ARTIST BIOS

Chloe Johnston is a writer, director, and teacher in Chicago. She has worked with theatres across Chicago and is a long-time ensemble member of The Neo-Futurists. Her original plays and performances have been called “powerful” by the New York Times, “lively and affecting” by the Chicago Tribune, “inspired” by the Chicago Sun-Times , and “moving, engaging, thought-provoking” by Time Out Chicago. Recent projects include 46 Plays for America’s First Ladies (Critics Pick, NYTimes), a reimagining of American history, and The Map of Now, an interactive online performance about technology and connection. Her solo multi-media performance, Grace, which explores natural language processing programs, was recently developed at The Orchard Project in New York and presented at the Roman Susan Gallery in Chicago. She is also the creator of Leave the Light On, a collaboratively created, interview-based performance and audio project about caretaking labor. She is a passionate educator and a scholar who has published widely on devised theatre and activist performance, including co-authoring Ensemble-Made Chicago: A Guide to Devised Theater, published by Northwestern University Press. www.chloejohnston.org

Coya Paz is a writer, director, scholar, and arts administrator with a deep commitment to racial and economic equity in the arts. She specializes in co-created performance and applied theater, and is the Artistic Director of the historic Free Street Theater in Chicago, whose mission is to create original performance by, for, about, with, and in Chicago’s historically divested communities. She is the co-author, with Chloe Johnston, of Ensemble-Made Performance: A Guide to Devised Theater. Coya has been faculty at The Theatre School since 2008, and teaches classes in directing, history, and community-engaged performance for the Theatre Studies program. Coya held the role of Interim Dean during the 2021-2022 school year.. Coya holds a PhD in Performance Studies from Northwestern University, where her graduate research focused on intersections between public violence and performance, and she is particularly interested in ghost stories as cultural archives. Coya also researches economic disparity and the arts in Chicago, and is an advocate for neighborhood-based arts, particularly on the South and West sides of the city. She serves on a wide-variety of advisory and advocacy boards focused on racial and geographic equity, and does organizational consulting via Free Street Talks. Above all, Coya believes in the power of performance and poetry to build community towards social change.

Angie Tillges is a civic project manager, artist and educator skilled at working with public institutions and community organizations on projects of social, artistic, and ecological importance. She leads projects that provide people the opportunity to make personal, lasting connections with public and natural spaces and with one another. Angie is Co-Director of Wayfinding LLC. She recently served as Fellow for the City of Saint Paul, Great River Passage Initiative. Formerly, she served as Senior Program Specialist for Chicago Parks Culture and Nature Unit. Tillges spent a decade as an artist and arts integration specialist in schools, social service organizations, and neighborhoods facilitating large-scale, community-devised  public art and performance in Chicago and internationally with Redmoon Theater. She holds an M. Ed. from Harvard.

Nathan Lamp (they/she) is a writer, educator, director, dramaturg, and stage technician from Toledo, OH. They are a fifth-year Ph.D. student in performance studies at Northwestern University. Their research attends to the intersections of feminist theory, sound studies, queer & trans liberation, and climate justice, examining how artists & communities respond to the various states of ecological disaster, climate catastrophe, and political emergency that shape the way we live now, as well as how we might imagine more just futures. Currently, Nathan is the resident dramaturg for Music Theater Works in Evanston, IL.