2nd Story: Storytellers: P

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.

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 edits Ghost Factory Magazine, works as the Acquisitions Editor for Leucrota Press, and is a master copyeditor. Read more about him at www.davidpeak.net. Or read his blog at www.davidpeak.blogspot.com.

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, Podcast Curator // Miles Polaski is a sound designer, composer and musician in Chicago, IL. He is the resident sound designer with Collaboraction and a music director/curator with Serendipity Theatre's 2nd Story. In 2008, Miles worked on music for Lie of the Mind at Strawdog Theatre which won a non-equity Jeff Award and his sound design for White People at The Gift Theatre was nominated for an equity Jeff Award. In 2007, he was nominated for two non-equity Jeff Awards for his sound design and original compositions for Equus at Actor's Workshop. Miles has had the pleasure of working with many Chicago theatre companies, since moving to Chicago in 2004, including TUTA, Chicago Dramatists, Noble Fool Theatricals, The House Theatre of Chicago, Chicago Shakespeare, Light Opera Works, Redmoon, The Hypocrites, Theatre Seven, Infamous Commonwealth, Backstage Theatre, among others. Before moving to Chicago, Miles worked as an actor and sound designer at The Barter Theatre, state theater of Virginia.

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.

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 Serendipity Theater Collective, Katie Pryor is also the resident nunchuk skills expert. 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 for the last two years. She enjoys carrying equipment to and from various venues and dreams of writing a great story. She holds a 2nd degree black belt and still cannot break cement blocks with her hands. She would also like to give a shout out to her rockstar 2nd Story of Death Broomball teammates.

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.