2nd Story: Storytellers: S

Julie Sadowski

Managing Director // Julie Sadowski, graduate of Columbia College class of 2000, doesn't sleep much these days as she balances her new role of Serendipity's managing director with her long standing role of lead photographer and owner of Grayscale Studios Inc. It is the creativity and passion of her fellow company members that inspire her to keep writing, performing and working hard to ensure that Serendipity has a strong presence in Chicago and around the world. She believes in individuality and expressing herself candidly taking part in everything from improv and stand up to spoken word and sound design. Her latest project of playing sub DJ at a Webster's monthly gave her the opportunity to fullfill a life-long dream and now that she knows what BPM stands for she's ready to give it another go.

Julie Saltzman

After retiring from the currency option pits of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Julie Saltzman got serious about writing, went back to journalism school, and got herself published in a bunch of magazines. She whips writers into shape as an editor and teacher, leading writing groups in conjunction with the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is the cofounder of the Uptown Writer's Space and lives in Wilmette with her husband and their three-son wrecking crew.

Cassandra Sanders

Guest Director // This is Cassy's first time working with 2nd Story. Cassy has a BFA in Theater from Cornish College of the Arts. Originally from Seattle where she worked with such groups as Implied Violence, The PlaywritingTeam, and The School of Big Ideas. In Chicago Cassy has worked Collaboraction, Lookingglass, In So Many Words and Theater Seven of Chicago. Look for her short play Chicago Summer in this years Sketchbook (May 15 - June 15) presented by Collaboracton at the Steppenwolf Garage. Cassy currently serves as Assistant / Executive Artistic Director at Collaboraction.

Tracie Louise Sellers

Tracie Louise Sellers is one of the four founding members of Serendipity, and has performed in The Day Maggie Blew Off Her Head, Being 11, Alcatraz and The Outfit, as well as the last four years of 2nd Story. Her directing credits include Beruit; Assistant Director for Steppenwolf's production of Skylight; Assistant Director for The Goodman Theatre's productions of House and Garden; and Director for Serendipity’s debut—A.D.D.: Another Day of Distraction. Tracie Louise also launched Serendipity’s production of Chordless with a staged reading at The Goodman Theatre in 2000, and has worked with inner city children on a production of Romeo and Juliet.

Elizabeth Schwan-Rosenwald

Guest Director // Elizabeth Schwan-Rosenwald is the Artistic Director for 20% Theatre Company Chicago which she co-founded in 2003. Most recently with the company she directed Top Girls by Caryl Churchill. Other directing credits with 20% include: Women and War: Stories created with co-founder Abigail Boucher, David’s RedHaired Death by Sherry Kramer, How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel, and Jane: Abortion and the Underground by Paula Kamen and as part of 20%’s short play festival Snapshots 2006 & 2007. During the day (and some evenings) she is the Director of Development for The Chicago Chamber Musicians.

Ilana Shabanov

Ilana Shabanov hails from a swarthy ethnic background that has provided no shortage of story fodder. In her former life, she made her living in kitchens as a cook. She has the scars to prove it and can make really good soup. Her writing has appeared in Hair Trigger 30 and 31, Fictionary, and an unspeakable deluge of press releases. She is an MFA candidate in the Fiction Writing Department at Columbia College Chicago and is crazy at work on her first novel. Big ups to her husband, Jose, for letting her tell all kinds of stories about him in public.

Stephanie Shaw

Stephanie Shaw has been an actress around town, a theater critic for the Chicago Reader, an artist in residence in the Columbia College Theater Department, a writer/performer/director/company member at the Neo-Futurarium, a solo performance artist, a director of solo performance artists, an instructor for solo performance artists, a member of BoyGirlBoyGirl (an ensemble of solo performance artists) an occasional director of plays and musicals, an MFA candidate in the Columbia Creative Writing program, a wife, a mother and a closet poet. She is still most of these things and not so much the others.

Jen Shin

Jen Shin is happy to make her 2nd Story debut. She was last in Victory Garden Theatre&rsauo;s production of Year Zero. Favorite credits include After the Quake, adapted and directed by Frank Galati at Berkely Rep Theatre and the long-running The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow, with Collaboraction Theatre. Jen will next be in Silk Road Theatre's production of The DNA Trail.

