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Showing posts with label queer theatre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label queer theatre. Show all posts

Friday, July 21, 2023

About Face Theatre's 2023-2024 Season To Feature Two Regional Premieres

ChiIL Live Shows On Our Radar 

About Face Theatre 

Announces 2023-2024 Season

AFT’s 29th season will feature two regional premieres alongside

touring workshops and community building

About Face Theatre announces plans for its 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.

About Face’s 2023-2024 season will begin in October with Re/Generation Studio, a free three-week reading workshop series charting the future of LGBTQ+ theatre. AFT first presented Re/Generation Studio in its 2022-2023 season and featured such plays as Roger Q. Mason’s Lavender Men, Steven Strafford’s The Model Congressman, and Derek Lee McPhatter’s underdrown, among others. Plays and workshops in this season’s Re/Generation Studio will be announced in August. The season will continue in 2024 with the Midwest premiere of The Brightest Thing in the World by Leah Nanako Winkler, directed by AFT Artistic Associate Keira Fromm. The Brightest Thing in the World charts the evolution of a lesbian couple’s rom-com courtship through struggles with honesty and addiction. The season will conclude with the Midwest premiere of Lavender Men by Roger Q. Mason, directed by Lucky Stiff, starting in April 2024. In Lavender Men, contemporary gender non-conformist Taffeta plays post-mortem matchmaker to Abe Lincoln and his queer legal assistant Elmer Ellsworth, only to realize she is the one who needs real love healing. During the season, About Face will also offer customized touring workshops and performances throughout Chicagoland designed to increase a sense of belonging, invite brave dialogue, and move individuals and groups toward equity and action. 

“We are at a fraught moment in history where it is vital that we continue elevating LGBTQ+ stories and amplifying queer voices,” says AFT Artistic Director Megan Carney. “About Face’s mission is all about advancing LGBTQ+ equity through community building, education, and performance. And this season features some truly unique stories that will bring audiences together and incite our imaginations in the ways that only great theatre can.”

  

ABOUT FACE THEATRE’S 2023-2024 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) on sale 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.”

  

Re/Generation Studio

An intergenerational workshop series building the future of queer theatre

Nov 30 – Dec 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.”

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.


ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Keira Fromm (she/her): The Brightest Thing in the World director

Keira is a Chicago-based, Jeff Award-nominated director. She is also an Artistic Associate with About Face Theatre where she directed Bull in a China Shop, Significant Other, Bright Half Life, and A Kid Like Jake. Other directing credits include: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Milwaukee Chamber Theatre), The Moors, A Phoenix Too Frequent, and A Doll’s House (American Players Theatre), The Last Match (Writers Theatre); At the Wedding and Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley (TheatreSquared); Top Girls and hang (Remy Bumppo); The Columnist (American Blues Theater); Charles Ives Take Me Home (Strawdog); The How and the Why (TimeLine Theatre); Broadsword (The Gift Theatre); and Fallow (Steep Theatre.) She received her MFA from DePaul University, her BFA from Boston University, is an alumna of Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, and a member of SDC, the professional directors union. Keira will be directing The Liar at American Players Theatre this upcoming summer. www.keirafromm.com

Leah Nanako Winkler (she/her): The Brightest Thing in the World playwright

Leah Nanako Winkler is an award-winning playwright and TV Writer from Kamakura, Japan, and Lexington, Kentucky. Her plays include God Said This, Two Mile Hollow, Kentucky, Hot Asian Doctor Husband, and The Brightest Thing in the World, as well as many short plays all produced Off-Broadway and regionally. Accolades and fellowships: Yale Drama Series Prize, Mark O’Donnell Prize from The Actors Fund and Playwrights Horizons, Audible’s Emerging Playwrights Fund, Jerome New York Fellow at the Lark, Francesca Primus Prize, and a 2020 Steinberg Playwright Award. She is published by American Theater Magazine, Nanjing University’s Stage and Screen Reviews, Yale University Press, Backstage, Smith and Krauss, Samuel French, and Dramatists Play Service. TV credits include Michael Moore’s TV NATION, New Amsterdam, A24’s Ramy on Hulu (where she along with the other writers won a Peabody Award), Love Life on HBO MAX, and currently on projects at Apple, Warner and Amazon.

