Looking back, 2011 was a blast, bringing the launch of Story Lab Chicago, collaborative experimentation with Interface I and II, the filming of the Story Lab pilot/documentary, and twelve magical nights of This Much is True.

In 2012, we look forward to an even bigger, and busier, year including the introduction of storytelling workshops, a podcast, the 43rd Annual Chicago’s Biggest Liar Contest, and, of course, a dozen more good times upstairs in the Hopleaf lounge.

We’re starting the new year off right with some returning favorites and a few new faces. January brings the return of Arlene Malinowski, who continually inspires us, and Dana Norris, our good friend and host of Story Club. We are also thrilled to be featuring Paulette McDaniels, who recently made a terrific debut at Story Lab, and the talented triple threat Dmitry Samarov (writer/painter/cab driver).

Hope to see you there.

This Much is True
Tuesday–January 10th
Hopleaf Bar – 5148 N Clark Street – Upstairs
7:30pm
FREE!
Doors open at 6:45 – arrive early to get a seat.

January’s line up includes regulars:

Dorrie Ferguson

Larry Kerns

Scott Whitehair

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With Special Guests:

Arlene Malinowski

Actor and playwright Malinowski has been performing her solo shows across the country and her work has been honored with a few cool awards. She’s had a couple of her other plays produced, most of them are one-acts or full lengths but a few are 1 minute plays (Hey! they are harder than they look).  In addition to her TV and film work (Some of it good- a lot of it bad) Arlene teaches writing in Chicago and LA. She has been a contributing writer to a lot of literary publications with strange names like Paramanu Pentataquark.  When she wants to show off she mentions that her work was cited in the Huffington Post. She is a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists and is, to her knowlege, the only actor to apprear both in Doogie Howser and Measure for Measure. Check it! arlenemalinowski.com

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Paulette McDaniels

Paulette McDaniels has more then 25 years of experience in the arts. She is the author of A Deathly Silence commissioned by the Department of Health and Human Services for World AIDS Day. Ms. McDaniels has served as a community organizer in the Middle East, Europe and America. The grandmother of two, she studied at Northwestern University and Yorkshire College in the UK. She is co-author of Achmed’s Return: Legend of the Lost City, and is currently working on a Christian comedy, 10 Plagues.

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Dana Norris

Dana Norris is the founder/producer/host of Story Club, which is the first Thurs every month at Uncommon Ground.  She has worked as the Managing Editor of TriQuarterly Online and is currently pursuing her MFA from Northwestern.

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Dmitry Samarov

Dmitry Samarov was born in the USSR and immigrated to the US at the age of seven. He’s the author of Hack: Stories from a Chicago Cab. He paints and drives a cab in Chicago, Illinois. He hopes to one day be unemployed.

To top it all off, our special guests for December are gifts we cannot wait for you to open:  Moth Slam host Don Hall; travel & arts writer Victoria Cunha; and Sunday Night Sex Show’s Samantha Irby.

‘Tis the season to join your friends, grab a beer, and listen to some great stories.

This Much is True
The Hopleaf — Upstairs
Tuesday, December 13th
7:30pm (Doors open at 6:45)

FREE!

December’s line up includes regulars:

Dorrie Ferguson

Larry Kerns

Deanna Moffitt

Scott Whitehair

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With special guests:

Victoria Cunha

Victoria successfully completed the M.A.T. program in High School Education-English Language Arts/Special Education at National-Louis University. Prior to this, she was a freelance arts & travel writer, (Time Out Chicago Guidebook, Hungry? Chicago Guidebook, etc.) and storyteller/workshop leader with college teaching credits in speech communication (DePaul Univ. School for New Learning, Loyola Univ., College of DuPage, etc.). her biggest claim on stories, however, is her association with the late actor, monologuist and author Spalding Gray.