Megan Shuchman

Guest Director // Megan Shuchman is a Chicago-based director, teaching artist and dramaturg. She has worked for such companies as Steppenwolf Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Timeline Theatre, American Theatre Company, Stage Left Theatre, A Red Orchid Theatre, the side project and Infamous Commonwealth Theatre. Before moving to Chicago in 2006, Megan served as an executive member of the Prison Creative Arts Project, producing plays in prisons and juvenile detention centers around southeastern Michigan. Currently, Megan serves as Professional Leadership Coordinator of Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Director of the Northlight Theatre Performing Arts Camp. She is also Curator of the New Play Reading Series at Around the Coyote Art Gallery. Megan received a BA in Theatre from the University of Michigan and is thrilled to be working with 2nd Story!

Timothy C. Simons

Timothy C. Simons is originally from Maine. His favorite book is East of Eden. He has performed with The Hypocrites and still plays on their softball team. He is co-creator of The Big Rock Show, the world’s smallest stadium rock concert, in which he plays his alter-ego Tim the Roadie. He is incredibly excited to be back for his second 2nd story. You may remember his stories last year, but if you don't, one was about getting in a bar fight/riot, and the other was about smoking weed in Minneapolis when he was 20 years old.

Amanda E. Snyder

Amanda E. Snyder is a contributor to the Chicago Tribune’s entertainment website metromix.com. Her writing has appeared in No Touching Magazine, RedEye and on Chicago's National Public Radio station WBEZ. She is also the co-founder of the monthly reading series RUI: Reading Under the Influence at Sheffield’s. Snyder holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia College, where she is the Assistant Artistic Director for the Story Week Festival of Writers. She is a past recipient of the Getz Graduate Award and Weisman Memorial Scholarship and has held a residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

Kimberlee Soo

Kimberlee Soo is an actor/writer. Most recent stories in March issue of INTHEFRAY and SEVENTYTWOWORDS. Her first 2ndStory, Covergirl, was also published by INTHEFRAY (named one of the 'Best of the Year'). Readings: Featherproof, The Dollar Store Show, MCA's Literary Gangs of Chicago, Victory Gardens' Ignition/SparkPlug. Favorites shows: west-coast premiere of Pacific Overtures (MTO, starring Mako), Words On Fire (Steppenwolf), In The Heart Of America (About Face), Rebecca Gilman's The Crime Of The Century (Circle), A Christmas Carol (Goodman), original production, Eleven Rooms Of Proust, adapted/directed by Mary Zimmerman (About Face/Lookingglass), Sean Graney's The 4th Graders Present an Unnamed Love Suicide (Hypocrites); mid-west premiere of David Henry Hwang's GOLDEN CHILD (Silk Road).

Jonny Stax

Jonny Stax is a performer, musical director, teacher and promoter of the arts dedicated to new and innovative work that inspires progress of thought and hilarity. From piano to puppets, cabaret to street theater, the stage to the internet, his work has frightened and titillated audiences from Seattle to New York with stops along the way in Iowa, California, and Washington, DC. He is thrilled to be settled in Chicago where the magic really happens. The Clark Kent hours in his day are spent organizing communities to improve sex education in their schools, which his Southern Baptist parents love!

Megan Stielstra

Literary Director // Megan Stielstra is a writer and storyteller. She’s performed for The Goodman, The MCA, The Chicago Poetry Center, The Neo-Futurarium, Story Week Festival of Writers and The Dollar Store, among others, and is a recent Opium Literary Death Match champ. Her writing has appeared in Other Voices, Freshyarn, Pindeldyboz, Swink, Perigee, INTHEFRAY, Punk Planet, and on Chicago Public Radio, as well as featured with New York’s Bohemian Archeology and Theatre Seven of Chicago. Currently, she teaches creative writing at Columbia College and The University of Chicago, and is thrilled to serve 2nd Story’s Director of Story Development where she gets to hear so many kick-ass stories.

Shannon Sullivan

Web Producer // Shannon Sullivan is thrilled to be an active member of Serendipity Theatre Collective! She first realized her love for writing during college all-nighters spent on analytical chemistry lab reports. While getting her masters in nutrition, she started studying acting at Freehold Theater in Seattle, and promptly helped found the city’s longest running all-women’s improv troupe. Now she continues her aspirations of professional studentdom by making sure she’s enrolled in at least one class at all times and frequenting places like Black Box Acting Studio, the Old Town School, the Art Institute and Lillstreet Art Center.