Roger Q. Mason (they/them): Lavender Men playwright

Roger Q. Mason is a writer and performer who uses the lens of history to disrupt the biases that divide rather than unite us. Their playwriting has been seen on Broadway (Circle in the Square Reading Series); Off and Off-Off-Broadway; and regionally. Mason's world premiere of Lavender Men was lauded by the Los Angeles Times as "evoking the mingled visions of Suzan-Lori Parks, Jeremy O. Harris, and Michael R. Jackson." As a filmmaker, Mason has been recognized by the British Film Institute, Lonely Wolf International Film Festival, SCAD Film Festival, AT&T Film Award, and Atlanta International Film Festival. Their films have been screened in the US, UK, Poland, Brazil, and Asia. Mason holds degrees from Princeton University, Middlebury College, and Northwestern University. They are a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and Ma-Yi’s Writing Lab, and are an alum of Page 73’s Interstate 73 Writers Group and Primary Stages Writing Cohort. Mason has co-hosted the podcast Sister Roger’s Gayborhood and hosted This Way Out Radio's Queerly Yours: Portraits in Courage. They are a lead mentor of The Marsha P. Johnson Institute’s Starship Fellowship, the New Visions Fellowship, and the Shay Foundation Fellowship. Instagram: @rogerq.mason

Lucky Stiff (they/them): Lavender Men director

Lucky Stiff is a trans and nonbinary director, writer, and performer working in Chicago and New York. They build original experiences that combine nightclub culture and performance art which have been featured at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Blue Man Group Chicago, Boy Friday Dance Company, and Bushwig Festival of Drag, among many others. They hold an MFA in Directing for Theater from Northwestern University and have lectured in performance and directing at UC Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara, Northwestern University, University of Illinois at Chicago, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. luckystiffdrag.com

Pen Wilder (they/them): Re/Generation Studio co-creator

Pen is a playwright, aspiring dramaturg, and artist with a focus in queer storytelling. They contribute to 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. Their play Switch Hitta was featured in last season’s Re/Generation Studio, and they are currently working on their next full-length play, Earthshine.

Megan Carney (she/her): AFT Artistic Director, Re/Generation Studio co-curator

Megan’s work thrives at the intersection of making theatre and building community. As the Artistic Director for About Face Theatre she combines her love for directing, producing, and teaching. Prior to working with About Face in this role, Megan served as the Director of the Gender and Sexuality Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago and was one of the founders of About Face Youth Theatre. She is a certified mediator with the Center for Conflict Resolution, earned an MFA in Theatre with a focus on Directing and Public Dialogue from Virginia Tech, and a BA from Kalamazoo College, where her ideas about art and activism began to take shape. Recent Chicago directing credits include The Gulf, 20/20, and Time Is On Our Side (About Face), Winter, Grizzly Mama, Danielle Pinnock’s Body/Courage, American Wee Pie, and The Walls (Rivendell). Plays based on extended oral history projects including Women At War (Rivendell); Open Systems (Goodman Theatre); and Let Them Eat Cake (Dixon Place, NYC). Megan designed and teaches a Queer Theatre class for Columbia College Chicago and has been an adjunct instructor at DePaul University. Her work has been recognized with multiple After Dark Awards, the GLSEN Pathfinder Award, an APA Presidential Citation, induction into Chicago’s LGBT Hall of Fame, and a Rockefeller Foundation MAP Grant, among others.

Logan Jones (he/him): AFT Managing Director

Logan is a Chicago-based artist, administrator, and consultant. He has frequently collaborated with multiple theatre companies while utilizing his artistic and technical skills, organizational capabilities, and highly-collaborative working style. Logan has worked with Ensemble Consulting as Facilitator and Project Manager on various leadership transitions and organizational development projects since 2015. As a stage manager and production manager, he has helmed multiple productions for About Face Theatre, American Theater Company, The House Theatre of Chicago, Windy City Playhouse, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, 13Exp, and the American Music Theatre Project, among others. Logan holds a BA in Theatre and BA in Modern Languages from Kansas State University, a certificate in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the Workplace from University of South Florida, and is a graduate of the Axelson Center Bootcamp for Nonprofit CEOs at North Park University.

