SHOW INFO
JUST DO IT: stories about sports
Wednesday, April 8 / 7:30-9:30 (doors open at 6:30)
Hey Nonny / Arlington Heights
Sports. Whether you love ‘em or you hate ‘em, there’s no escaping ‘em - so this month we get into it: Stories about being punched in the face for fun, banned from Wrigley Field, forced to watch a Bears game, shamed into a marathon, and drafted on the (real life) Bad News Bears. (Ain’t sports fun???)
This show is appropriate for ages 18+ unless accompanied by an adult. All sales are final - no refunds or exchanges.
Producer & host, First Person Live
Hospice chaplain
Training & development technologist
Disability advocate
Jail re-entry coordinator
University professor
Sound engineeer & stagehand
Sex editor, Playboy magazine (yes, really!)
Diane Kastiel is the producer and host of First Person Live. A writer and storyteller from Chicago, she’s a three-time winner of the National Public Radio’s Moth StorySLAM; her work has been featured on the Moth Radio Hour, its podcast, and at special events for WBEZ, NPR’s Chicago affiliate. Diane has told stories on stage at The Second City, Steppenwolf, the Park West and the Writers’ Theater among others, as well as comedy clubs, art galleries, the basement of a tattoo parlor - she even did a show in the middle of the woods! Diane works with libraries, schools, community centers and homeless shelters to bring storytelling to a wider audience, and leads storytelling workshops at Northwestern University. Diane is an alumna of The Second City Conservatory and the University of Chicago’s Great Books program. She also has an MBA from Northwestern University…just in case.
Saul Ebema has been a hospice chaplain for the last 19 years. He is an avid end-of-life researcher, educator and podcaster. Although new to Chicago's storytelling scene, Saul grew up in a strong storytelling tradition in South Sudan. As one of "The Lost Boys of Sudan," he has traveled around the country sharing his inspirational life story at conferences, universities, middle schools and high schools. For fun, Saul loves soccer, reading a good book and going to Chicago's comedy clubs.
Kristen Mesikapp is a newly unemployed training and development technologist figuring out her next chapter. (She’s hoping it involves finally leaving the house after 12 years of remote work.) A Moth StorySLAM winner, Kristen loves any excuse to be creative, whether it’s knitting, crocheting, crafting, or diving into a new class just for the fun of it. Kristen has explored everything from meditation and improv to roller derby and tap dance, and she’s always game to learn something new.
Gary Arnold is disabled and has worked for more than 25 years in the disability field, and has been writing stories since longer than that! An English major in college, Gary envied his friends who relished performing their poems and stories for an audience. While his peers typed furiously to finish a new poem just in time for a campus reading, Gary feigned sickness to avoid class open mics. A few years ago, Gary finally found the spark he imagined glowed within his friends. Now, besides long train rides with his wife and son across central Illinois, Gary’s favorite thing to do is to listen and read at storytelling events across Chicagoland.
Douglas McCullough is a Jail Reentry Coordinator in Dupage County and a mental health therapist. He’s been a fan of puns, oxymorons, and the art of storytelling his entire life. Douglas recently started sharing his own stories, performing on stage for the first time since high school theater. He's been known to tell bad jokes on a regular basis and enjoys watching sports, especially baseball. Douglas can be found on a golf course in warm weather, and this March participated in his second annual Polar Plunge to support the Special Olympics.
Bill Hillmann is a full-time professor at East-West University in Chicago. He's authored four books, the newest titled "White Flight.” He’s also a former Chicago Golden Gloves Champion and a boxing coach with a boxer entered in this year's Chicago Golden Gloves Tournament. Bill has authored four books, the newest titled, "White Flight.”
Nicholas Gibson is a sound engineer and stagehand. He's a two-time presenter at Nerd Nite Chicago, but this is his first foray into storytelling without Powerpoint slides. His professional and personal interests are often in alignment; at various times he's been an actor, musician, composer, theater sound designer and sound operator, video editor, maker of short films, and author/illustrator of a Hamilton-themed book full of poorly-drawn cats. (Don't ask. Or, do.) Also, he is somehow really good at spreadsheets and thinks they’re fun.
Jim Petersen was the sex editor of Playboy magazine for almost 40 years years. (USA Today once called his column, The Playboy Advisor, “the premier source of sex information in the country.”) As the Playboy Advisor, Jim did stand-up sex therapy on 125 college campuses, wrote about sex when sex was new, and appeared on Late Night with David Letterman. (Note: If you followed his advice and were injured trying the Chinese Basket Trick, be advised that the statute of limitations has run out.) Jim is a regular at Moth StorySLAMs and other storytelling shows around Chicago.