Queering Centerstage
Bring your stories and your curiosity and let’s celebrate 30 years of About Face Theatre!
For well over a year we’ve been diving deep into boxes of archive materials to prepare for our 30th Anniversary. We’ve surfaced some absolute treasures and we’re ready to share them with you!
Rare sketches of design concepts, actual slides of passionate performance moments, and glossy playbills detailing creative teams all help to tell our story of the past 30 years. These remnants of the past recall many powerful and ephemeral productions that the artists of About Face Theatre have brought to life over the years. As the midwest region’s premier institution for developing new plays by, for, and about queer people, we’re proud to share this moment with you and soak it all in.
About Face Theatre was founded with the guiding idea that portraying LGBTQ+ lives on stage could provide a lens through which to explore universal human experiences. It was a radical concept at the time! Since then, About Face has produced at least 98 shows, including 54 world premieres.
We’re dedicated to the ongoing work of “queering centerstage”. We believe that this work remains an essential contribution to our culture and provides life affirming care for our communities while resisting ignorance and hate that attempts to erase us. We continue to uplift the people who laid a strong foundation and find ways to activate the past as a beacon of hope for our current moment.
From the beginning we designed this project to look both backwards and forwards. We will continue to uplift the people who laid a strong foundation through the years and find ways to activate the past as a beacon of hope and strength for our current moment. It’s been an absolute joy to closely collaborate with some experts on this project. Our special resident archivist this year, Olivia Langraff, has guided us with an organizational system and interpretation of the materials. We’re excited that Olivia will also be present at the event to share more about her journey and discoveries along the way. Jen Dentel and Erin Bell of Gerber Hart Library & Archives are supporting this event with some items from their collections that resonate with featured plays. Special thanks to Illinois Humanities for awarding us an Activating History grant to support this public event.
Thank you for your support and we hope to see you at “Queering Centerstage”!
Event Details
About Face Theatre presents
Queering Centerstage
at the Understudy Cafe
Wednesday, February 26 from 7-8PM
This is a free event with ASL interpretation, food, & drink
