Ric Walker
Ric is a performer, teacher and writer. As an actor, he has appeared in numerous plays in and out of Chicago. He has been seen in a number of independent films. He has teaches Improvisation, Acting and Writing. He has currently performs with The Improvised Shakespeare Company. He is a member Emeritus of Second Story and has told stories for Here’s the Story. Ric has been published in a compendium of short stories entitled Briefly Knocked Unconscious By A Low-Flying Duck.
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.
Jonathan Warkentin
Hi, I’m Jonathan Warkentin. I’m currently a freshman at Loyola University Chicago from Nashville, TN. As of now I’m studying computer science, and outside of class I enjoy photography, video production, and playing music, among other things. I’ve been working with the Muslim American Leadership Alliance (MALA) since near the beginning of last semester to further the availability of stories of people of diverse backgrounds, and through that to bring about a greater understanding and acceptance of cultural difference. Despite not being Muslim, I feel that such a goal is important since many of my friends are the children of immigrants, and I’ve spent a lot of time growing up around them and their families.
Eric Warner
Eric Warner has been writing and performing in Chicago since 2007, creating 8 original works with the collaboration Nicholas and Warner (wherein he once broke a rib while dressed as a Minotaur) and bringing his solo work “The Man Who Never Was, or, The Man of Your Choice”, a monologue about love in vain, and how Rod Stewart, Bigfoot and a 40 year old personality test taught him about masculinity, his father and himself, to the 15th Annual Fillet of Solo Festival here in Chicago, and to the St. Louis Fringe Fest. Eric has taught writing, theatre and art in many Chicago schools with Urban Gateways, Beacon Street Gallery and Casa Central, and is currently a writing workshop facilitator with the Neighborhood Writing Alliance.
Nadine Warner
Founding member of This Much Is True
Nadine C. Warner is an award-winning writer and storyteller. She has performed with 2nd Story, SKALD, This Much Is True, WBEZ’s Vocalo, and OutSpoken. Her work as appeared in The Huffington Post, MsFit Magazine, and the anthologies, Windy City Queer and Listen to Your Mother. She draws inspiration from her completely exhausting – yet thoroughly entertaining – family.
Nadine C. Warner is an award-winning writer and storyteller. She has performed with 2nd Story, SKALD, This Much Is True, WBEZ’s Vocalo, and OutSpoken. Her work as appeared in The Huffington Post, MsFit Magazine, and the anthologies, Windy City Queer and Listen to Your Mother. She draws inspiration from her completely exhausting – yet thoroughly entertaining – family.
LeeAnn Webster
LeeAnn Marie Webster is the creator of No Regrets Formula™ and host of the Full Self Expression Forum. She is an attorney turned international Keynote speaker, Moth Story Slam winner, and entrepreneur with 20 years’ experience in marketing and business development in a range of industries. LeeAnn harnesses this experience to mentor entrepreneurs to design a business and life they love. LeeAnn has a substantial event background, having successfully produced 120+ virtual summits and founding the largest speed dating company in Southern California. Her entrepreneurial journey started when she became the first person to host a speed dating event outside of the Jewish community, ultimately creating the largest speed dating company in Southern California (“Rapid Dating”). Her first national TV appearance was as a contestant on MTV’s Remote Control. Since then she has been featured in NBC, The Huffington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and dozens more. As a coach, LeeAnn helps entrepreneurs do what they love and find a deeper sense of connection to themselves and to those around them to feel more engaged, increase confidence, and live a more joyful life through utilizing her proven No Regrets Formula ™ and her inspirational messages delivered through her one woman show - Fancy Meeting Me Here.
Jen Weigel
Jen is an award winning broadcast journalist from Chicago. She started in radio and eventually moved to television where she was a reporter and news anchor. She won an Emmy for her on-camera reporting for CBS. After her father (broadcaster and journalist Tim Weigel) died of a brain tumor in 2001, she decided life was too short to shiver on an overpass reporting, “It’s cold outside. Back to you.” She started her own production company and hosted the Emmy nominated food and wine show called “Taste” for NBC in Chicago. She’s written three books: “Stay Tuned”,“I’m Spiritual, Dammit!” and “This Isn’t the Life I Ordered.” Her fourth book is being released in March of 2017. She worked with the Chicago Tribune from 2010 to 2015 as a columnist (“Lessons for Life”), and a reporter (lifestyles, travel, food and the Remarkable Woman column.) She now hosts “Conversations with Weigel: A Series Exploring Spiritual Enlightenment” at the Wilmette Theatre once a month, interviewing authors and gurus from across the country. Her podcast “I’m Spiritual, Dammit!” is one of the most popular podcasts for WGN-plus and can be heard here.
