Announcing AFT’s 2023-2024 season!
About Face Theatre is thrilled to present our plans for our 29th season! Dedicated to advancing LGBTQ+ equity through community building, education, and performance, About Face will present two regional premiere productions at The Den Theatre in Wicker Parker, as well as the return of its popular workshop reading series Re/Generation Studio and touring performances and workshops.
“We are at a fraught moment in history where it is vital that we continue elevating LGBTQ+ stories and amplifying queer voices. Our 2023-2024 season renews our commitment to advancing LGBTQ+ equity through performances, education, and community building. And this upcoming season features some truly unique stories that will bring audiences together and incite our imaginations in the ways that only great theatre can. We hope you’ll join us!”
-Artistic Director Megan Carney
Re/Generation Studio
An intergenerational workshop series building the future of queer theatre
November 30 – December 16, 2023
Individual workshop days & times TBD
at The Den Theatre, 1331 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago
All workshops are free and open to the public.
Re/Generation Studio is About Face Theatre’s invitation to build the future of queer theatre together. This welcoming series of public workshops is shaped as a collective dreaming space for connecting with each other, learning about new plays, world-building, and exploring new production models. Each workshop will be grounded by staged readings of sections of new plays designed to invite conversation, collaboration, and creation in a shared space. Facilitators will offer key questions and considerations raised by the playwrights and directors and encourage participants to work together to brainstorm and develop creative solutions.
About Face premiered Re/Generation Studio in February 2023 as a vehicle for reconnecting, restoring, and recreating with audiences and artists after the pandemic. The overwhelming response from participants proved to us that these kinds of creative events are necessary to build and rebuild our communities. AFT is thrilled to be bringing the series back to continue engaging audiences and artists directly with up-and-coming new LGBTQ+ plays.
“Re/Generation Studio is all about taking the risk of coming together and sharing experiences,” says co-curator Pen Wilder. “The perspective I gained through the workshops as an artist, a playwright, and a person were invaluable. Every great play was once a new play, and being there for so many different beginnings, middles, and ends is something really special. I’m thrilled to be involved and look forward to dreaming bigger this upcoming season.”
The Brightest Thing in the World
Written by Leah Nanako Winkler
Directed by AFT Artistic Associate Keira Fromm
March 14 – April 13, 2024 | Press opening: Friday, March 22
Showtimes: Thurs & Fri @ 8:00pm, Sat @ 3:00pm & 8:00pm, Sun @ 3:00pm
All performances will take place at The Den Theatre, 1331 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago
Pay-what-you-can tickets ($5 – $35) on sale September 15, 2023, at The Den Theatre box office or About Face Theatre’s website.
Charmingly free-spirited barista Lane is determined to win over her new regular, the reserved and intellectual Steph. Delightful romantic comedy ensues with poetry, homemade desserts, and sparks flying. But both women are carrying life-changing secrets involving addiction, past relationships, and family. What happens when the giddy romance wears off and Lane and Steph must do the work of building a lasting relationship out of honesty, compassion, and courage? The Brightest Thing in the World is a funny, heartfelt new play delving into the people we think we know and the people we know we love.
“I love Leah Nanako Winkler’s use of language and the smart, messy, recognizable women at the center of the story,” says director Keira Fromm. “She has created a play that manages to be both a funny queer rom-com and a devastating portrait of addiction and the ways we’re all constantly in a state of recovery.” The Brightest Thing in the World was commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre in 2019, where it received its world premiere in 2022. About Face’s production will be the play’s Midwest premiere.
Lavender Men
Written by Roger Q. Mason
Directed by Lucky Stiff
May 9 – June 8, 2024 | Press opening: Friday, May 17
Showtimes: Thurs & Fri @ 8:00pm, Sat @ 3:00pm and 8:00pm, Sun @ 3:00pm
at The Den Theatre, 1331 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago
Pay-what-you-can tickets ($5 – $35) onsale September 15, 2023, at The Den Theatre box office or About Face Theatre’s website.
Taffeta is a fat, multi-racial femme with a unique form of queer magic: she can conjure dead historical figures. In this energetic and surreal play, Taffeta invites audiences along as she summons none other than President Abraham Lincoln and his handsome young law clerk Elmer Ellsworth to her stage. Playing every other character in Abe and Elmer’s gay narrative, Taffeta uses this fantasia to confront issues of visibility, race, and LGBTQ+ inclusion. But is any of this historically accurate? Sit down, honey, that’s not what we’re here for. Lavender Men is an embrace to every queer, fat person of color who has been ignored, neglected, or erased for unapologetically being themselves.
Lavender Men was first produced at Skyline Theatre in Los Angeles in 2022 with playwright Roger Q. Mason in the role of Taffeta. About Face Theatre introduced the play to audiences last season through our Re/Generation Studio workshop series, featuring playwright Roger Q. Mason and director Lucky Stiff. Audience reaction was so enthusiastic that About Face is now thrilled to present a full production of this new work in our 29th season.
“Lavender Men was born from my time living and studying in Chicago, almost 10 years ago,” says playwright Roger Q. Mason. “The city’s vibrant embrace of LGBTQIA+ life liberated me personally and artistically, and I emerged a proud plus-sized, queer, POC playwright in the American Theatre. About Face Theatre is a leader, locally and nationally, in queer storytelling, and I am honored to partner with them to bring Lavender Men home to its birthplace—Chicago.”
Touring Workshops and Performances
About Face teaching artists offer fun and accessible workshops for groups throughout the year. In collaboration with schools, churches, workplaces, clubs, and community groups, these sessions can increase a sense of belonging, invite brave dialogue, and move groups toward equity and action goals. The company’s facilitators work with group leaders to identify key goals and then present activities in mindfulness, listening, and storytelling. Interested parties can learn more at AboutFaceTheatre.com/education/touring-programs to learn more.
Invest in the future of LGBTQ+ stories and community. Donate today!
Our 29th season represents an investment in LGBTQ+ community and equity. Amplifying the voices of queer artists and our stories is necessary, now more than ever. If you believe as we do that this work is an investment in a future full of LGBTQ+ acceptance and celebration, that we hope you will help make this a reality by donating toward our $25,000 Summer Campaign fundraising goal.
Will you help make our 2023-2024 season a success?