It’s our birthday! Our exact birthday. On Monday, November 16th, 2009, Keith Ecker and Alyson Lyon kicked off the very first Essay Fiesta. And on Monday, November 16th, 2015, at 7pm Willy Nast and Karen Shimmin will do a mostly satisfactory job of piloting the EF starship toward its 6th birthday celebration. Join us at The Book Cellar for this kick-ass lineup of writers and storytellers who will do everything they can to cover for the inadequacies of the hosts:
Kelsie Huff is the creator, host and producer of the kates, an all female comedy showcase! the kates perform at The Book Cellar and at the World Famous Laugh Factory.
Maura Clement is the Associate Producer of the monthly storytelling event Story Club South Side in Bridgeport. She earned a BFA in Acting from the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater and a certificate in Pre-Medicine from Northwestern University. As an actress, she has performed with Riverside Theatre (Iowa City), the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Backroom Shakespeare, and Bare Theater (NC). Currently, Maura teaches fiber arts at Nina, a yarn shop in Wicker Park, and prepares to enter medical school in the fall of 2016. You can read more of her stories at www.clementineknits.blogspot.com.
Dave Stinton has been writing and performing in Chicago for 18 years, with plays produced at WNEP theatre and the New York International Fringe Festival. He’s a past winner of Write Club and the Skald, and as a comedian he has performed here and there around town, including at Just For Laughs Chicago.
Jamie Black is an actor and writer that has performed with many theater companies in Chicago. He is a graduate of the Second City Writing Program. He is currently appearing in 2 webseries: as Troy in Superfreaks and as Levon in Toured. He also is an associate producer on a new talk show called Transformative which features 5 transgender women as the panelists. He still has his one man show It’s My Penis and I’ll Cry If I Want To which he hasn’t performed in a while, but threw that in there because he wants to hear Willy say penis.
Jen Bosworth refused to write a bio. Willy and Karen think she’s awesome and so will you.
Essay Fiesta 