On Saturday, we will feature a full day (from 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM)* of professional sessions from a ridiculously talented roster of storytellers, writers, teachers, and artists. We have curated a nice variety of workshops, presentations, and conversations filled with inspiration, practical advice, juicy takeaways, and exciting ideas.

One of the most frequent complaints at conferences is that attendees have to choose between two sessions they'd really like to experience, but that are scheduled concurrently. This won't be a problem at The Get-Together. None of our development sessions compete with another. Also, you are welcome to come and go as you please - attend some, none, or all!

*All sessions will take place at Martyrs', with ample seating for every participant, should they all choose to attend.  The timing and schedule of the day will be available upon registration.

Liz Allen
Utilizing Improv to Mine Unexpected Characters in Your Story

For the past 31 years, Liz Allen has performed, coached, and directed improv. Liz performed with iO Chicago’s house team Frank Booth, taking the first-ever long-form improv show to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1995. Liz coached the iO Chicago house teams  Valhalla and Fatty Four Eyes and Mission Improvable, founders of the Westside Comedy Theater in Santa Monica.  Liz was iO Chicago’s Training Center Director for 3 years, and in 1999, 2000 & 2001, Liz won iO Chicago’s Coach of the Year Award, which was then renamed the Liz Allen Excellence in Teaching Award. Over the years, Liz has taught all class levels in the iO Chicago. She’s directed numerous improvised and scripted pieces, including The Two Horsemen (Jim Carlson & John Lutz), Big Guy Little Guy (Ryan Kiessling & Lloyd Ahlquist),  Devolution (written by Sean Benjamin) at the Neofuturarium, Friends of Clark County Variety Show, and Eight for Eight Stories I-III in Las Vegas. Liz is a corporate improv trainer. Clients include Ernst & Young, Bechtel Pen, Zurich American Insurance, University of Wisconsin, Motorola, MGM Grand, Southwest Gas, Power Construction, Women in Entertainment Las Vegas, Truro University, Heritage Healthcare, Google, Hoffman LaRoche Switzerland, Mondelez and Catch+Release. In 2004, Liz directed a main stage revue for The Second City at the Flamingo Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, the first-ever fully improvised show on The Strip. In 2006, with Jimmy Carrane, Liz co-wrote the book Improvising Better (Heinemann). The Vegas Theater Hub awarded Liz as Guest Speaker of the Year and Best Workshop of the Year 2015.  Liz was honored to coach The Commune, the improv ensemble in Mike Birbiglia’s 2016 feature film Don’t Think Twice.  At the 2019 Rollins College Winter with the Writers Festival, Liz was selected to be a guest speaker and featured author. She directed the improvised long-form show A Family Affair, which performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 2019. Liz works with speakers to enhance collaboration and presentation skills. Clients include Josie Ahlquist Digital Educator, and former Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal. 

Ray Christian
Storytelling For Podcasts & Podcasts For Storytellers,
Sunday Morning Coffee with Dr. Ray

​Ray is a combat-decorated retired Army paratrooper. He has an MA in Public History and an EdS and Doctorate in Education Leadership. He is a Fulbright Specialist Expert in Education and Storytelling Narrative (The only Specialist in this field in the country) and was recently awarded the inaugural Black Appalachian Storytelling Fellowship for North Carolina. A former adjunct professor of history and storytelling at several universities, Ray has performed at numerous storytelling festivals and stages across the US and Canada including Old North State and The National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, NC (Slam winner and featured teller). His stories have appeared in Reader’s Digest (2016 Best Stories in America and 2017 American Heroes) and the New York Times bestselling book “How to Tell a Story, “Edited by directors from The Moth. As a competitive storyteller, Ray is a 12-time Moth Story Slam Champion and winner of the 2016 National Storytelling Festival Story Slam. His stories have been featured on radio shows produced by The Moth, Snap Judgment (Toured with the Live shows of Both Snap Judgment and the Moth) and Back Story as well as an array of podcasts including Spooked, Story Collider, AdultISH, The Confessional and Risk. Ray travels to Asheville, NC to host the monthly Moth Story Slam, but resides in the remote mountains of Watauga County, NC. From his mountain oasis, he produces and hosts his own podcast, from PRX with support from the Moth What’s Ray Saying? a show that uses history and story to explore the Black American experience from the unique perspective of the many worlds Ray inhabits.