Carl Weintraub
Carl Weintraub began his professional acting career at THE OLD GLOBE THEATRE in San Diego in 1974. A graduate of U.C.L.A., Carl studied acting with the venerable Lou Palter and has performed on countless stages in Los Angeles. He starred in a few television series back in the 80s and still works on stage, TV, and the occasional movie. Carl was the first recipient of the Los Angeles PASA Award for life achievement in professional artistry in schools and was the first actual artist ever to receive the Los Angeles Music Center’s Bravo Award for achievement in arts education. All this because he founded WE TELL STORIES, a story-type theatre company that has been performing across America since 1981. Carl also co-produces and curates BackStory, a bi-monthly storytelling series at the Victory Theatre in Burbank (now on Zoom). In parallel lives Carl has been a probation officer and a social worker, a mushroom farmer and a mason. He's taught school, cleaned latrines, played guitar and sung the blues in bars for money. He’s been married 4 times, has 4 kids and 5 grand-kids. He's broken his back three times and his nose five. You can bet he has some tales to tell.
Kim Weitkamp
In her work as a humorist, storyteller, singer and songwriter, Kim Weitkamp has taken home an armload of awards and recognitions. She has worked on and created successful peace projects including the Peace by Piece Project which was collaboration with the Taubman Museum of Fine Arts. Her first book is scheduled for release in spring of 2014 through Familius Publishers. Kim currently has 6 audio collections, the latest two being, Head Bone Rattles, a much anticipated collection of original ghost stories and songs and The Lap, a highly requested, limited release story and song. The Oregonian stated, ‘Kim studs her storytelling performances with bits of musical Americana that match the sweet and gentle tones of her narrative". Her material has been played on NPR affiliate stations as well as Sirius Radio. Kim travels the continent full time performing in theaters and at festivals. She has made numerous television appearances, hosted a successful morning show, and has keynoted for some of Forbes most recognized companies as well as for high profile non-profits.
Debbi Welch
Debbi Welch is a storyteller, performer and writer. For many years she was the resident storyteller at The Children’s Bookstore, and the coordinator of children’s events at Printers Row Book Fair. Her appearances in Chicago have included Printers Row Book Fair, The Newberry Library, Second City Children’s Theater, the Art Institute of Chicago, temples and churches around Chicago, and many Chicago public and private schools. Having told other people’s stories for so many years, she finally decided it was time to start telling her own. Debbi is a past member of the improvisational troupe Comedy on the Rocks …With a Twist. Currently she is President of the Board of Young Chicago Authors, a 21 year old organization that offers writing, performance and publication opportunities to young people throughout Chicago, and produces the largest teen poetry slam in the country, Louder Than a Bomb, which was the subject of an award-winning documentary of the same name.
Megan Wells
National award winning and touring entertainer Megan Wells has been performing her original one-woman Story Experiences for twenty years. Warm, funny, dynamic and emotionally deep - Megan receives standing ovations wherever she performs. She is the resident teller at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, creating renditions of folktales with musicians in the intimate Buntrock Hall. Megan is a Jeff Award winning theater director and combines the dynamics of stage work with the conversational intimacy of storytelling. For more information and Megan's calendar, please visit: www.meganwells.com.
Kathy Whisler (musical guest)
Kathy Whisler has always enjoyed a good sing-along, and when she discovered sea chanties with their rousing choruses, it was love at first sight… or first sing. She first encountered chanties on a trip to Nova Scotia and its many maritime museums, and was happy to discover on her return to Chicago that sea music is a thing here, too. But Chicago lacked a regular chanty sing, so six years ago she and some friends decided to get one going and she’s been organizing a monthly sing ever since. Before long she found herself reading 19th century sailor memoirs and corresponding with ethnomusicology professors in the interest of learning more about the songs she was singing. Sea chanties are uniquely suited to participatory music-making for people of any skill level. Their original purpose as work songs gives them a structure that makes them easy to learn and sing, and the subject matter keeps them interesting. A chantey sing is sort of like singing at camp as a child, but for adults: the songs are about booze, women, hating one’s job, and the unfortunate mistakes the sailors have made. For more info about the sing, email Kathy at [email protected].