ABOUT FACE THEATRE advances LGBTQ+ equity through community building, education, and performance. AFT envisions an affirming and equitable world in which all LGBTQ+ individuals are thriving and free from prejudice and discrimination. About Face Theatre is also dedicated to being an intentionally and increasingly anti-racist organization. Due to the intersectionality of our identities, we understand our work to advance LGBTQ+ equity as directly connected to movements for racial justice.

 


Thursday, January 26, 2023

FREE With RSVP: Queer Theatre Workshops Via About Face Theatre every Saturday from January 28 – March 18, 2023, at The Den Theatre

  About Face Theatre to present

a public intergenerational workshop series 

Re/Generation Studio

charting the future of Queer Theatre



About Face Theatre continues its 28th season with Re/Generation Studio, a series of innovative, intergenerational workshops focused on new works and the future of queer theatre. The goal of the workshops is to bring together people of diverse ages and backgrounds to reconnect and imagine new ways of producing theatre. Each workshop will be grounded by staged readings of sections of new plays that 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.

All workshops are free and open to the public. Workshops will be presented every Saturday from January 28 – March 18, 2023, at The Den Theatre, 1331 N Milwaukee Ave, in Wicker Park (subject to change). More information can be found at aboutfacetheatre.com.

The artistic producer of Re/Generation Studio is theatre artist AJ Schwartz. Schwartz is a theatre director and producer who has previously worked with About Face on Time Is On Our Side and This Bitter Earth, as well as curating AFT’s OUT Front play reading series. They have also worked with Haven Chicago, Steep Theatre, First Floor Theatre, The New Coordinates, SideShow Theatre, and The Syndicate. The creative team for the series additionally includes casting director Catherine Miller and stage manager Rebecca Walker. Featured artists include Dionne Addai, Kirsten Baity, Mikael Burke, Roger Q. Mason, Derek Lee McPhatter, Lucky Stiff, and Steven Strafford.

“One of the major issues that has come up for theatre artists over the last few years is having regular shared space where we can collaborate,” said About Face Theatre Artistic Director Megan Carney. “We know we are stronger together. So Re/Generation Studio addresses that need. It is an invitation to gather across generations and explore the stories we want to tell going forward. This is just one of the ways About Face Theatre is dedicated to the future of the field. “

Re/Generation Studio

January 28 – March 18, 2023

Saturdays 2:00-5:00pm

All workshops are free and open to the public. 

Reservations are recommended and can be made at aboutfacetheatre.com.

This winter, About Face Theatre opens its doors for people across generations to gather in a series of public workshops exploring new plays and new models of play production. This will be a collective dreaming space for connecting with each other, learning about new plays, world-building, and exploring new production models. Each session will feature a new play and invite conversation, collaboration, and creation around key questions it raises. We’ll also have some food and time to catch up with each other.

 

Individual events:

Re/Generation Studio: Love and Nappiness

Saturday, January 28, 2023, 2:00-5:00pm

at About Face Theatre rehearsal studio, 5252 N Broadway Ave, Chicago, IL 60640

Featuring readings from Love and Nappiness by Kirsten Baity, directed by Dionne Addai.

In Love and Nappiness, when Meraki’s girlfriend brings her to a queer owned hair salon as a bonding exercise, the experience quickly devolves into an exercise in dealing with micro-aggressions and the intricacies of interracial dating.

 

Re/Generation Studio: Lavender Men

Saturday, February 18, 2023, 2:00-5:00pm

at The Den Theatre, 1331 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60622

Featuring readings from Lavender Men by Roger Q Mason, directed by Lucky Stiff.

Lavender Men is a genre-pushing play that courageously re-imagines one of America’s most beloved historical icons, President Abraham Lincoln, through a queer person of color’s storytelling lens. Taffeta, a self-proclaimed "fabulous queer creation of color," invades Honest Abe’s private world to confront issues of visibility, race, and LGBTQ+ inclusion that still challenge us today. Lavender Men is an embrace to every queer, fat person of color who has been ignored, neglected, or erased for being themselves unapologetically in this world. They are beautiful; they are essential; they are perfect - just the way they are.

