About Face Theatre (AFT) was founded in 1995 to address the lack of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) voices within the American theatrical canon by generating innovative productions.
AFT’s founding Artistic Directors Kyle Hall and Eric Rosen launched a shared vision for the company to engage with nationally recognized and emerging artists. Within the first two seasons, AFT adapted three new plays and worked with Tony Award-winning playwright Mary Zimmerman to develop a fourth world premiere, receiving public praise and garnering ten Jeff and After Dark awards. In 2002, Moises Kaufman and Doug Wright approached AFT for assistance in developing I Am My Own Wife prior to its future as a Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning production that was produced around the world. These early partnerships were instrumental in establishing AFT as an important site for the development of new LGBTQ+ work.
About Face Theatre Education
In 1998, a group of artists came together to form About Face Youth Theatre (AFYT) to engage queer youth in theatre, activism, and leadership development in a safe space for building community across generations. Within the next year, due to the national outcry over the murder of Matthew Shepard and the emergence of a new wave of LGBTQ+ youth organizing, the program quickly expanded into a year-round youth-led set of programs, including original play development, onsite workshops, leadership programs, and touring shows. Through the years, dozens of teaching artists in many disciplines and hundreds of young people have passed through AFT’s Education Programs.
About Face Youth Theatre: Youth Speak Out report from 2002
New Leadership
Since the founding days, the company has continued to evolve under different leadership and in response to shifting needs of the times. From 2007 to 2013, Bonnie Metzgar served as AFT’s Artistic Director. Metzgar’s directing and producing credits include The Pride, The Homosexuals, Pony, Stupid Kids, and Taylor Mac’s The Young Ladies Of… Metzgar also launched the XYZ Festival of New Works and did much to engage and expand AFT’s circle of Associate Artists.
From 2013 to 2017, Andrew Volkoff served as AFT’s Artistic Director. His directing and producing credits include a reimagined production of I Am My Own Wife by Doug Wright; Brahman/i by Aditi Kapil, Abraham Lincoln Was a Faggot by Bixby Elliot, after all the terrible things i do by A. Rey Pamatmat, and The Temperamentals by Jon Morans. Volkoff also reintroduced the OUT FRONT series in 2013 to develop new works exploring LGBTQ+ themes, and created First DrAAft, a reading series focused solely on the works of AFT Artistic Associates.
In 2017, Megan Carney became AFT’s Artistic Director. Megan is a co-founder of AFT’s Education Programs and served as Associate Artistic Director for several years before leaving for graduate school in 2005. Carney combines her experience as an artist, administrator, and organizer to center education, champion underrepresented voices, and strengthen the foundation of the organization.
About the name “About Face”
Founding Artistic Director, Kyle Hall says that the name About Face represented, “a turning of the tide – changing perceptions and the direction of discourse by, of, and about queer lives and experiences.” Hall wanted the name to participate in “flipping around the idea that gay theatre was either underwear/sex farces or AIDS dramas – and telling complicated stories that represented all facets of gay life.” Another level of meaning for the name is the galvanizing call to incite change. Kyle Hall has said that this theatre was founded “at a time when queer people were fighting so hard just to be seen, heard and respected.”
Awards and Recognitions
In addition to numerous Jeff Awards, After Dark Awards, and recognitions from the Black Theater Alliance and the American Theatre Wing, About Face has also been recognized with the Esteem Award for Artistic Expression from PrideIndex.com, Special Recognition Award from PFLAG National (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays National), the Illinois Theatre Association Award of Excellence in Professional Theatre, the Human Rights Campaign Community Equality Award, a Human First Award from Horizons Community Services, a Champions Award from Gay Games – Chicago, and Induction into City of Chicago’s LGBT Hall of Fame.