Carlos Murillo
A Conversation with Carlos Murillo

Carlos Murillo is a playwright, director, and educator based in Chicago. He is a full professor at The Theatre School of DePaul University where he serves as Chair of Theatre Studies and Head of Playwriting. His plays include I Come From Arizona (Children's Theatre Minneapolis), Killing of a Gentleman Defender (The Theatre School of DePaul), Augusta & Noble (Adventure Stage), Mayday Mayday Tuesday (DePaul and Rose Bruford College London), Your Name Will Follow You Home (Repertorio Español NYC), A Thick Description of Harry Smith (P73 NYC and U Washington School of Drama), Diagram of a Paper Airplane (Sundance Theatre Lab), dark play or stories for boys (Humana Festival Actors Theatre of Louisville), Unfinished American Highwayscape # 9 & 32 (Theatre @ Boston Court Pasadena), Mimesophobia (NYC Summer Play Festival), A Human Interest Story (Walkabout Theatre Chicago), Offspring of the Cold War (Walkabout), Schadenfreude (Circle X LA), Near Death Experiences with Leni Riefenstahl (Red Eye Minneapolis) and Subterraneans (Soho Rep NYC). They have been produced widely throughout the U.S. and Europe, and are published by 53rd State Press, Dramatists Play Service, Dramatic Publishing and Smith & Kraus.  American Theatre  magazine called his trilogy, The Javier Plays “an absolutely extraordinary achievement.”  Murillo is the recipient of numerous awards including a Doris Duke Impact Award, a Mellon Foundation National Playwright Residency Program Fellowship, a Met Life/Nuestros Voces Award from Repertorio Español, a Jerome Fellowship from The Playwrights’ Center, and two National Latino Playwriting Awards from Arizona Theatre Company. He has received commissions from The Goodman, Steppenwolf, Playwrights Horizons, The Public, South Coast Rep, Berkeley Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and The Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis. His work has been developed at The Sundance Institute, The Playwrights' Center, Bar Area Playwrights Foundation, The Public Theatre, New Dramatists, The Goodman and others. Carlos is a proud alumnus of New Dramatists where he was a resident playwright from 2007-2014.  As a director he recently staged Unhinged by Madison Wray at the Lifeline Theatre Filet of Solo Festival. Other productions include Maria Irene Fornes' What of the Night? at Stage Left, Charise Castro Smith's The Hunchback of Seville at George Mason University, and numerous projects at The Theatre School including Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind, David Edgar's Pentecost, Nilo Cruz's A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, Ike Holter's Good Worker and Jason Grote's 1001.  He has guest taught at the School of Drama at Carnegie Mellon, The University of Iowa Playwrights Workshop, the Kennedy Center, UT Austin, the Newberry Library, George Mason University, and Transylvania University. He has been a member of the board of directors at MacDowell, the nation's premiere artist-in-residence program, since 2017. He lives in the south side of Chicago with his wife Lisa Portes and their two children Eva and Carlos.

Melissa Perrin
Lilypads and Landmines: Crafting from Trauma to Story

Dr. Melissa Perrin is a licensed clinical psychologist whose career has centered on clinical practice, teaching and providing consultation for medical professionals and religious institutions for over 35 years. Clinically, she provides treatment for mood disorders, trauma and addictions. Dr. Perrin is adjunct faculty at the Chicago School and a member of the faculty of the Academy of Addictions Treatment Professionals [AATP] from 2002 until it closed in 2020. A gifted teacher and facilitator, she has provided rich seminars that clinicians and healers are able to put into practice immediately. Dr. Perrin is based in Evanston Illinois, but provides clinical consultation for individual clinicians, groups and institutions nationally. An ardent teacher, Melissa illustrates through stories and narration while teaching and leading retreats. She believes the stories we tell about ourselves can define who we are, for better or for worse, and that listening to each other’s stories provides connection, identity, camaraderie, context and rehearsal for self-understanding and next steps. Altering that story can be a powerful tool in living a full life. She believes that, in this fractured time, we must listen to each other; listen without framing a response at first. We must listen to where our connections are and are not happening. The human condition is one that centers on connection and participation. In these times, we can err on the side of participating with disgruntlement and rigidity, but we can also remember our human tendency to join together and see our commonality. Dr. Perrin has shared stories on stage as a performer all over Chicago, including but not limited to This Much Is True, Backroom Stories, The Moth, Homewood Stories, Story Con, First Person Live, Chimera Loft, and at The Laugh Factory and The Evanston Library Storytelling Festival. She has served co-host of Do Not Submit Evanston, an open mic storytelling night in the Snug at the Celtic Knot in Evanston and hosts story circles: a small group gathering for storytellers to work on their stories from beginning to end. She also curated Stories for the Spirit, Sacred Ground in Chicago 2019. Dr. Perrin has taught at countless conferences, including Academy of Addictions Treatment Professionals of Illinois, EMDR International. and Society For Teachers of Family Medicine. She has spoken or taught at various retreats such as Walking Wisdom: Resilience in a Time of Overwhelm, Lilypads and Landmines: Narrative Medicine and Personal Wellness, and Reclaiming Connections: Embodying the Next Normal. 