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Don Hall

Don Hall is the Events Coordinator for Chicago Public Media and the Audience Services cat for NPR’s prolific game show “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!”  He produces, directs, acts and writes for a variety of Chicago Off-Loop Theater; the Founding Director of Chicago’s prolific WNEP Theater, and the third Monday of every month he is the host for The Moth at the Haymarket Pub and Brewery.

Don is an Aquarius, an Agnostic, and an Asshole with a blog.

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Samantha Irby

Samantha Irby is a total idiot who somehow has not only only convinced thousands of people to read her blog vomit, she also sometimes can get them to put on real pants to come out and hear her stupid dick jokes live. You can find her on the internet at bitchesgottaeat.com and irbyandian.com, and see her on the last Sunday of every month as co-host of the Sunday Night Sex Show, a literary reading series that focuses on true stories about sex and sexuality. She is a large testicle aficionado.

November’s show is all gravy, and will leave you gorged on delicious beer, memorable stories, and an intimate evening of good times with friends.

Among the many things we are thankful for this season is yet another killer lineup. We welcome back some of our favorite storytellers, including Keith Ecker, JW Basilo, and Jen Bosworth, along with new guests MT Cozolla and Dina Walters. There’s no better way to celebrate losing an hour of daylight than hanging out with us in  the cozy Hopleaf on November 8th.

This Much is True
Tuesday–November 8th
Hopleaf Bar (5148 N Clark Street) – Upstairs lounge
7:30pm
FREE!
Doors open at 6:45 – arrive early to get a seat.

November’s line up includes regulars:

Dorrie Ferguson

Scott Whitehair

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Along with guests:

JW Basilo

Writer/performer/humorist, J.W. Basilo, is equal parts poignant and perverse, hilarious and heart-wrenching. His raucous performances and uncanny charisma have earned him a reputation as one of the most sought-after and compelling spoken word artists working today. His work has appeared on NPR, in the Chicago Tribune, numerous literary journals and in hundreds of theaters, dive bars, schools and comedy clubs across North America. His one man dramedy, No One Can Fix You, debuted in 2009 to rave reviews in Chicago, Seattle, and New York City. All things considered, he’s doing pretty well for a guy who failed Creative Writing in high school. His artful jackassery can be found at his internet home, BustedMouth.com

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Jen Bosworth

Jen is a writer and performer from Chicago. She is currently the host of “Stories at The Store,” a once a month storytelling event held at The Store on Halsted. Jen spent 6 years in Los Angeles where she worked for a movie star, got a Master’s Degree and became progressively crazier. She is glad to be home.

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MT Cozzola

MT Cozzola is a Chicago writer and director. She’s told stories around town at Here’s the Story, Tuesday Funk, Speak Easy Speak Hard, and Stockyards Theatre Women’s Performance Art Festival, shared prose and poetry in the pages of After Hours, Swivel, Crawdad, and other magazines, and screened films across the globe. She keeps a story blog at www.midwesternrobot.com. Come visit!

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Keith Ecker

Keith Ecker is the co-producer of Essay Fiesta, a monthly reading series that takes place at the Book Cellar every third Monday of the month. He is professional freelance writer and contributes regularly to the Huffington Post, the Chicago Theater Beat and the Onion’s A.V. Club. His comedic essays have been heard throughout Chicago at such shows as the Encyclopedia Show, Write Club, the Paper Machete, This Much Is True, Story Club, Orange Alert, P. Fanatics, Words That Kill, Stories at the Store, Tuesday Funk, Mortified and 2nd Story. He is a member of the Chicago Writers Association, the Chicago Story Collective and the Chicago Literary Alliance.

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Dina Walters

Dina Walters is making her debut with This Much is True, and couldn’t be happier about it.  She has previously read her stories for Essay Fiesta and Second Story; she has also competed at Write Club.  Dina is a proud alum of The Neo-Futurists Theater Company, where she regularly wrote and performed for Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind for five years.

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We’ll see you on November 8th!