Paul Whitehouse
Paul is the Programming Manager of 2nd Story, and a Chicago based
theatre artist who has performed with: Chemically Imbalanced Comedy
Theatre, Improv Playhouse Touring Company, Redmoon Theatre, The Morris Brothers Educational Tour, and Theatre Momentum. His one-man show, ½ Caf Chronicles ,
was produced as part of Redmoon’s First Annual J.O.E. Festival at
Belmont Harbor in fall 2010. He has taught Shakespeare and improv at
Traveling Players Ensemble in the woods of Virginia, helped young
Chicago actors script their stories in the loop at Goodman Theatre with
the General Theatre Studies Program, and has been a guest teaching
artist at Dexter High School in pure Michigan. He is also a proud
Kalamazoo College graduate.
James Whittington
James Whittington is fortunate to call himself an arts educator. He enjoys sharing crazy stories. He curses, like, a lot (even when the situation doesn’t call for it). His favorite cocktail is the boulevardier and he drinks his coffee black. This bio is, legit, his Bumble BFF profile, just cut-and-pasted.
Brooke Whoolery
Brooke Whoolery hails from a very small town in Pennsylvania that you've definitely never heard of. When not hanging out with her cats or getting wickedly drunk on the weekends, she can be found reading, listening to various podcasts, or whipping up some delicious food for her friends. Brooke has been a performer nearly all of her life and often visits open mics around the city to showcase her lovely singing voice. She is also the front-woman of a soul/funk cover band, The Mashed Potatoes, which has been her main creative outlet for the past 4 years. Brooke likes to describes herself as an Oxford Dictionary in the streets and an Urban Dictionary in the sheets, which she makes very clear on her Tinder profile.
Colette Martin-Wilde
Colette started her storytelling journey in the Before Times. With a whole lot of time on her hands, she felt compelled to share some of a lifetime of stories. It agrees with her. She is excited to share one with This Much Is True. Colette is married to the coolest guy ever and together they've raised 3 fully functional, compassionate and stellar citizens of the world. Right now she is writing her "3rd act, " committed to defying stereotypes of aging women, cat ladies and grandmothers. Colette is finding her vision through Tarot and storytelling.
Brandon Will
Brandon Will is – like his name implies – at once an
action and a question. One time he made a ridiculously ambitious
feature-length suburban epic, “Dadbot: The Movie.” Another time he was a
Detroit store-front puppet theater troupe member, and also performed at
bars with the punk-rock puppet show The Gepetto Files. Some
other times he had pieces published in places like featherproof
mini-books, Hair Trigger, and Knee-Jerk – where he was nominated for a
Pushcart Prize. He’s told stories around Chicago at Orange Alert,
Reading Under the Influence, The Rec Room, Essay Fiesta, Two With Water
Rx Reading Series, 2nd Story, some other random places, and become a mascot at Quickies!. You can find more info at brandonwill.com
Scott Woldman
Scott Woldman is a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists and Redtwist Theatre, and an Artist-In-Residence at The Artistic Home. In Chicago, Scott’s work has been produced by Redtwist Theatre, The Metropolis Performing Arts Centre, The Artistic Home, Under The Gun Theatre, Stangeloop Theatre, Stage Left Theatre, The Playground Theatre, Ouribos Theatre, The Second City, and Chicago Dramatists. His play, Beautiful Autistic, won a 2015 Edgerton Award for New Plays. Scott has also optioned two screenplays and is a veteran comedian, improviser, story-teller and slam poet. He has represented Chicago at the National Poetry Slam and has performed at readings and slams across the country.
Ashley Wolford
Ashley Wolford is a Native American convert to Islam featuring in a documentary called Foster Care The Film which explores her experience growing up in the system while exploring and navigating her newfound religion.
Ashley is currently studying at American Islamic College and is working on an undergraduate degree in Chaplaincy. A former summer internship at the Arab American Action Network sparked her initial interest in Islam as well as various community based events held by the Inner City Muslim Action Network on Chicago's southwest side.
Ashley currently resides in Albany Park with her husband of one year by way of Amman Jordan.
Ashley is currently studying at American Islamic College and is working on an undergraduate degree in Chaplaincy. A former summer internship at the Arab American Action Network sparked her initial interest in Islam as well as various community based events held by the Inner City Muslim Action Network on Chicago's southwest side.
Ashley currently resides in Albany Park with her husband of one year by way of Amman Jordan.
