2nd Story: Storytellers: P

J.H. Palmer

J.H. Palmer is a writer and storyteller. She is pursuing a Certificate in Creative Writing at the University of Chicago, and contributes to Gapers Block and Chicago Theater Beat. She has occasional superpowers, which include the ability to communicate with house cats, Facebooking, and running pretty fast sometimes. She has appeared at a number of storytelling venues, including: Story Lab, Story Club, Essay Fiesta, Tuesday Funk, This Much Is True, Mortified, and The Moth. You can keep up with her on her spottily updated blog, Buttered Noodles

Justin D. M. Palmer

Guest Director // Justin D.M. Palmer is Artistic Director of Sandbox Theatre Project, which premieres new site-specific plays all over the city of Chicago. Justin has co-written/directed all of STP’s site-specific work including Can You Spot Me? (a fitness center), Bottle Can Draft (a bar), and Where We Live (an apartment). Justin's play Melinda & Roger recently premiered in Melbourne, Australia at the Melbourne Fringe Festival. Justin has also worked with The House Theatre of Chicago, Steppenwolf Theatre, Theatre 7, Healthworks Theatre, Silk Road Theatre Project, Collaboraction, and Next Theatre. Justin is currently pursuing a MFA in Writing from The School of the Art Institute Chicago.

Diane Patterson

Diane Patterson is pleased to be making her 2nd Story debut, working along side the skilled and hilarious storytellers who have been entertaining her for the past year. Diane is a Chicago actor who has worked with several area theatres since graduating from Northwestern University in 2006 and is looking forward to expanding her resume to include the lovely Serendipity Theatre. A newcomer to the world of writing she is thankful for all the help she received along the way and is excited to share a story that means so much to her.

Susan Payne

Susan Payne is a theater artist and singer interested in the many ways and mediums with which we tell stories on stage. She fell in love with storytelling at The Piven Theatre Workshop where she has directed, adapted and taught for the past fifteen years. Her recent vocal performances have included everything from Mozart to 'Miss Pussy's Opera' in varied venues from Links Hall to the Chicago Cultural Center. She is a firm believer that Opera belongs both on the street and in the salon and she preaches what she practices at Roosevelt University where she is a theater coach and director in the Opera Program. She has been lucky to have been under the wing of many an amazing female artist. Words with Lucille, Stories with Joyce & Songs with Catherine. She likes to think of them as kind of a superhero team that put her into a pod and sent her to another planet. She has yet to reach her destination.

Dia Penning

Dia Penning is a social activist focused on the development of arts learning and civic engagement. Dia holds a MA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Columbia College Chicago and a BA in Art from Kalamazoo College. She has been published in the Teaching Artist Journal, the Nido, is nest, Anthology, and has developed several arts education programs, including Where Art Lives, for the City of San Francisco’s Arts Commission, ArtReach Studios for the Arc of San Francisco, and ArtScape for Chicago’s Gallery 37. Dia's art has been exhibited in California and throughout the Midwest; her costumes have traveled with Luna Negra Dance Theater and Music and Sonic Sculpture (MASS Ensemble) through the United States, Europe, and Mexico. She aims to inspire passionate expression, in herself and others, through deep conversation, experimentation, and reflection.

David Peak

David Peak likes graveyards at midnight. He likes raw meat. In his soul he is lost in the Black Forest. He keeps his library of Dario Argento movies in chronological order. He is a cat person. He lives in New York City and works a job and frequently deletes his blog at www.davidpeak.blogspot.com.

Cheri Pentimone

Web Content Manager & Designer // Cheri Pentimone is devoted to all things art, education, and stories, which is why she feels so at home working with 2nd Story. She has worked at the Hyde Park Art Center's summer creativity camps for children, contributed illustrations to Chicago Tales (in association with Open Books), and developed promotional materials for Cabinalysis, a show written and performed by Dr. Lawrence Kerns. She earned her BFA in Graphic Design at The American Academy of Art in Chicago, and misses her CTA pass dearly.

Aimee Perkins

Aimee Perkins is a Chicago writer who has proudly worked with 2nd Story for the past six years. She has read with 2nd Story at Webster's Wine Bar, Red Kiva, The Spot and at the MCA for Literary Gangs of Chicago. You can find her all over the city, meeting her next story just at that next corner, there.