Joining our regulars this month are the co-founder of Reading Under the Influence, Julia Borcherts; writer, performer and monologist Cheryl  Trykv; founder and host of the monthly literary cage match WRITE CLUB, Ian Belknap; and one of Time.com’s best bloggers of the year in 2008, Susannah Breslin.

Do not miss this show.

This Much is True
Tuesday–October, 11th
Hopleaf Bar 5148 N Clark Street – Upstairs
7:30pm
FREE!
Doors open at 6:45 – get there early to get a seat.

October’s line up includes regulars:

Dorrie Ferguson

Larry Kerns

Scott Whitehair

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With Special Guests:

Julia Borcherts

Julia Borcherts is a co-founder of Reading Under the Influence and The Chicago Way lit series, a fiction writing instructor at Columbia College Chicago, a theater columnist for RedEye and Metromix and a frequent contributor to Time Out Chicago and the Windy City Times. She has been a featured reader at Victory Garden’s Fresh Squeezed series, 2nd Story, the Windy City Story Slam, the Revolutions reading series, the Museum of
Contemporary Art, Women & Children First bookstore, the Criminal Class Press anti-gala and many other venues.

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Cheryl Trykv

Cheryl Trykv writes and performs stories and monologues for stage and radio and is best known for her appearances in the Big Goddess Pow Wow, Milly’s Orchid Show, and Peabody Award-winning This American Life. Her critically acclaimed 1990 solo debut at Live Bait Theater launched Ms. Trykv into a decade of performance engagements at the city’s most star-studded venues, including Chicago’s Lower Links Club, the MCA, Steppenwolf Theater, the Goodman Theater, the Lyric Opera, Park West, and Cabaret Metro. In New York Ms. Trykv has performed at La MaMa, P.S. 122, and at The Theater for a New City in “Curtains” written by David Sedaris. She is featured on This American Life’s “Hand It Over, volume one” and “Lies, Sissies & Fiascoes: The Best of This American Life.” Trykvs’  2009 solo work “Capiche?” ran at Chicago’s Davenports’ Piano Bar, and in Los Angeles at the FanaticSalon.

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Ian Belknap

Ian Belknap is a Chicago writer/performer whose work has appeared at Here’s The Story, Essay Fiesta, P. Fanatics, 8 X 8, Funny Ha Ha. He was the victor at the most recent Literary Death Match, is the Dean of Mean at The Paper Machete, and till recently served as Fact Checker for The Encyclopedia Show. He is co-founder with Samantha Irby of the caustically foul-mouthed comedy blog irby + ian. He is the originator, host, curator, and Overlord of WRITE CLUB, the nation’s premiere competitive philanthropic readings series – monthly at The Hideout. Find WRITE CLUB on facebook, at writeclubrules.com, and on Twitter: @writeclubrules.

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Susannah Breslin

Susannah Breslin [http://susannahbreslin.blogspot.com/] is a
journalist, blogger, and author. She blogs for Forbes
[http://blogs.forbes.com/susannahbreslin/] and has written for Salon,
Slate, The Daily Beast, Harper’s Bazaar, Details, Variety, Newsweek,
Esquire.com, and TheAtlantic.com. In 2008, TIME.com name her one of
the best bloggers of the year. She has appeared on “Politically
Incorrect,” CNN, and NPR.

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We’ll see you there on the 11th, and remember to get there early as The Hopleaf will be packed. (Doors at 6:45)

Also joining TMIT as guests this month are the hilarious Dori Goldman, the accomplished David W. Berner and the talented Michael Garvey. One look at the write-ups below and you’ll know this is a show not to miss.

As with every TMIT, it is best to arrive early for the best seats. Doors open a 6:45, and we are often left with standing room only as early as 7:00pm. With this red hot lineup, it’s definitely worth carving our your space early.

This Much is True
The Hopleaf — Upstairs
Tuesday, Sept. 13th
7:30pm — FREE!