Joy Wright
Joy Wright is a Best-of-the-Net nominated writer, social justice activist, and single queer mom. She spends her days fundraising for a racial justice organization and evenings telling stories around Chicago. One of Joy's greatest accomplishments is completing the Sexier Than a Squirrel training with her dog. Her publications include HuffPost, Creative Nonfiction, Entropy Magazine, The Disappointed Housewife, Anti-Heroin Chic, and a column on dating in Rebellious Magazine.
Miyo Yamauchi
Born and raised in Japan, Miyo Yamauchi brings a unique perspective and sense of humor to storytelling. Her insatiable curiosity about life, people and the world leads her on many adventures and results in stories that delight her audience. She regularly performs at the Fanatic Salon Theater, Strong Words, other spoken word events, and the StoryMasters club. During the day, she works as a computer programmer for UCLA, writing narratives for computers to perform.
Joel Ying
Dr. Joel Ying is a Physician-Educator-Storyteller. With eclectic folk tales and unique personal stories, his storytelling range, like his practice of medicine, bridges the traditional and the modern. Storytelling is not just a performance art, but a healing art. He performs regularly, teaches workshops, produces events, and loves listening to a good story! JoelYing.com
Bill Yohnka
Bill Yohnka is a radio host, riverwalk director, farmers market manager, dirt track racing announcer and advocate for all things Kankakee, IL. He is excited to share unique tales cultivated beyond the suburbs at the very bottom of the Chicago TV weather map.
Avery R. Young
Avery R. Young’s work blends phonetics, linguistics, hymns, jazz, and hip-hop to explore the politics and attributes of the African-American experience. Young’s work, which he calls “sunday mornin jook joint,” merges spiritual and secular aesthetics with dramatic and comedic sensibilities. A Cave Canem Fellow, Young has worked as a teaching artist, mentoring youth in creative writing and theatre. He has written curriculum for Columbia College Chicago, Young Leeds Authors, True Star magazine, and Chicago Public Schools’ Art Integration Department. Young’s essays on HIV awareness, misogyny and sexism in arts and media, educational reform, and workplace art integration have been published in AIMPrint, The Teaching Artist Journal and swaggerzine. Young’s written work also appears in such anthologies as Callallou, To Be Left With The Body, Warpland, Coon Bidness, Reverie Review, War Diaries, Make Magazine, The Spaces Between Us, and Fingernails Across The Chalkboard. Young has performed in the Hip Hop Theatre Festival, Lollapalooza, and WordStock and is featured on the compilations New World Reveal-A-Solution, Audio Truism, Catfish Haven’s Devastator and New Skool Poetics. Young has appeared on BET, MTV, ABC, and WGN’s Morning News.
Michelle Young
Michelle Young grew up in central Illinois and has lived in Chicago over 30 years. By day she manages a global sales team in hospitality software, by night she writes (stories and comedy). She also is an avid gardener and artist. Michelle started telling her stories on stage right before Covid. She has told stories with a variety of groups in the Chicagoland areas including; Is This A Thing, Do Not Submit, Story Lab and Serving the Sentence. Michelle loves to tell and hear stories as they help us to build community and connect with each other.
Shiow-Jiau Yung
Shiow-Jiau Yung spent the better part of her 20s at WBEZ, where she edited the Schadenfreude radio show, built the This American Life podcast, and also worked withSound Opinions
and the Third Coast International Audio Festival. She’s performed with
2nd Story and WNEP, and yes — she’s rocking some Asian blush in this
photo. It’s an enzyme deficiency, okay? Plus, it was her birthday.
Jack Zimmerman
“His stories are fine and funny and closely observed.”
Neil Steinberg, Chicago Sun-Times Jack Zimmerman has worked as a parking-lot attendant, greenhouse laborer, dock hand, trombonist, college instructor, night watchman, piano tuner, newspaper columnist, magazine editor, and PR man for Ravinia and Lyric Opera. He’s written a couple of novels and has told stories his entire life. Last year he read one of his stories on Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion.”
Neil Steinberg, Chicago Sun-Times Jack Zimmerman has worked as a parking-lot attendant, greenhouse laborer, dock hand, trombonist, college instructor, night watchman, piano tuner, newspaper columnist, magazine editor, and PR man for Ravinia and Lyric Opera. He’s written a couple of novels and has told stories his entire life. Last year he read one of his stories on Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion.”