Join us at the Ready Room on October 2 for an evening of true, personal stories about exploring our physical limits.
Hosted by Eli Chen & Emma Young. Doors open at 6:30 p.m, and stories start at 7:30 p.m.
This show is produced in partnership with St. Louis Public Radio and is sponsored by Missouri S&T.
Stories by:
Gregory S. Carr, a native of St. Louis, MO., is an instructor of Speech and Theatre at Harris-Stowe State University. Gregory is an accomplished director, playwright, actor and published writer. His award-winning plays Johnnie Taylor Is Gone and A Colored Funeral were produced at the historic Karamu House in Cleveland and the Cleveland Playhouse.
Meredith Hopping took her first step (big step, she's 6 ft tall and wears a size 13 shoe) into comedy a little over 2 and a half years ago. Once she got that first laugh at her first open mic, she was hooked. She has found the St. Louis comedy scene to be encouraging and welcoming, providing many opportunities to hone her newfound passion through various Indie shows and club showcases. A semifinalist at the Jukebox Comedy Club, Helium, and St. Louis Funnybone competitions, she is a comedian at night, mother of three by day, and the granddaughter, daughter, and wife of Pastors (everyday, not just on Sundays). Add to this a childhood and adolescence filled with the awkwardness and angst one experiences while growing up in Normal, Illinois and she finds limitless material for the audience to laugh along and commiserate with.
Marissanne Lewis-Thompson joined St. Louis Public Radio October 2017 as the afternoon newscaster and as a general assignment reporter. She was previously a feature reporter at KRCU in Cape Girardeau, where she covered historic floods, the Bootheel, education and homelessness. In May 2015, she graduated from the University of Missouri with a Bachelor of Journalism degree in Convergence Journalism. She's a proud Kansas City, Missouri native, where she grew up watching a ton of documentaries on PBS, which inspired her to tell stories. In her free time, she enjoys binge watching documentaries, anime and reading manga. She may or may not have a problem. She tweets @marisanne2011.
Heather Rice is an Assistant Dean in the College of Arts & Sciences and a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. She has been teaching at WashU for 13 years, including classes on mindfulness and on research methods. In her administrative role, she develops and implements programs to support undergraduate students, focusing primarily on underrepresented minorities and students pursuing STEM degrees. She also serves as four-year advisor to over 100 undergraduates. Heather earned her B.S. in Psychology from Arizona State University and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Duke University in Psychological & Brain Sciences, focusing on autobiographical memory and cognitive neuroscience. She then moved to St. Louis to start her position at WashU… so, basically, she hasn’t left school since she was 4. Outside of work, Heather spends most of her time wrangling her 9 year-old daughter, 2 dogs, and 5 chickens, with the help of her partner.
Rafe Williams grew up in a small town in Southern Illinois and still has an essay he wrote in third grade entitled “Comedian”-- the letter was a response to the age old question of “what do you want to be when you grow-up?” With one foot planted in his humble midwestern roots and one planted in the world of progressive dissidence, he attracts a diverse audience spectrum. He has headlined his own shows at Helium, Old Rock House, and various clubs throughout the country and he recorded his debut comedy album in March, 2019 with 800 Pound Gorilla Records. He has received the honor of being named The Funniest in STL by Riverfront Times Magazine in 2017, one of “2016’s Rising Stars in Arts and Entertainment” by GO! Magazine and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and the distinction of winning Helium Comedy Club’s first annual “Funniest Person in St. Louis” competition in 2016. Rafe has been invited to perform stand-up at multiple festivals over the years including Asheville Comedy Festival and Flyover Comedy Festival in 2019.