September’s line up includes regulars:

Dorrie Ferguson

Larry Kerns

Deanna Moffitt

Scott Whitehair

________________________________________________________________

With special guests:

David W Berner

David W. Berner is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, author, and teacher. His first book, Accidental Lessons was awarded the 2011 Royal Dragonfly Grand Prize for Literature. His broadcast reporting and audio documentaries have been aired on the CBS Radio Network, NPR’s Weekend Edition and a number of public radio stations across America. David has been the recipient of awards from the Associated Press, RTNDA (Radio and Television News Directors Association) and the Broadcast Education

Earlier this year, David was awarded the position of Writer-in-Residence at the Jack Kerouac Project in Orlando, Florida for the summer of 2011. His writing, both reporting and personal essays, have appeared in publications and online journals such as PERIGEE, Tiny Lights Journal, Shaking Like a Mountain, Travelgolf.com, Worldgolf.com, Golf Chicago Magazine, The Sun Newspapers, and Write City Magazine. David has also read and performed his work at events such as Story Club and Essay Fiesta in Chicago.

And with all of this, David still finds time to play guitar and watch as much TV coverage as possible of his beloved Steelers.

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Michael Garvey

Michael is an actor who has called both Chicago and LA home. His Chicago credits include performances with Steppenwolf, Shattered Globe, Strawdog and as a company member with Trap Door Theater. Or you might have caught him on both the big and small screen with roles in: Men in Black 2, Bruce Almighty, ER, JAG, and Star Trek Enterprise. He has worked with renowned artist Catherine Sullivan in work that put him on the walls of the Whitney and Tate modern museums.

In 2002 out of frustration, Michael began writing Mr. Bush and turned the letters into an on-going and ever changing performance. M.S. Garvey’s Letter’s to the President has been performed here in Chicago, Romania, Venice and Hollywood, CA

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Dori Goldman

Dori has been a performer in Chicago for a long time. She’s acted in original musicals and improv shows galore at The Annoyance, iO, The Playground, Comedy Sportz, The Theatre Building, Bailiwick, Live Bait, WNEP, Candlelight Forum, Donny’s Skybox, Royal George and Victory Gardens/Body Politic theaters as well as writing sketch comedy. She has also performed Off-Broadway, New York and at many comedy and fringe festivals around North America and London. Today, in addition to being a top-notch Recruiting Manager, Dori is trying to do the voice over thing and find a boyfriend. To find out about both, visit her websites: www.dorigoldman.com and the DOG (Dating Blog)  www.dorigoldman.blogspot.com. Many thanks to Scott and Deanna for the invitation to perform. She is more than exited to share her terrible dating stories.

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We’ll see you at The Hopleaf on the 13th.

INTERFACE II

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7TH @ 8 PM

STEEP THEATRE (1115 W Berwyn Avenue)

TICKETS – $12 in advance, $15 at the door. Click here to purchase

This Much Is True is thrilled to partner once again with Steep Theatre, recipient of the 2010 Broadway in Chicago Emerging Theatre Award, to present the eagerly anticipated follow up to June’s acclaimed experimental show.

Please join us for an evening of live inspiration exploring the common boundaries of music, art, and stories.

One by one, the storytellers of This Much Is True (with guest Robyn Okrant) will take the stage to share a personal tale. At the conclusion of each story, jazz musicians The CEC Trio will play an original, improvised composition inspired by what they have just heard.  For the duration of the show, artist Noah Ginex will be creating one-of-a-kind digital artwork inspired by everything he experiences throughout the evening.  This unique piece of artwork will be displayed, as it is created, on 40-inch plasma screens around the theater, and will be available to purchase as a print right after the performance.

To end the evening on the sweetest note possible, post-show dessert will be served courtesy of CJ Leavens, the creative force behind The Leavening Bake Shop.

Don’t miss one of the most hotly anticipated story shows of the summer.

CLICK FOR EVEN MORE DETAILS

It’s a great night of storytelling  you won’t want to miss. And just a reminder:  Get there early if you want a seat, as the room gets packed!

