Nick Ward is Running for Alderperson in the 48th Ward
Goudy Representative & 2nd Story Stalwart Seeks Council Bow
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The theatre community in Chicago had been calling Nick Ward about his second act years before he moved in 2004. Growing up thirty minutes from downtown Detroit, Ward would pick up after viewing Steppenwolf’s True West on VHS. This, of course, was the play that would cement the Windy City as the premier location for trial-stage theatre productions. It would also become the deciding factor for Nick Ward as he sought to relocate following college.
As it turned out, on Tuesday, January 24th, 2023, I decided to copy Chicago’s idea by requesting a phone call. When we pick up together, Ward tells me about the theatre degree he earned as a Redhawk in Miami and his work at Webster’s Wine Bar from when the sips were situated at the Chicago River.
It was all Serendipity. Really.
“At the time they were called Serendipity Theatre, but they were producing this event called Second Story, which is a literary arts event. Now it’s the full organization that I’ve been a part of for the last seventeen years. But I started producing live storytelling shows with 2nd Story. I eventually started writing and performing my own. That lead to other theatre work, so a lot of production management, casting, teaching classes, writing stories, performing stories, with a little bit of acting.” — Nick Ward
“We used to do a three-week festival. It was at Webster’s wine bar, which was in Lincoln Park on Webster avenue. It was on their second floor, so the second story of the bar. It would be from Thursday thru Sunday and there would be 50+ original stories written and performed by the tellers with sound design and different directors for each evening — so 12 different directors, three sound designers, two stage managers and often with many…
