2nd Story: Storytellers: G

Julie Ganey

Director of Education Outreach, Story Development Team // Julie Ganey is a Chicago based actor, improviser, director, teacher and now, evidently, a writer, too. As an actor, she has worked with Victory Gardens, Northlight, Goodman, Chicago Dramatists and Drury Lane, among others. She is currently the Director of Outreach at Next Theatre, where she leads community members in the creation of civic-based theatre projects that explore challenging issues. Through Wavelength, an award winning comedy ensemble that performs for educators, she has created and led workshops for teachers and executives nationwide. Julie has also created lots of programs for kids, on everything from violence prevention to etiquette. She sounds busy, but she also spends a good amount of time hanging out on her porch in Rogers Park.

Jason W. Gerace

Jason W. Gerace is Artistic Associate of American Theater Company, where he directed the most recent production of It’s a Wonderful Life: The Radio Play, which was broadcast on WBEZ Chicago Public Radio, and will be the Associate Director on the World Premiere of Welcome to Arroyo’s, by Kristoffer Diaz, and is curating The Silver Project, a festival of new plays by national and Chicago playwrights celebrating ATC’s 25th season. Other Chicago credits include assistant directing for Amy Morton, Kimberly Senior, Jessica Thebus and PJ Paparelli. Regional directing credits include Hamlet (Oklahoma Summer Shakespeare), A Christmas Carol (Oklahoma City Theatre Co.) The Miracle Worker (Theatrikos), Love Letters (Theatre Works), Antigone and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Theatre for Young People). Jason originally hails from Anchorage, Alaska and holds an MFA in Directing from The University of Oklahoma. He is married to a truly amazing woman, who makes everything he does possible to begin with.

Max Glaessner

Max Glaessner received his B.A. in Fiction Writing from Columbia College Chicago. His stories have been featured in Belletrist, Hair Trigger (issues 29 & 30), Reservoir, No Touching Magazine, Ghost Factory, Criminal Class Press, and Thuglit.com. His interview with musician/spoken word performer Henry Rollins was published in Fictionary. He is also a regular contributor to Doorways: A Journal of Horror and the Paranormal, as well as feoamante.com, where he writes reviews of scary movies. In addition to this, Max is also the founder of the Sexy Bald Men Reading Series and has been a featured reader/performer in many Chicago literary events, including Reading Under the Influence, 2nd Story, and The Windy City Story Slam. Most recently he won the Windy City Story Slam finals tournament at Metro to become the first story slam champion of Chicago.

Brian Golden

Guest Director // Brian Golden is the Artistic Director of Theatre Seven. For T7, he has directed Diversey Harbor, Killing Women, The Sand Castle, and written for Yes, This Really Happened To Me. Brian's work has been produced at American Theatre of Actors (NYC), Nice People Theatre (Philadelphia), Regroup Theatre (LA), Collaboraction, the side project and Chicago Dramatists. Brian is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, a winner of the A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Contest, and recipient of the Leota Diesel Ashton Playwriting Prize and the John J. Jutkowitz Award. He directs Sex Signals, the nation's leading touring program on sexual assault prevention.

Sarah Grainer

Sarah Grainer is a Fiction Writing student in her last undergraduate year at Columbia College. Her work has appeared in the Austin-American Statesman, the Sorin Oak Review and the Story Week Reader. Currently, she is developing a workshop for 826CHI and working as one of the editors of the 32nd edition of Columbia's Hair Trigger magazine. Sarah credits her deep love of stories (and often talking too much, and too loudly) to being born and raised in the South, and to her mom, the best and loudest storyteller she knows.

Sharon Greene

Sharon Greene, Artistic Director of The Neo-Futurists, writes and performs in Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. She created Windmilled: Tilting at Don Quixote, which showcased at the Neo-Futurarium and the 2005 PAC/Edge performance festival. She is a teaching artist for About Face’s The Home Project, and a curator of the Neo-Solo Performance Series.

Sheree L. Greer

Sheree L. Greer is a graduate student in the Fiction Writing Program. Her work has been published in Story Week Reader 2006 and 2007, Jazz.net, Bike Shorts, the Windy City Times, and Fictionary Magazine. Her work has been heard at the Women and Children's First Bookstore and the Affinity Community Space for the Saving Our Sisters Anti-Violence Weekend where she taught creative writing workshops. Though she was born and raised in Milwaukee, WI, she considers Winter her arch-nemesis.

Jon Gugala

Jon Gugala was born in Detroit, Michigan. He attended high schools in Michigan, Chicago, and finally, Kansas City, Missouri, where he graduated. From there, feeling he hadn’t moved around enough, he enlisted in the Marine Corps as a trombone player. After four years of active service, he wanted to try something else, so he worked with the base chaplain’s office on Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, for another couple of years, simultaneously devouring books from the public library. Finally, he started college, and is a junior in the Fiction Department at Columbia College Chicago. He enjoys reading, running far, and travel.