Bobby Biedrzycki is a writer and performer who came to Chicago from St. Paul, Minnesota via The Bronx, New York. He is the co-host of a monthly reading series entitled The Sexy Bald Men and is an adjunct faculty member of the Fiction Writing Department at Columbia College Chicago, where he teaches classes in both fiction and film. He also teaches journalism for teens through the After School Matters program. He received his BA in creative writing from Columbia College Chicago after attending film school at The City College of New York and is currently completing his MFA in Creative Writing at Columbia. Bobby's writing has appeared in the
Black Bear Review,
Hair Trigger, the
Banana King, and
Ante:thesis Volumes I and II. He has worked as a book reviewer for both
Time Out Chicago and
Punk Planet Magazine, and was one of the editors for the Chicago edition of the
Not for Tourists Guide. Along with being a company member of The Serendipity Theatre Collective and performing monthly with 2nd Story, Bobby is currently at work on his first novel,
Driving Back to Normal.
Photo: Jessica Tierney
Amanda Delheimer completed her MA in Theater and Spanish at the University of Chicago. Since then, she has worked as a freelance director, choreographer, writer, and teacher with such theater and production companies as the Steppenwolf, the Court, the Next, Pegasus Players, Red Moon, Collaboraction, Roadworks, Strawdog, Serendipity, Red Hen Productions, Teatro Vista, Rorschach Theatre, and the Vittum Theater, among others. She is a proud member of Serendipity Theatre Company, as well as its Artistic Director, and is also an Artistic Associate with both Collaboraction Theater Company and the Vittum Theater.
Photo: Donald Cardiff
Sheree L. Greer, a Milwaukee, Wisconsin native, left her corporate job in 2005 to pursue writing full-time. Since then, her work has been published in the
Story Week Reader 2006 and 2007,
Bike Shorts, the
Windy City Times,
Jazz.net, and
Fictionary. She has been a featured reader at Webster's Wine Bar with Serendipity Theater’s 2nd Story, Women and Children First Bookstore, The Center on Halsted, and the Affinity Community Space for the Saving Our Sisters Anti-Violence Weekend, where she taught creative writing workshops. She was recently awarded Honorable Mention in the Union League of Chicago Civic and Arts Foundation Writing Competition. As a research assistant for the Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media, she has worked on a variety of projects investigating the cross-pollination of art and social activism, and as a freelance writer has completed projects for Affinity Community Services, Cool Classics! with award-winning journalist Mara Tapp, and articles for
Hands Off Assata. Sheree will be completing her MFA coursework at Columbia College Chicago in Spring 2008 before devoting herself fully to completing her thesis, a cross-generational novel-in-stories.
Photo: Jessica Tierney
J. Adams Oaks received his MFA in Fiction Writing from Columbia College Chicago. He curates the RE: Action Reading Series for Around The Coyote. His short fiction has been published in the
Madison Review,
River Oak Review, the
Tap, and
Hair Trigger 21. He is winner of the National Society of Arts and Letters regional and Chicago Public Radio’s Stories On Stage competitions. As a member of Serendipity Theatre Collective’s story development team, he has both written and performed for 2nd Story and Sunday Salon. His first novel,
Why I Fight, will be published in Fall 2008 by Simon and Schuster.
Photo: Danielle Paz
Megan Stielstra is a writer, storyteller and Director of Story Development for 2nd Story, Chicago’s urban storytelling series held in wine bars and other venues. She’s performed for The Chicago Poetry Center’s “No Love For Love” show featuring Ira Glass, Neo-Solo at the Neo-Futurarium, Story Week Festival of Writers, Literary Gangs of Chicago at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Undershorts Film Festival, The Dollar Store, WBEZ’s Writers' Block Party and 2nd Story. Her writing has appeared in
Other Voices,
Fresh Yarn,
Pindeldyboz,
Swink,
Perigree,
In the Fray,
Punk Planet, and was recently nominated for Dzanc's Best of the Web 2007 print anthology. She teaches fiction writing at Columbia College and the University of Chicago. Stielstra has presented for Associated Writing Programs, The National Association of Writing in Education in London, and the Center for Art in Public Life in San Francisco. She has also served as a storytelling judge for the Third Coast International Audio Festival. She and her husband Chris live in Chicago with their newborn son, Caleb.
DJ White Russian – As a designer, musician, composer, and performer, Mikhail "Misha" Fiksel is an emerging presence in the Chicago theater and music communities. Originally from Siberia, Mikhail found his way to the Windy City via University of Chicago, where he earned his bachelor's degree and began his ventures into the realm of sound design. He has become a regular in the Chicago Equity and Non- Equity theater scene, as well as Chicago's music and DJ culture. In addition to being a member of Teatro Vista, the Strawdog Theatre Company, and the Serendipity Theatre Collective, he is an artistic associate with Collaboraction and has designed and composed for such theater companies as ATC, The House, Redmoon Theater, Victory Gardens, The Goodman Theatre, The Hypocrites, and many others. He also is a resident designer at the Vittum Theatre, and a part-time faculty member of the Loyola University Theatre Department. As a musician, he performs throughout this city, as a solo artist (often under the moniker "dj white russian") or with his project "Seeking Wonderland," an improvisational ensemble (Kevin Richey, Paul Foster, Mikhael Fiksel, Shaun Whitley, and others), fusing nu-jazz, electronic music, and visual media. Fiksel holds residencies at Sushi Wabi and The Morseland, and has been regularly featured on Q101's
Sonic Boom: Subsonic, a program dedicated to new electronic music.
Photo: Grayscale Photography 
2nd Story Performers and Presenters
