AFT News

About Face Theatre begins its 30th season with programming to advance LGBTQ+ equity through community building, education, and performance. The company’s upcoming programs feature local and national partnerships to expand its impact and elevate LGBTQ+ voices. A new touring show about gender, sexuality, and healthy relationships; a 30th Anniversary Party; and a national partnership elevating Black Trans Women playwrights kick off the year.

About Face’s 2024-2025 season will kick off this month with its fourth presentation at Chicago Live! at Navy Pier. The season will continue with a special engagement two-weekend run of its next touring show, We Could Be: The Future of Sex Ed, in partnership with Rivendell Theatre. Building on the company’s 29-year history of touring new plays and education programs to schools, community organizations, conferences, and workplaces, We Could Be is currently available for bookings in 2025. The company is thrilled to celebrate with a 30th Season Party that includes the presentation of Leppen Leadership Awards and introduces a new award in honor of one of the founding company members, Brian Goodman. To wrap up the fall, About Face is partnering with Long Wharf Theatre of New Haven, CT, for the 5th year of Black Trans Women at the Center, a new work development program and virtual play festival.

“We are proud to enter our 30th anniversary season with partnerships that are so aligned with our mission,” states Megan Carney, About Face Theatre’s Artistic Director. “The artists and programs leading the season invite you to connect in different and meaningful ways so we can continue to grow and create change together. We’re excited to be out and about during this landmark year.”

ABOUT FACE THEATRE’S 2024-2025 SEASON

Thirty & Thriving: Stories of Queer Liberation

Featuring Jyreika Guest, Collin Quinn Rice, Donovan Session
Directed by AFT Artistic Director Megan Carney

Sept 21, 2024 @ 5:00pm
Part of Chicago Live! at Navy Pier, free and open to the public
Lake Stage Polk Bros Park at Navy Pier, 600 E Grand Ave, Chicago

For the fourth year in a row, About Face Theatre has been invited to perform in one of Chicago’s most spectacular public events, Chicago Live! Join AFT for a performance set that includes three monologues from three world premiere plays in our rich, 30-year history, including Sam Mueller’s Laced, E. Patrick Johnson’s Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South, and About Face Youth Theatre’s On The Record, featuring a story from Vernita Gray.

Chicago Live! is a free annual two-day performance festival featuring more than 80 artists and cultural organizations in back-to-back performances on three stages. Performances span every artistic genre – including music, dance, theatre, spoken word, improv, vocal performance, and more! Chicago Live! runs Saturday, Sept 21, 12-9pm and Sunday, Sept 22, 12-6pm.

We Could Be

Conceived by & Creative Producer by About Face Theatre Education Manager Dionne Addai
Written by Kirsten Baity and Teddy Thomas
Directed by Alyssa Vera Ramos

October 16-27, 2024 | Opening: Friday, October 17
Showtimes: Wed (10/16 only), Thurs & Fri @ 8:00pm, Sat @ 4:00pm & 8:00pm, Sun @ 4:00pm
at Rivendell Theatre, 5779 N Ridge Ave, Chicago

Pay-what-you-can tickets ($5 – $35) on sale September 16, 2023, at Rivendell Theatre box office and About Face Theatre’s website.

What if building your identity, seeking out knowledge, and facing conflict felt more like… a video game? Join two siblings as they navigate their curiosities and needs around crushes, gender, and feeling safe and confident in their bodies. Though they’ll meet shame—and their own anxieties—along the way, a solid support system keeps them resourced on their journey … and that includes YOU! Incorporating true stories from Illinoisians of all ages, mindfulness practices for everyday life, and honest conversation, We Could Be is an interactive new play that asks: In a world where societal expectations lay out your path, do you dare to choose your own adventure?

We Could Be was developed and received a staged reading last season as part of About Face Theatre and Bonnie Metzgar’s Lit Play Lab 2024. The short run will be followed by a tour. About Face Theatre began touring interactive theatre productions to schools in 1997 to open up dialogue about sexuality and gender with young people and their allies. We Could Be is the latest offering available for bookings by contacting the theatre.

30th Anniversary Party

Thursday, November 7, 2024
6:00pm Cocktails, Cocktails and Supper
7:00pm Program and Presentation of Awards
Venue West, 221 N Paulina St, Chicago, IL 60612

The Board, staff, and major donors of About Face are hosting a special event to celebrate the company’s 30th season. The event brings together multiple generations of the company’s supporters, artists, and staff with performances, presentation of Leppen Leadership Awards, and the introduction of the Brian Goodman Shooting Stars Awards. Tickets go on sale XXX.

