The Green Room Collective is About Face Theatre’s program to support early career LGBTQ+ arts leaders. This program builds on over two decades of leadership development work at AFT to help advance the next generation of LGBTQ+ leaders in their theatre-related career and educational goals.
The Green Room Collective
What is the Green Room Collective?
In a theatre, the “green room” is a location backstage where the artists prepare for performance. The green room is a space for camaraderie and community, vulnerability and questioning. It’s the place to experiment with big ideas and work out the details with others. The Green Room is often the last stop before you take the stage. The Green Room Collective program embraces these aspects to create a supportive platform to springboard young leaders in the LGBTQ+ community toward the advancement of their goals.
Founded by Artistic Director Megan Carney, Artistic Associate Mikael Burke, and former Managing Director Logan Jones, About Face Theatre’s Green Room Collective program helps participants advance through a series of individualized skill building activities, engage in meaningful tasks that directly support AFT operations, and take actions toward their education and/or career goals. In this role, GRC members work on two main project areas that will be developed together with AFT staff and artists. For the 2024 cohort, candidates with an interest in education and teaching artist work are encouraged to apply.
About Face Theatre established itself as a place for LGBTQ+ youth leaders over 20 years ago with the creation of the About Face Youth Theatre. Over the years, AFT’s nationally-recognized education program grew to include the organization’s community engagement and touring shows as well as the Youth Task Force. Under the guidance of Education Program Manager Dionne Addai, AFT is advancing this company-wide mission to provide a supportive experiential learning environment for young people to explore and expand their leadership skills. About Face Youth Theatre has produced 19 original devised programs since 1999 (with another currently in development); the Youth Task Force recently produced two years of KINSHIP: An All-Ages Queer Variety Show, which offered a welcoming place for creativity and expression for participants under 21-years-old; and AFT’s touring ensemble created the Power in Pride at Home web series in response to the pandemic.
The 2023 Green Room Collective
Pen Wilder (they/them)
Pen is a writer and artist with a focus in queer storytelling. Along with their job as a gallery attendant, they work as a writer for various literary publications and have been seen in journals such as Mulberry Literary and the ChillFiltr Review. In their free time, they also can be seen performing as part of indie rock group Cowboy Neal. They are currently working on their next full-length play, Switch Hitta.
Theo Wampuszyc (he/they)
An alumnus of AFYT, Theo is a trans-masc performer and theatre artist. By day, he works as a company clown for Vaudeville Chicago, a nonprofit that brings music, comedy, and circus entertainment to senior living facilities with a focus on dementia and memory care. By night, he performs as a queer standup, an actor, and a novice drag king. They are in love with the theatre both on stage and off, working not only in performance but also in production, a skill they’ve been able to hone during their time in About Face’s Green Room Collective.
Join the Green Room Collective
2022-2023 Season Applications are open!
About Face Theatre is seeking early-career individuals the join our Green Room Collective program for our current producing season. This is a part-time position estimated to take about 20 hours per week and pays $15.50/hour.
This application portal will remain open until November 29, 2022 . All applications will be reviewed after that date. Candidates moving forward in the process will be contacted for an interview. We anticipate the positions will have a start date in January 2023.