Tekki Lomnicki is the founder and Artistic Director of Tellin’ Tales Theatre, a 23-year old company dedicated to shattering the barriers between the disabled and non-disabled worlds through the power of personal story. Tekki’s two full-length plays When Heck Was a Puppy: The Living Testimonies of Folk Artist Edna Mae Brice and Blurred Vision were critically acclaimed by The Chicago Reader and The Chicago Sun-Times. She has written and performed over 26 solo performance pieces, and starred in the award-winning film, The Miracle by Jeffrey Jon Smith. She taught youth at Chicago’s Gallery 37 and After School Matters, and adults at the Victory Gardens Training Center, and ADA 25 Advancing Leadership. She is a recipient of an Illinois Arts Council Artists Fellowship in New Performance Forms, the 2008 3Arts Award in Theater, the 2010 Grigsby Award for Excellence in Solo Performance, the 2014 Dan Van Hecke Award for outstanding leadership and service to the disability community and was named a 2016 Duke of Distinction at York Community High School in Elmhurst. Tekki is on the Inclusion & Diversity Council at True Value Company and does disability awareness presentations for corporations. She is currently working on a new full-length musical spotlighting the disability experience.
