Brian Mendes was a co-founder and the former artistic director of the Cook County Theatre Department of Chicago. He met Richard Maxwell when they were both interns at the Steppenwolf Theatre in 1990.  While with CCTD, Mendes directed Nothing and Advertising, Minutes and Seconds, and Tosca and acted in Clowns plus Wrestlers, Elimination, Swing Your Lady and Maxwell’s first play, Fable.   While in New York, he has worked with the NYC Players as an actor (Henry the IV, Joe, The End of Reality, Ode to the Man Who Kneels, The Frame, The Darkness of this Reading) , musician (Cave Man, Reena Spaulings Band) dramaturg (Good Samaritans), fight choreographer (End of Reality) and teacher (Atlantic College, Wales).  In March 2009, he directed his first play for New York City Players, People Without History. He has also worked with Antonio Sacre, Christina Masciotti, Sybil Kempson, Tory Vasquez, filmmaker Redmond Entwistle and choreographer Sarah Michelson.