Six Stories Up in the Attic 11/3-5 and 11/10-12 at Filament Theatre

Written and performed by middle school students with and without disabilities and their mentors, Tellin’ Tales Theatre’s Six Stories Up in The Attic unpacks the power of personal story and memory in the age of AI.

Five curious middle school kids wonder if the abandoned house in their neighborhood is haunted. One brave boy breaks a window and finds himself inside a magical attic where memories and personal stories are stored.

When Artificial Intelligence threatens to take over all human stories, the boy and his friends must save the stories.

The result is a hilarious and often moving musical peppered with personal stories told by students and adults with ADHD, autism, spina bifida and dwarfism, as well as their non-disabled peers.

Six Stories Up in The Attic is geared toward adults and children age nine and up. The show runs approximately 90 minutes with one intermission.

Where: Filament Theatre, 4041 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago
When: Fridays, Nov. 3 and 10 at 7:30pm; Saturday, Nov. 3 and 11 at 7:30pm and Sundays, Nov. 5 and 12 at 2pm
Tickets: $20 adults/$15 students at www.tellintales.org

The Filament Theatre is ADA accessible and sign language interpretation and audio description will be provided at our Sunday, November 5 show.

About the Mentoring Program

Six Stories Up is an annual mentoring program developed by Tellin' Tales Theatre where middle school children and their mentors write and star in a full-length play with the theme changing every year. In August, storytellers were paired with middle school students with and without disabilities. Each team came up with a significant personal story and was given the mission to bring it to life with dialog, song and movement. In mid-September, Artistic Director Tekki Lomnicki and Stephen Donart drafted a final script, linking the vignettes together into a cohesive final script. All participants will perform Six Stories up in The Attic under the direction of Lomnicki, assisted by Ben Saylor and Dominika Tamley.

About the Cast and Crew

The cast and production team of Six Stories up in The Attic is an exciting mix of race and ability. Mentors include Stephen Donart, Tekki Lomnicki, Caitlin Robb, K Rose and Robert Teverbaugh.

Apprentices from Chicago include:

Campell Chernoff. Campbell is a 7th grader from Harriet Tubman School and was part of last year's Tellin' Tales Theatre's Six Stories Up in Discovery and is thrilled to return for this show.

Poppy Lentz. Poppy is an 8th grader from Peterson School who went to Chi Arts summer camp in 2023 and was an ensemble member/storyteller in Shrek Jr. 2023. She is grateful for this experience writing and acting before going to high school.

Apprentices from Wilmette include:

Sisters Elaine and Eva Xu. Elaine is a 9th grader at New Trier H.S. and Eva is a 7th grader at Wilmette Jr. High. Both sisters were previously part of the show Joseph and the Amazing Techincolor Dream Coat (outside of Tellin' Tales) and look forward to performing in this original Tellin' Tales Theatre Six Stories Up show they helped to write.

Emily McClintick and her brother David. Emily is a 6th grader at Highcrest Middle School who has appeared in the musical Annie as well as with the ATC Actors Workshop. Her brother David, a 1st grader at Romona Elementary, makes a brief appearance as "Max" in Six Stories Up in the Attic. Emily loves singing and dancing and "just being on stage.

CJ Kozlowski and Jack Gehringer make special appearances.

Stephen Scherer spearheads set design; composer [star] created the original score and M.K. Victorson created choreography.

About Tellin’ Tales Theatre

The mission of Tellin' Tales Theatre is to shatter barriers between the disabled andnon-disabled worlds through the transformative power of personal story. We bring together children and adults from both communities to share their stories in theatrically innovative productions and programs to promote awareness, understanding and acceptance. Artistic Director Tekki Lomnicki led storytelling programs for Gallery 37 and After School Matters for over a decade. The idea for the initial Six Stories Up came from her work with these programs, which included students with and without disabilities. Lomnicki, herself a person with a disability, took the process a step further to include adult mentors with disabilities.

Six Stories Up in The Attic is a result of this mix, and strives to remove all barriers between artists, including race, ethnicity, gender, age and ability.

Six Stories Up in The Attic is partially funded by grants from the Illinois Arts Council, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation.