OUR PEOPLE

Small but mighty, TATU teaching artists are dedicated young professionals living the industry as we speak. Our people are committed to being mentors: send us your scene at five in the morning, and we’ll tell you how to fix it!

TEACHING ARTISTS

Scott Greenberg

oFF-bROADWAY cLUB

Scott Greenberg is a playwright, lyricist, and teaching artist from Houston, TX. His work is guided by a commitment to expose the next generation of young artists to the explosive world of hyper-contemporary plays and playwrights.  After teaching Contemporary Playwriting at Northwestern University’s Cherubs program and working with Chicago’s finest playwrights as Interim Literary Manager at Victory Gardens Theater, Scott is proud to serve as Founder and Program Coordinator of TATU. When he’s not writing, reading, or teaching plays, he’s composing music for West Wing Parody musicals, performing improvised sitcoms across Chicago, and teaching people how to do headstands. 

Ebby Offord

scene study

Ebby Offord is an actor, director, and teaching artist from Chicago, IL. Before completing her drama degree at Washington University in St. Louis, Ebby directed three fully produced shows for Black Anthology—a student-led cultural group at her university. As a performer and an artist, Ebby is dedicated to providing spaces for marginalized and isolated voices to speak their truths loudly and boldly, without fear of judgement. After graduating from university, Ebby spent a summer teaching reading to students in both Chicago and Monroe, LA with the Institute of Reading Development. Working with those students taught Ebby that one of the best feelings in the world is watching someone fall in love with a piece of art that can change their lives. When she isn’t working in the theatre in some capacity, Ebby can usually be found ranting to anyone who will listen about Hamlet (it’s her favorite play), re-writing childhood fairytales with horror plot-lines, or hanging out with her favorite family member: her pit bull, Bane. 

 

Damon Royster

Pilot-Writing

Damon Royster is from Lombard, IL. He graduated from Northern Illinois University with a degree in Media Studies. Afterwards he went on to study comedy writing at The Second City and iO Chicago.  He wrote, directed, and starred in several sketch shows at The Second City with his sketch team The Citizens of Townsville. Damon is on faculty at The Second City now for writing and Improv. He was a 2017 recipient of Second City’s prestigious Bob Curry Fellowship. And a featured performer and writer in the 2017 NBC Universal Break Out Festival. He is currently on the writing staff for the card game: Cards Against Humanity. Writing credits include: AppQueen (which was selected by the LGBT film festival Outfest LA in 2019); and Love, Factually (performed at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. 2018-2019).

Julianne Lang

Sketch Comedy

Julianne Lang is a Chicago based actor, comedian, and teaching artist. After graduating with a theatre degree from Northwestern University, she moved into the city where she completed the Second City Conservatory Program. She is passionate about bringing up the voices of women in comedy and also having a ton of fun! She co-founded the all-femme sketch group, Resting Witch Face, whose shows can be seen in The Second City Studio Theatres, iO, The Annoyance, and online. In addition, Julianne is a member of the ComedySportz Rec League team Juicy, performs with Improvised Bachelorette, and studies at the Improv Den. As an educator, Julianne has spent the past two summers working as a program director and teaching artist for the National High School Institute’s Theatre Cherub program. When she isn’t clowning around onstage or the classroom, she is probably hiking somewhere in the woods or swimming in Lake Michigan.

BRENNA BARBORKA

Playwriting

Brenna Barborka (she/they) is a theatre artist from San Antonio, Texas. She graduated from The Theatre School at DePaul University in 2019 and is now a Chicago based artist. Their Theatre School credits include the assistant direction of The Seagull (dir. Damon Kiely) and Augusta and Noble (dir. Lisa Portes). She has interned at Victory Gardens Theater and was the Ignition Coordinator for their 2019 Ignition Festival of New Plays. Brenna just ended an Artistic Apprenticeship at Steppenwolf Theatre Company where they also script supervised the world-premiere of I am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter based on the novel by Erika L. Sánchez, adapted by Isaac Gómez (dir. Sandra Marquez). They are currently the dramaturg on the world-premiere reading of Grace Grindell’s play, Teach Me (dir. Claire Bauman). She is happy to be here and excited to learn with all of you!

COMING SOON

Improv

BIO COMING SOON

WE'RE GLOBAL, BABY

Our teachers live in Chicago, Houston, LA, New York: you name it, they’ve worked there.

CONNECTED

We know the people you need to know. From college contacts to industry people, we’ll hook you up. 

MULTI-TALENTED

Beyond the arts, our mentors work in  essay-counseling, career centers, education, and beyond.  We can help!