Tuesday, August 9th
The Hopleaf–upstairs
7:30pm
FREE

August lineup includes TMIT writers:

Deanna Moffitt

Scott Whitehair

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Joined by guests:

Jen Ellison & Dave Stinton

Jen Ellison is a writer, performer and director who has worked with WNEP
Theater, Trap Door Theatre, Collaboraction, The Neo-Futurists, The Process
Theatre Group, and The Mammals. She teaches Writing and Improv at
DePaul University, The Second City, and Columbia College. She is also the
creator of the funny-ish and sad-ish web comic The Comique, which can be
found at www.the-comique.blogspot.com.

Dave Stinton has been writing and performing in Chicago for twelve years,
with plays produced at WNEP Theater, the Bailiwick, EP Theater, and the
New York International Fringe Festival. He’s a past winner of WNEP’s
SKALD storytelling competition, and he wrote “The Banquet of Life,” a
now-defunct food column for the online magazine The Simon.

The two have been frequent collaborators for thirteen years, and now they
are a nauseating couple.

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Marsha Harman

Marsha Harman is an actor, pretender, storyteller, and occassional armchair philosopher. She has performed with New Leaf Theatre (where she is part of the Producing Ensemble) in Chicago, and the Bakerloo Theatre Project in upstate New York. She has told stories at the Moth StorySLAMs, Story Club, WNEP’s Transistor, and is the winner of the 2010 SKALD storytelling competition.  Her upcoming projects include re-imagining her day job and improving her baking skills.

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Matt Miller

Matt Miller is a Chicago-based stage director and teacher. As a storyteller, Matt performs frequently around Chicago with groups like 2nd Story (where he is a company member), Write Club!, Fillet of Solo, Essay Fiesta, Stories at the Store, and The Moth (StorySlam Winner, February 2010). Recent directing credits include the Jeff Recommended revival of The Weir for Seanachaí Theatre Company, the staged reading of 4000 Miles for Steppenwolf’s First Look Repertory (with Tony winner Deanna Dunagan), Serendipity’s Chicago and L.A. productions of Girl, 20 (Best Director and Best Ensemble nominations LA Weekly 2008 Theatre Awards), and the world premiere of Graceland for Profiles Theatre (Top 10 Plays of the Year 2009, Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times). Matt is also a proud twelve-year company member of Barrel of Monkeys, a group that provides creative writing workshops for Chicago Public Elementary Schools that lack arts funding. Originally from Kent, Ohio, Matt remains a faithful Indians fan, although he flirts with the Cubs a lot.

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Kim Morris

Kim Morris earned her MFA from Columbia College Chicago and her BA from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in numerous publications. She’s written short plays included in Theatre Seven of Chicago’s “Yes, This Really Happened to Me” and “We Live Here.” Her work has been performed in New York as part of Bohemian Archaeology’s “Holidays Uncorked” and “BOOzy: An Evening of Spirits and Storytelling.” She’s performed her stories at Victory Gardens Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, Lincoln Hall, and many other venues in Chicago. She wrote and performed original pieces for the Fillet of Solo festival in 2010 and 2011. She’s a company member of 2nd Story. Check out Power Love for more: www.power-love.blogspot.com.

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Tim Paul

TIM PAUL is an actor, writer, storyteller & teacher currently performing his latest solo venture at The Annoyance, No Fat, No Femmes: Tales of Dialing-Up, Coming Out & Getting Off. Since 2008, he has performed with the Second City aboard Norwegian Cruise Lines from Alaska to Malta, online with the Second City Network and most recently as the swing understudy for the Second City e.t.c. He has told his stories at The Paper Machete, The Moth StorySLAM & Stripped Stories. Tim can also be seen in Break-Ups: The Series and in the upcoming feature film The Drunk.

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We’ll see you on Tuesday, August 9th!

