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.

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.

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.