2nd Story: Storytellers: A

Anne Adams

Anne Adams is a graduate of Emerson College in Boston, MA and The School at Steppenwolf in Chicago. Chicago directing credits: Hot N Throbbing (Pine Box Theatre), The Revenants and William Peter Blatty’s Legion (Wildclaw Theatre). Chicago acting credits: Mauritius (Northlight), Carter’s Way and Cherry Orchard (Steppenwolf), Imagining Brad and Life and Limb (Pine Box Theatre), Orange Lemon Egg Canary (Uma Productions), The House of Bernarda Alba (Greasy Joan), Bottle Can Draft and Can You Spot Me? (Sandbox Theatre Project). Anne is a proud company member of both Pine Box Theatre and Wildclaw Theatre (for which she serves as casting director), and is an acting instructor at Black Box Acting Studio.

JC Aevaliotis

JC does a lot of different things. He received a master’s degree in religion and theater from the Yale Divinity School. During grad school, he taught at a magnet school for the arts, performed at the Yale Drama School Cabaret, and took classes on comic theory, Scandinavian theater, and linguistics. Since his 2006 move to Chicago, JC has taught and directed at Northwestern University’s Cherubs program and worked as an actor and dramaturgical consultant for various theater companies. JC performs regularly with Second City’s Training Center House Ensemble and currently works as a grant-writer at an art-education not-for-profit called Marwen.

Brad Akin

Guest Director // Brad Akin is a Chicago-based director, currently pursuing his MFA at Northwestern University. An ensemble member at Steep Theatre Company since 2005, Brad has directed four productions with his artistic family: Lanford Wilson’s Book of Days (Jeff Nominated – Best Ensemble), Stephen Adly Guirgis’s The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Chicago Premiere), Terry Johnson’s Insignificance, and Emily Mann’s Greensboro: A Requiem (Chicago Premiere). Outside his Steep home, Brad has directed at Bowen Park Theatre in Waukegan, Moraine Valley Community College, and the New York International Fringe Festival. He has also directed a staged reading of Sheila Callaghan’s Lascivious Something for Dog & Pony Theatre, as well as workshops for Collaboraction and LA’s ‘needtheater’. This spring, Brad will direct the Chicago premiere of Lucy Thurber’s Where We’re Born at Steppenwolf’s Garage Theatre as part of NEXT UP, a collaboration between Steppenwolf and Northwestern University.

Randy Albers

Randall Albers chairs the Fiction Writing Department at Columbia College Chicago, one of the largest undergraduate and graduate writing programs in the country, and is the Founding Producer of the Story Week Festival of Writers. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Chicago Review, Mendocino Review, F Magazine, Writing in Education, TriQuarterly, Writer’s Digest, and elsewhere. His work has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. A former winner of the Columbia College Teaching Excellence Award, he is the co-writer and co-producer of the Story Workshop teaching of writing videotapes, The Living Voice Moves and Story from First Impulse to Final Draft, and is a frequent presenter at conferences here and abroad devoted to the teaching of creative writing.

Drew Anderson

Drew is delighted to be collaborating with 2nd Story! Around town, he has had the pleasure of working with Collaboraction, Chicago Dramatists, About Face Theatre, The Neo-Futurists, and Victory Gardens. Drew can also be seen improvising with the hilarious gentlemen of Thora Birch. He is thrilled to be living in this beautiful city and writing about his adventures.

Rebecca Anderson

Rebecca Anderson is a pastor in Chicago, where her gig includes preaching, singing and teaching music, making a place for people (metaphorically and actually), dish-washing, and lots and lots of coffee-drinking with near-strangers. She's also been a stand-up comic, an ox-drover, a nanny, and run an afterschool program. She moved to Chicago to get a Masters of Divinity at the University of Chicago and has a BA in playwrighting from Hampshire College. Rebecca does her best sermon- and story- prep (which are very closely related) while biking or running along the lake, and while gardening. She thinks we make our truths by telling our stories so is thrilled to have stumbled into 2nd Story and to get to be a part of it.

Alison Aske

Alison Aske is excited to be participating in this year’s 2nd Story Festival. She has acted with many Chicago (and some New York) theatre companies, including Apple Tree, Raven, Terrapin, TinFish, and Gravisphere. She also directed plays, choreographed movement pieces, and designed costumes. Then she had a child and that changed her life. She is currently working full time as a Toddler Wrangler, but occasionally finds time to write and perform. Keep up with her adventures at alimum.blogspot.com and check out the Black Dress Project at anotherblackdress.blogspot.com. Alison thanks Fred, Julian, Mom, and Dad for their continued support and inspiration.