Willa Taylor
Using Viewpoints to Hone Your Vocal Performance

Willa J. Taylor is a writer and storyteller, and an adjunct professor at DePaul and Northern Illinois Universities She has performed nationally and teaches storytelling across Chicago for both Goodman Theatre and the Chicago Parks District. She has performed stories for This Much is True, Backyard Stories, Story Vroom Vroom, Fillet of Solo, Serving the Sentence, and Outspoken. In addition, she has used storytelling with businesses, government agencies and community-based organizations to build more collaborative work environments, develop their capacity to engage with their client/constituents, and better communicate their missions and visions. As the former Walter Director at Goodman Theatre, she created and developed GeNarrations– a personal narrative storytelling program for people 55+. In her 16 seasons at Goodman, she created 14 new education and engagement programs, including InterGens, which partners seniors and teens to create original narrative performances that address community concerns; Stage Chemistry which integrates physics and math education through theater; and Divergent Discourse, an initiative that used writing, storytelling and theatrical practices to build capacity for social service organizations like Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers and The Dovetail Project. During her tenure at the Goodman, Taylor also helped raised over $3 million to establish the Alice P. Rapoport Center for Education and Engagement, the first center of its kind in Chicago dedicated to education and engagement programs at a cultural institution. Along with her partners Michael Rohd and Sara Sawicki, Taylor developed Civic Imagination Stations (CIS) for the American Library Association, a national pilot that partners librarians and artists to develop civic projects to address community-identified concerns. Funded by the Estée Lauder Companies' WRITING CHANGE initiative, the second phase of this program focuses on citizens returning from carceral institutions and aims to bridge access and opportunity gaps through creative practices, utilizing arts and culture to foster educational persistence, economic mobility, and civic participation. Education has been a cornerstone of Taylor’s professional journey. She holds a Master of Education degree in. Curriculum and Instruction from Concordia University, Master of Fine Arts degree in Film Studies from American University, a Certificate in Culinary Arts from Kendall College, and a Bachelor of Science from Excelsior College. Taylor is a published author and sought-after presenter at conferences and symposia. She has contributor to notable publications and delivered presentations on topics ranging from arts integration in education to intergenerational storytelling and organizing. Her professional journey also includes impactful roles at renowned institutions such as Lincoln Center Theater, New Victory Theatre, Arena Stage and others, where she spearheaded initiatives to advance arts education and community engagement. Taylor’s contributions have been recognized with numerous awards, including the Arts Advocate Award from Ingenuity, the Exemplar Award from the August Wilson Society, and the Leadership in Community-Based Theatre and Civic Engagement Award from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education. Taylor is a proud military veteran, having served in the US Navy for 12 years. While serving in Turkey and Greece, she produced USO shows for the troops, and created programming for the Armed Forces Radio and Television Network.

Scott Whitehair
Producing For Everyone: Make Your Own Series or Showcase with No Experience Required

Scott Whitehair is an storyteller, instructor, and producer from Chicago, IL. He is the producer of This Much Is True, Chicago’s longest running monthly storytelling series, the creator of Story Lab Chicago, which has put over 850 first time performers on stage since 2011, executive director of Do Not Submit, a grassroots network of open mics across Chicagoland with the goal of connecting people through personal narrative, and cohost of Story Vroom Vroom, Evanston's monthly storytelling party. Scott was recently on the board of directors of The National Storytelling Network, the professional association of U.S. storytellers. His training sessions are in demand, and he has worked with clients such as RW Baird, Loews Hotels, Crate and Barrel, Price Waterhouse Cooper, Blue Cross Blue Shield, R/GA, Zendesk, Johnson & Johnson, ISBA Mutual, Boston Children's Hospital, Chicago Cares, and the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation. In 2016 and 2017, he was a featured presenter at The Woodmark Summit, a symposium of 26 children’s hospitals from across North America. Scott’s private coaching clients include a Fortune 500 CEO, a candidate for U.S Surgeon General, and professional public speakers, as well as construction workers, high school students, and grandparents. Scott’s monthly personal narrative course has been selling out consistently since 2012, and he has been a frequent guest instructor at DePaul University, Northwestern University, Loyola University, The University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, and Hong Kong University. He was the featured instructor at Hong Kong Story Worthy Week 2014, headlined by David Sedaris, and taught a special elective at All Hallows College in Dublin in 2015. As a performer, Scott has been seen on stages across the US and abroad, including Steppenwolf Theater, the historic Green Mill, Woodstock Opera House, NYC's Webster Hall, Park West, and Second City. He is a two-time Moth Slam Champ, runner up at The Windy City All-City Championship, and a WNEP Skald winner. He has been featured at The Fox Valley Folk Festival, The Evanston Public Library Storytelling Festival, Printer’s Row Lit Fest, Storytellers of San Diego Festival,  and The Kansas City Storytelling Celebration. He has made appearances on TV, radio, and podcasts including WGN-TV, PBS, FOX, NPR, Sirius XM, Spotify, and the Risk podcast. In October 2017, Scott made his debut at The National Storytelling Festival's Exchange Place in Jonesborough, TN