Now, you may have heard this from us before and went ahead and missed the show anyway, only to hear later how great it turned out. Don’t let this happen to you again. Get down to The Hopleaf, grab a beer and enjoy yourself for a couple of hours. You deserve it.

Tuesday, July 12th
The Hopleaf – Upstairs – 5148 N Clark St.
FREE!

July lineup includes TMIT writers:

Deanna Moffitt

Scott Whitehair

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And special guests:

Bobby Biedrzycki

Bobby Biedrzycki is a writer and performer who came to Chicago from St. Paul, Minnesota via The Bronx, New York. Bobby’s writing has appeared in The Black Bear Review, Hair Trigger 28 & 29, The Banana King, Ghost Factory and Ante:thesis Volumes I & II, and his stories have been produced Off Broadway. Bobby is the Director of Programming for 2nd Story and an adjunct faculty member of the Fiction Writing Department at Columbia College Chicago.

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Chris Bower

Chris Bower lives, teaches, and makes shit in Chicago. He is also the creator and host of the Ray’s Tap Reading Series in Avondale and puts up a few plays a year. You can find him at holdmyhorses.com.

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Paula Carter

Paula Carter writes everything from marketing reports to memoir. Her creative work has appeared in or is forthcoming from Southern Humanities Review, New South, Rhino, and Quick Fiction among other journals. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Indiana University, where her thesis explored the line between truth and fiction by paring essays and stories that each dealt with the same subject, event, or character. What she discovered is the line becomes less clear the closer you look. She is new to storytelling, but has performed with theater groups from Boston to small town, Illinois.

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Robyn Okrant

Robyn Okrant is an actress, author, freelance writer, andyoga teacher. She has appeared on the Today Show, CNBC’s The Oprah Effect (which, to her mother’s delight was seen internationally on American Airlines’ in-flight entertainment), The Bonnie Hunt Show, The Joy Behar Show, and NPR’s All Things Considered. Her book, LIVING OPRAH: My One Year Experiment to Walk the Walk of the Queen of Talk, was published by Center Street in 2010. Robyn’s essays can be read at The Huffington Post, Washington Post, and on her fabulous blog: Ready, Set…Wife!

She holds an MFA in performance art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Yes. Performance Art.

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Andrew Reilly

Andrew Reilly is a writer and performer living in Chicago. His nonfiction has appeared in Alarm, The A.V. Club, and The Beachwood Reporter, among others, and will also be featured in the forthcoming book Assault Of The Earth by Alarm Press. He also serves as an associate producer for the 2nd Story reading series, and his short story “3F Sharp” was nominated for the 2012 Pushcart Prize. His first novel ought to be done one of these days but until then you can visit him online at andrew reilly dot org, or in person in Uptown.

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Now that’s a lineup!! We’ll see you on the 12th

We’ve got special guests that include a published author and U2 superfan, a musical playwright, the SKALD 12 champion, and a recent Moth slam winner. It’s going to be a great night, and we want you to be there with us.

Tuesday, June 14th
The Hopleaf – Upstairs – 5148 N Clark St.
FREE!

June lineup includes TMIT writers:

Dorrie Ferguson

Deanna Moffitt

Scott Whitehair

_______________________________________________________________

And special guests:

Peter Athans

Peter Athans is the 2011 winner of WNEP’s SKALD storytelling competition and has been telling true stories his whole life. He also helps make up stories and narrative improvised theatre as an ensemble member of Theatre Momentum. He studied Improvisation at Second City and iO. Peter is a founding and former member of Trying Too Hard (attendees of the 2008 LA Comedy Fest) and founding and current member of The Shelter. He has appeared in various film and video projects that you probably haven’t seen, and does stand-up wherever anyone is crazy enough to hand him a mic. He’ll be co-directing the 15-hour project for Theater Momentum later this month. He drinks beer. After about three beers, he will not stop talking. Which reminds me, did he ever tell you about the time when…

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Becky Eldridge

Becky Eldridge is a writer of musicals, vaudevillian acts and occasional flights of fancy.  She performs improv comedy, currently at the fabulous LOL theatre in Schaumburg.  She has taught at The Second City training center, and enjoys writing and reading and eating.

