pronounced: FranCHESSkah Suebray

Actor/writer/theatre teacher/director/storyteller

As a teacher and director of North Theatre at Bloomington High School North, Francesca told stories to a captive audience and noticed that that was the only time they were truly attentive. A student critic once observed, “You have to pay attention to Sobrer, cuz you just never know what outrageous story she is going to tell next!” This prompted her to think, “I’ve stumbled onto something here.” When a chance at early retirement presented itself, she grabbed that brass ring and moved from her 30-year home of Bloomington, Indiana, to Chicago to pursue all things story.  Storytelling fits all her creative outlets together in one place.  A multi Moth StorySLAM winner, Sobrer has won Moth Slams in Chicago, Brooklyn, and Milwaukee. She has told stories all over the city of Chicago, including This Much is True, Soul Stories, Loose Chicks, First Person Live and Homewood Stories.

Francesca grew up on Nantucket Island where she first cut her theater teeth. And, yes, people do live there year-round.  One of 10 children, she had a wild childhood living in a house that was also a delicatessen, a sandwich and bakery shop, called Something Natural owned by her mother.  When not working at “home”, Francesca was either working on or backstage at the Straight Wharf Theatre or pretending to be a mermaid on the wide beaches of Nantucket. Her mother gets full credit for teaching her how to make a stellar 2-pound sandwich and a sinfully delicious chocolate layer cake. A major shoutout to Smith College where she earned for her a BA in Theatre. The seeds of collaboration, discipline and dedication to creating a theatre story were planted during her time at Smith.

Francesca is mother to three grown adults and is constantly surprised to see that they behave far more maturely than she does. 

The pandemic finally behind us, Francesca is thrilled to be telling stories live onstage once again: Chicago, Nantucket, Boston, Brooklyn, Los Angeles - wherever the story caravan may take her so she can tell stories like:  How does an East Coast Gal end up in the Midwest? How is it that a girl brought up on an island isn’t a better swimmer? How did her parents get all ten children in one car?