has twice competed in
WNEP’s Maelstrom improvised storytelling competition. His great american novel is stuck at page 2, his one-man-show had no dialog, and this will be his first time telling a prepared story for an audience.
He hopes you enjoy it.
Cynthia Shur
Cynthia Shur grew up on the West Coast, moved to the East Coast, then split the difference and settled in the Midwest. She is an actor & improviser who spends her work days in the mysterious back room of the DePaul University Library. Cynthia is excited & thankful to have an opportunity to share her work with Story Lab, and often thinks fondly of her college writing teacher, Olga Broumas, even when she isn’t writing enough.
Merrie Greenfield
Merrie Greenfield is more pleased than you know to be performing for Story Lab. She’s performed original pieces for The Neo-Futurists, Mortified, the Moth, Beast Women, Sweetback Productions, Hell in a Handbag, WNEP, and others. She is the Michigan 2010 Maelstrom champion, WNEP’s improvised storytelling competition, and first to be crowned in the middle of a tornado. Mostly, she’s an actress, which is somewhat easier, existentially. Check out the entirely bad-ass “Write Club” at the Hideout in March, and “Lighthousekeeping” at the DCA Theater this Summer, pleaseandthankyou. A proud NY native, she uses an Arizona driver’s license. It’s got a 2037 expiration date. Seriously.
January 2011 (Inaugural Show)
Angela Benander
Angela Benander was born in a blizzard on Groundhog’s Day. She is the oldest of six kids but is only biologically related to one of them. Raised in a tiny town in Northern Michigan, Angela moved to DC after college and spent ten years working on Capitol Hill. In 2007, she was so fed up with politics she moved to Chicago at the height of winter, and has been recovering here ever since. She is working on a novel and lives in Uptown with her cat Odin.
Regan Davis
Regan Davis is an improviser, actor, and director originally from St. Petersburg, Florida. He has performed at the Chicago Improv Festival and Chicago Sketchfest, Miami Improv Festival, and directed groups in Florida, Chicago, and for a number of festivals. He was the 2010 winner of the SKALD Maelstrom improvised storytelling competition, and is a contributing writer for Top Story! Los Angeles.
Kevin Gladish
Kevin Gladish is thrilled to be part of this first launch of StoryLab & humbled to be counted among such talent! Kevin is an actor who has worked around town with companies such as WNEP, New Leaf, Griffin, Steep, and Timeline theatres to name a few. Kevin has just started getting up the courage to tell his own stories in front of people. He was last seen as part of WNEP’s Frequency at Transistor, as well as The Moth, where he won the Story Slam in October. Thanks to Scott for letting him be a part of this, and to his amazing family and friends for their encouragement and support.
Michael Van Kerckhove
Michael Van Kerckhove is a Chicago-based writer & performer and the current Artistic Director of NewTown Writers’ performance arm. He has appeared in and co-produced several installments of NTW’s performance series (Working Stiffs, Solo Homo, etc.). He has also presented work with Story Club, Essay Fiesta and Blue Moon Studio Theatre’s Solo in Blue series. He is slowly but surely working on his full-length solo show, Battles With Boys. www.MichaelVanKerckhove.wordpress.com
J.H. Palmer
J.H. Palmer is a secret writer who has lived in Chicago since pretty much forever. Her writing has appeared in Gapers Block, Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood, Babble, and Christopher Street. Her superpowers include the ability to name any song that was aired on WPLJ between 1980-1989 in three notes or less, the ability to smoke just one cigarette and not want more, and the ability to speak to housecats. You can keep up with her on her blog, Buttered Noodles (www.buttered-noodles.blogspot.com).
Erin Payton
Erin Payton earned a BA in Creative Writing at U of I Champaign-Urbana; it was there that she discovered improv. She moved to Chicago to study at iO Chicago, where she has taught, coached and performs weekly with Carl & The Passions. She also improvises with Homey Loves Chachi and Cheetarah. Erin wrote and produced the musical Rising from the Crashes in October 2009 and produced and wrote four stories for the storytelling show Holiday Punch in the Face at iO Chicago in December 2010. Erin thanks her friends, family, her husband Roger, and Rocky and Baby for their continued support.