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J.H. Palmer

J.H. Palmer is a staff writer at Gapers Block, and she keeps a blog called  Buttered Noodles.  Her superpowers include the ability to name any song that aired on WPLJ between 1980-1989 in three notes or less, the ability to smoke just one cigarette and not want more, and the ability to converse with house cats.  She has read at Story Lab, The Moth, Story Club, Essay Fiesta, and Tuesday Funk, and she will be performing with 2nd Story in the 2011-2012 season.  She is tickled pink to be reading at This Much is True, and reminds you to tip the bartender.

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Eric Shivvers

Eric Shivvers is a freelance graphic designer who turned to writing in the fall of 2006 when his mother could no longer pick-up the phone due to Alzheimer’s. Eric wrote in a cathartic manner, keeping alive the memories of the good times they shared. What Eric discovered was the Irish rock band, U2, sat in the background, playing the soundtrack to his life. Eric’s recently self-published memoir, I’m a Fan: How I married U2 into my life without going to the altar is the result of his writing journey. Please visit the book’s official web site www.iamau2fan.com and read more about Eric’s mom and his U2 fandom.

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We’ll see you there!

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8th @ 8 PM

STEEP THEATRE (1115 W Berwyn Avenue)

This Much Is True is thrilled to partner with Steep Theatre, recipient of the 2010 Broadway in Chicago Emerging Theatre Award, to present an evening of live inspiration exploring the common boundaries of music, art, and stories.

One by one, the storytellers of This Much Is True will take the stage to share a personal tale. At the conclusion of each story, pianist Matthew Loren Cohen will play an original, improvised composition inspired by what he has just heard.  For the duration of the show, artist Shawna Bowman will be creating a one-of-a-kind painting inspired by everything she experiences throughout the evening.  This unique piece of artwork will eventually go home with an audience member, via a raffle at the end of the night.

Don’t miss one of the most hotly anticipated story shows of the summer – sure to sell out.

TICKETS – $10 in advance, $12 at the door. Click here to purchase -  (starting Monday 5/9)

This Much Is True, Chicago’s most intimate storytelling series, features Dorrie Ferguson, Larry Kerns, Deanna Moffitt, and Scott Whitehair. We are honored to have special guest and frequent contributor Dennis Frymire join us for this event.

Shawna Bowman is a local artist and a pastor. She combines art and spirituality in her own work and leads workshops and retreats that encourage folks to imagine art-making and creativity as an outpouring of their own spirits. Shawna also collaborates with creative faith communities around the country, painting live for their worship services and other events. Shawna’s paintings are giant murals that are a reflection and interpretation of the event as it unfolds helping to create a multi-sensory experience for the participants. Shawna loves to help folks tell their stories through art and can’t wait to collaborate with our storytellers and musicians at this event! See more of her work at http://picasaweb.google.com/shawnabowman

Matthew Loren Cohen is currently a music director with The Second City. He most recently wrote the music for and music directed The Second City’s It Takes a ‘Ville, which ran for five sold-out weeks at the Actors Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky. He also currently music directs The Nuclear Family, a completely improvised musical that enjoyed an eight-month run Off-Broadway. Before working with The Second City, Matthew co-created and music directed The Next Big Broadway Musical!, New York City’s award-winning fully improvised musical, now in its 12th year of production.

Steep Theatre, recipient of the 2010 Broadway in Chicago Emerging Theatre Award, is a company of artists who explore ensemble-based “Everyman” theatre. Their goal is to reach out to non-traditional theatre goers by creating an experience relevant to them. Steep draws from traditional and contemporary theatrical traditions with a vision to push artistic boundaries through an ensemble based performance style. Their current show is the long-awaited Midwest Premiere of the critically-acclaimed, international smash-hit Festen.  www.steeptheatre.com