2nd Story: Storytellers: B

Ian Bacchus

Ian Bacchus has been writing short stories all his life, but only about five people in the world know about it. He’s done promo work for a notorious network based in Hollywood and a script for a very short film. He grew up in California, spent a few years in the UK, and has followed his MBA-bound girlfriend to Chicago. He loves the pizza, hates the lake effect, and is very excited to be part of 2nd Story.

Adam Belcuore

Executive Producer & Guest Director 2008 // Adam Belcuore is an original founding member of Serendipity Theatre Collective where he directed Alcatraz, by Albert Letizia, Delores Dogan, by Courtney Shaughnessy, and created the 2nd Story Festival back in 2002 . Adam is currently an emeritus company member and serves on the Board of Directors. He is entering his sixth season as casting director for Chicago’s Tony Award winning Goodman Theatre. Chicago casting highlights include: Arthur Miller’s Finishing The Picture, Robert Fall’s 20th Anniversary production of King Lear starring Stacy Keach, Luis Alfaro’s Electricidad and Rebecca Gilman’s Dollhouse. Adam is also looking forward to this year’s Collaboraction Sketchbook, where he will direct Jose Rivera’s new short play Yellow.

David Blatt

David Blatt is an actor/writer/musician/voice-guy from Denver, CO. You might have spotted him performing around town (most recently with Collaboraction and Remy Bumppo), or singing to himself on his bicycle, or tutoring and leading workshops for 826CHI. He is honored to be a part of this ridiculously talented bunch, and encourages them all to move to San Francisco with him. Seriously.

Bobby Biedrzycki

Story Development // Bobby Biedrzycki is a writer and performer who came to Chicago from St. Paul, Minnesota via The Bronx, New York. He is the co-host of a monthly reading series entitled The Sexy Bald Men and is an adjunct faculty member of the Fiction Writing Department at Columbia College Chicago where he teaches classes in both fiction and film. He also teaches Journalism for Teens through the After School Matters program. He received his BA in creative writing from Columbia College Chicago after attending film school at The City College of New York and is currently completing his MFA in Creative Writing at Columbia. Bobby's writing has appeared in The Black Bear Review, Hair Trigger, The Banana King, and Ante:thesis Volumes I & II. He has worked as a book reviewer for both Time Out Chicago and Punk Planet Magazine, and was one of the editors for the Chicago edition of The Not for Tourists Guide. Along with being a company member of The Serendipity Theater Collective and performing monthly with 2nd Story, Bobby is currently at work on his first novel, Driving Back to Normal.

Hank Boland

Hank is an ensemble member of Strawdog Theatre Company, for whom he penned The True Ballad of False Blessings and Strawdog Radio Theatre IV, and where he developed and oversees the Strawdog Ensemble Writing Initiative, The Hit Factory! He is the co-author of four musical comedies: Monky Business, Monky Business II: Back in the Sandals, Soup du Jour, and The Singin' Cowboy. He Executive Produces The Callback, a live theatre talk show and is an adjunct faculty member at Columbia College where he teaches in the Film and Video Department. He is happily married to the lovely and talented Elizabeth Dowling.

Julia Borcherts

Julia Borcherts is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Time Out Chicago, Chicago Tribune/Metromix/Red Eye, Chicago Fighting Arts Magazine, ChicagoBoxing.com, BoxingKingdom.com, the Chicago Golden Gloves program and other publications, and is the recipient of a first-prize award for non-fiction from the Columbia (New York) Scholastic Press Association. She is a co-founder of the Reading Under the Influence monthly series and has been a featured reader at Kate the Great’s Book Emporium, EP Theater, Manual Labor Gallery, the Sexy Bald Men Readings and No Touching magazine’s “United Colors of Non-Fiction.” She also teaches fiction workshops at Columbia College.

Margot Bordelon

Story Development & Guest Director 2008 // Margot Bordelon is a Chicago based writer, director and performer. She has worked for such companies as Steppenwolf, Collaboraction, Timeline, Pavement Group, Live Bait, Around the Coyote, Bailiwick, Hell in a Handbag and Appetite Theater. She co-curates the monthly RE:Action reading series at Around the Coyote’s gallery space in Wicker Park. Margot is a founding member of Theatre Seven of Chicago, an Associate Artist at Collaboraction, and currently serves as the Literary Associate at Lookingglass Theatre Company. For more info, visit: www.margotbordelon.com.

Bea Bosco

Guest Director 2008 // Beatrice Bosco is a theater director, educator, and scholar. She is currently the Associate Director of Education at Chicago Shakespeare Theater and teaches at DePaul University. She is the former Director of the Chicago Arts Program, an off-campus study program for college students, and has a Ph.D. in theater from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In Chicago, she has directed at Stage Left, A Red Orchid, Scrap Mettle SOUL, Lakeside Shakespeare, Estrogen Fest, Rhino Fest, and Sketchbook 4 and 6 for Collaboraction, where she is a Company Associate.

Cora Vander Broek

Cora Vander Broek has been an actor in Chicago for almost six years now. Her last project was Griffin Theatre's Dead End. Prior to that she was seen in Raven Theatre’s Book of Days for which she won an After Dark award for Outstanding Performance. Other companies she has worked with: Serendipity, The Hypocrites, Northlight and Lifeline. She is a proud graduate of Steppenwolf’s summer conservatory program.