Lauren Pesca

Lauren Pesca hails from Long Island, N.Y. half a mile from the auto body shop where Amy Fisher met Joey Buttafuoco. Lauren is a founding member of Serendipity, as well as appearing in Being 11, The Outfit and The Day Maggie Blew Off Her Head. She has also worked with The Goodman Theatre, Famous Door, CollaborAction and various other local companies.

Eric Pogrelis

Eric Pogrelis is a part-time actor and full-time misanthrope. You haven't seen him in anything recently, but you may have heard him in Iconoclast Theater Project's Seven Sisters. He holds a degree bitterly wrested from the University of Chicago.

Miles Polaski

Music Director // Miles Polaski is a sound designer, composer and musician in Chicago. He has been a company member, sound designer and music curator with 2nd Story for 4 season. In 2010 Miles received a Jeff Award for his sound design on Mouse in a Jar with Red Tape Theatre. Miles has had the pleasure of working with many Chicago theatre companies. Favorite past credits include One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - The Gift Theatre; Uncle Vanya - TUTA; Cadillac - Chicago Dramatists; A Christmas Story - Noble Fool; Talk Radio - The Gift Theatre; Dr. Egg - Redmoon; The Hairy Ape - The Hypocrites/Goodman Theatre; Diversey Harbor - Theatre Seven; Bloody Bess - Backstage Theatre; and Of Mice and Men - Steppenwolf Theatre.

Chris Pomeroy

Guest Director // Chris is a writer and director. Much of Chris’s time in Chicago has been spent as artistic director of Reverie Theatre Company, where he directed Emma, Wintertime, The Game of Love and Chance, All’s Well that Ends Well, Fool for Love, and Curt Columbus’s new translation of The Cherry Orchard. Chris’s plays include Born Lucky, My Affair with Lady Macbeth, and Courting the Wild Man.

Jen Poulin

Guest Director // Jen Poulin experienced 2nd Story for the first time over two years ago, and has been hooked on the magic ever since. Most recently, she collaborated with 2nd Story on a solo piece, Cabinalysis, for the Minnesota and Chicago Fringe Fests. Up next, she can be seen stage managing BackStage Theatre Company’s Chicago premiere of Memory, at the Viaduct. Chicago stage management credits include Eclipse Theatre, Theatre Mir, Mary Arrchie Theatre Company, Rasaka Theatre Company, WildClaw Theatre, and Silk Road Theatre Project. She holds a BFA in Theatre Studies from University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign. Love and thanks to these amazing storytellers, Katie, Molly, Nick, Bobby, Amanda, her family and The Boy.

Kat Powers

Merchandise, Graphic Design // When not brainstorming new and fantastic guerilla marketing schemes for 2nd Story, Kat Powers can be seen dashing around on her bicycle, collecting props and balancing them on her handlebars. Kat worked with Serendipity Theatre on last year’s production of Voices Underwater, and has also worked as a props designer with Steep, the Vittum Theatre and Redmoon. In addition to making buttons, pins and stickers for 2nd Story, Kat also loves taking photographs and painting formal portraits of writers. She looks forward to the continuing and upcoming seasons.

Katie Pryor

Producer // As a member of 2nd Story, Katie Pryor is also the resident nunchuk skills expert. She currently produces the 2nd Story series at Webster's Wine Bar in Lincoln Park. She served as producer of the 2nd Story series at The Spot in Uptown, the Annoyance Theater’s production of Dennis Tar, High School Tennis Star and an assistant producer for the 2nd Story Festival. She enjoys her status as the "most sought after child-care provider in Chicago" and prefers listening to stories rather than telling them. She is also a lifelong fan of the current World Champion Green Bay Packers.

Mike Przygoda

Mike Przygoda is a freelance composer and multi-instrumentalist. As a composer he has written an opera, several musicals, numerous chamber works (that include performances at Orchestra Hall), rock and jazz songs, and reguarly writes music for dance classes at the Joffrey Ballet and Columbia College. As a multi-instrumentalist he has contributed to performances by many ensembles from classical to rock to hip hop to country to "other" across the United States in both live and recorded situations.