Black Trans Women at the Center: A Virtual New Play Festival

Co-produced by Long Wharf Theatre, The Theater Offensive, and Breaking the Binary Theatre, in partnership with About Face Theatre, National Queer Theater, and Portland Center Stage
Curated by Long Wharf Theatre Artistic Ensemble member Lady Dane Figueroa

Streaming Nov 18-20, 2024
Black Trans Women at the Center Chicago watch party:
Wednesday, November 20, 2024
5:00pm-7:00pm
at Brave Space Alliance, 1515 E 52nd Pl, 3rd Floor, Chicago
Admission is free and open to the public; food will be provided.

Experience the electrifying creativity and visionary talent of Black trans women playwrights as they take center stage in a captivating digital showcase of new plays. Black Trans Women at the Center is part of Long Wharf Theatre’s 60th Anniversary Season. To honor this fifth round of new work, Long Wharf Theatre Artistic Ensemble member Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi and team established partnerships with other theatres to expand the reach of the festival and introduce new audiences to the power and artistry of these plays. In Chicago, About Face Theatre Artistic Director Megan Carney and Education Manager Dionne Addai participated in planning meetings with the Long Wharf team. They also read through four years of plays from the project along with this year’s new work. After that, they collaborated with Lady Dane to select two of the plays for production through About Face.

The festival will premiere on November 18 and be available to stream for free for three days. About Face Theatre, in partnership with Brave Space Alliance, will present a watch party of select works on Wednesday, November 20. This watch party will be free and open to the public.

The season continues in 2025

More information on the rest of About Face Theatre’s 30th anniversary season, including its third annual Re/Generation Studio and productions will be announced this fall.

ABOUT FACE THEATRE’S 30-YEAR HISTORY

About Face Theatre was founded in 1995 to address the lack of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, and queer (LGBTQ+) voices in the American theatrical canon. The company has evolved and adapted in many ways while staying true to the core principles of producing remarkable new plays, offering groundbreaking educational and leadership programs for and with queer young people, and demonstrating an unwavering commitment to advancing LGBTQ+ equity through community building, education, and performance.

In 1998, the company launched About Face Youth Theatre and other education programs to provide arts-based community building and resources for LGBTQ+ youth. The programs became nationally recognized and continue to build community and opportunities across generations. Education programs at About Face include original play development, onsite workshops, and skill building, employment and leadership development, and touring shows. About Face has continued to adapt its educational programming over the years to meet the evolving needs of LGBTQ+ youth and their allies.

The company started the Leppen Leadership Awards in 2001. Named in honor of founding supporter and consultant Michael Leppen, award recipients are people and organizations that lead with creativity and purpose to advance LGBTQ+ equity. Over the years, Leppen Leadership Award recipients have included Affinity Community Services, Emmanuel Garcia, Precious Brady Davis, Jane M. Saks, Windy City Media Group, Art Johnston and Pepe Peña, Victor Salvo of the Legacy Project, and Gloria “Mama Gloria” Allen, among others.

The company works with nationally recognized and emerging artists. About Face has a strong track record of launching world premiere plays that have big impact and go on to successful productions around the country. The company’s inaugural season opened with an adaptation of the Jim Grimsley novel Dream Boy, written by AFT founder Eric Rosen, that went on to enjoy productions in Atlanta, Chapel Hill, and San Francisco. In 2002, the company produced I Am My Own Wife with Moises Kaufman and Doug Wright which became a Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning production and went on to international acclaim. Following its 2003 premiere with About Face, Patricia Kane’s lesbian musical Pulp has been produced in San Diego, Boston, Madison, Cleveland, and Los Angeles. In 2004, Tectonic Theater Project and Steppenwolf Theatre Company formed a collaborative partnership with AFT to produce an adaptation of Tennessee Williams’s One Arm, which advanced to an Off-Broadway run. AFT’s 2011 world premiere production of Philip Dawkins’s The Homosexuals enjoyed great box office success in Chicago prior to full productions in Detroit, Raleigh-Durham, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Buffalo. In 2012, AFT premiered the holiday musical We 3 Lizas, which has since been seen in Richmond and Des Moines. In the same season, the company co-produced Paul Oakley Stovall’s Immediate Family which then had a run in Houston, as well as at Los Angeles’ Mark Taper Forum in 2015. AFT’s 2016 world premiere of Philip Dawkins’s Le Switch was subsequently produced in Minneapolis and San Francisco. In the 2021-2022 season, AFT workshopped and produced The Magnolia Ballet, written by Terry Guest which enjoyed a year-long rolling world premiere through the National New Play Network. Through the years, multiple new plays created by ensembles in the About Face Youth Theatre have been adapted and toured throughout the region accounting for 50% of the company’s reach in audiences. As of the completion of the 2023-24 season, AFT has achieved 94 productions, including 52 world premieres.

About Face has been recognized with numerous industry awards including Jeff Awards, After Dark Awards, and recognitions from the Black Theater Alliance and the American Theatre Wing. The company has also received 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.