2nd Story is real stories by real people for real change.
WE BELIEVE THAT WELL-CRAFTED, WELL-TOLD STORIES CAN BE A CATALYST FOR CHANGE FOR ARTIST AND AUDIENCE ALIKE.
Our Mission & Vision
We want to live in a world driven by empathy.
We believe that stories are what bind us to each other.
Therefore, we create spaces where people can share and deeply listen to one another’s stories.
““Lately, I find the immediacy of the storytelling at 2nd Story to be more nourishing to the soul than the theater.” ”
Our Core Values
INCLUSION: We believe our lives and stories are richer when everyone is at the table.
CRAFT: We believe in approaching our work with skill and thoughtfulness.
COURAGE: We believe that creating change in the world takes fearlessness and grit.
Our Mission in action
We host events in and around Chicago that elevate the storyteller’s words to deliver a unique, live, literary/theatrical experience unlike any other in the city. From small bars in Rogers Park and North Center, to big venues in Lakeview and the West Loop, to restaurants in Lincoln Park and Evanston, we produce over 50 events every season and facilitates over 145 artistic collaborations.
We craft story-sharing experiences in the form of both performances and workshops and classes. A typical show or event consists of several stories dispersed throughout the evening like courses of a meal. The stories range from the earnest and serious to the light-hearted and humorous, and can simultaneously provoke and entertain.
Our venues are as varied as our stories, and run the gamut from intimate wine bars and pubs to spacious performance halls, conference rooms, and open-office environments. Our storytellers are equally diverse, and come from all walks of life: a pastor, a bartender, a child psychiatrist, and a lawyer…their individual stories help to bridge the gap between the personal and the universal, and break down the walls between and unite artists and audiences in and among different communities.
““The best stories I’ve ever heard come from hanging out with friends over a good bottle of wine. That’s when people really start talking, really get to the meat of their experiences—the wild beauty of it all, the destruction and the hope. That’s the feeling we’re going for: the crowd at 2nd Story has the intimacy of my own living room and the crazy, wine-warm secrets that have been told there.””
A FEW HIGHLIGHTS FROM OUR STORY:
April 2nd, 1999: Organization founded as Serendipity Theatre Company.
1999-2007: Each season we produced three plays, all of which were world premieres.
2004: We produced the first annual 2nd Story Festival, which featured 13 tellers telling 17 stories over the course of 8 evenings. The festival ran for 7 years, growing each year. The final festival in 2010 featured 51 tellers telling 56 stories over the course of 14 evenings.
2006: Due to popular demand (the once-a-year festival was just not enough!) 2nd Story launched a Monthly Series.
2007: After a serious heart-to-heart, the organization stopped producing plays, focused entirely on storytelling, and started doing business as 2nd Story.
2008: Launched the 2nd Story Podcast!
2010: 2nd Story toured to Portland, OR, and Richland, WA.
2011: 2nd Story launched an Education Program, offering classes and workshops for the public.
2011: 2nd Story moved to doing on-going, year-round programming in lieu of a once-a-year festival.
2012: 2nd Story published an anthology, Briefly Knocked Unconscious by a Low-Flying Duck, and did a book tour to Brooklyn, Minneapolis, Ann Arbor, St. Louis, and Los Angeles.
2014: 2nd Story received a Theatre Seven Legacy Gift and launched a Scholarship program for Classes & Workshops
2015: 2nd Story received the SMARTGrowth Grant from the Chicago Community Trust.
November 15, 2016: 2nd Story moved to its new home in Albany Park, a storefront located at the corner of Lawrence and Sacramento.
September 2017: The 2nd Story Board approves transitioning the leadership from 1099 freelance contractors to W2 salaried employees.
November 1, 2017: 2nd Story hosted its first ever Story Soirée at The Flower Firm in West Town.
2019: Artistic Director Amanda Delheimer was named in New City’s Literary Hall of Fame.
August 1, 2020: 2nd Story launched The Leap to 15 campaign, a multi-year campaign to increase all artist stipends to $15/hr.
2021: 2nd Story was voted Best Virtual Storytelling Series in the Chicago Reader.
2022: 2nd Story launched The Rising Tide Project. The Rising Tide Project is rooted in creating a framework for what it means to achieve pay equity, investigating new models of care, and imagining what it means for arts workers to thrive.
2022: 2nd Story is proudly certified by the Pay Equity Standards.
Land Acknowledgement
At 2nd Story, we acknowledge that Indigenous Peoples are the traditional stewards of this land, and that we dwell, work, and produce art on stolen land that is the traditional homelands of the Council of the Three Fires: The Odawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi Nations. It is critical that we educate ourselves and understand the long, grotesque history, the genocide and forced removal that informs how we engage with decolonization today, how we may learn from these communities so that we may support their needs and stand in solidarity.
Chicago is the traditional homelands of the Council of the Three Fires: The Odawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi Nations. Many other Tribes like the Miami, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Sac, and Fox also called this area home. Located at the intersection of several great waterways, the land naturally became a site of travel and healing for many Tribes. American Indians continue to call this area home and now Chicago is home to the sixth largest Urban American Indian community that still practices their heritage, traditions, and care for the land and waterways. Today, Chicago continues to be a place that calls many people from diverse backgrounds to live and gather here.
Despite the many changes the city has experienced, both our American Indian and the 2nd Story community see the importance of the land and this place that has always been a city home to many diverse backgrounds and perspectives.
To learn more, we encourage you to visit https://aicchicago.org/ and learn about the critical work being done by the American Indian Center of Chicago.
2nd Story is proudly certified by the Pay Equity Standards.
Developed by On Our Team, The Pay Equity Standards are a system to establish and publicly recognize equitable pay practices within theatre companies, arts organizations, and not-for-profit organizations.