 

Re/Generation Studio: The Model Congressman

Saturday, February 25, 2023, 2:00-5:00pm

at The Den Theatre, 1331 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60622

Featuring readings from The Model Congressman by Steven Strafford, directed by AJ Schwartz.

In The Model Congressman, it’s 1994, and Kevin’s just a kid hoping to win a big scholarship and get enough money to go to the school of his dreams. It’s 1994, and Kevin’s just a closeted kid who secretly goes on adults-only chat rooms looking for men. It’s 1994, and Kevin’s just an ambitious, closeted kid who has to decide how far he’s willing to go to impress the man who can change or ruin his life. It’s time to go to the 1994 Model Congress!

 

Re/Generation Studio: underdrown

Saturday, March 4, 2023, 2:00-5:00pm

at The Den Theatre, 1331 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60622

Featuring readings from underdrown by Derek Lee McPhatter, directed by Mikael Burke.

As climate catastrophe reshapes Chicago, a queer black intellectual confronts a lover, a computer, and a mysterious visitor on his quest for truth in virtual worlds. The lines between the digital world and “real life” blur as our blackademic grows obsessed with researching a problematic video game.

 

Re/Generation Studio: TBA

Saturday, March 11, 2023, 2:00-5:00pm

at  The Den Theatre, 1331 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60622

Featuring readings from a new play; title and director to be announced soon.

 

Re/Generation Studio: TBA

Saturday, March 18, 2023, 2:00-5:00pm

at The Den Theatre, 1331 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60622

Featuring readings from a new play; title and director to be announced soon.

  

ARTIST BIOS

DIONNE ADDAI (she/they), Director (Love and Nappiness)

Dionne Addaiis a director, actor, writer, and teaching artist local to Chicago. Their artistic practice centers on educating in order to encourage political action and mutual aid. As a director, she’s worked on Meeting Our Desires, Botticelli, and Sexuality Out Loud. Recent acting credits include Nina Simone: Four Women (Merrimack Repertory Theatre), The Secret Yes (Filament Theatre), Eclipsed (Pegasus/Theater on the Lake), and We are Pussy Riot (Red Tape Theatre). She is represented by Actor’s Talent Group.

KIRSTEN BAITY (they/them), Playwright (Love and Nappiness)

Kirsten Baity is a Chicago-based playwright, deviser, and intimacy director. Their work mainly explores race and gender politics within queer spaces. Their plays include Forest Friends & the First Day of Spring (Theatre Between Addresses), This Is Normal (Quaranstream Theatre Festival), Rage Isn’t Free: A participatory play (Youth Empowerment and Performance Project), and Tonin Town, Minstrelsy 2.0 (Columbia College Chicago). They have devised plays with  Goodman Theatre's Playbuild and Intergen Ensembles, About Face Youth Theatre, For Youth Inquiry, and Free Street Theater. Kirsten is a proud member of the Intimacy Coordinators of Color cohort and an About Face Theatre Green Room Collective alum. For more info, check out kirstenbaity.com

MIKAEL BURKE (he/him), Director (underdrown)

Mikael Burke is a Chicago-based director and educator and served as Associate Artistic Director with About Face from 2020 through 2022. A Princess Grace Award-winner in Theatre and Jeff Award-nominated director, Mikael’s worked with Goodman Theatre, About Face Theatre, Victory Gardens Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Raven Theatre, Jackalope Theatre Company, First Floor Theater, American Theatre Company, Chicago Dramatists, The Story Theatre, and Windy City Playhouse in Chicago, and regionally with Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Geva Theatre Center, Phoenix Theatre Indianapolis. Recent credits include the American premiere of Routes by Rachel De-Lahay, The Wanderers by Anna Ziegler, Shakespeare’s Richard III, The Magnolia Ballet by Terry Guest (2022 Jeff Award Winner - Production, Short Run); Fireflies by Donja R. Love (Black Theatre Alliance Award - Best Direction of an Ensemble). | mklburke.com

ROGER Q. MASON (they/them), Playwright (Lavender Men)

Roger Q. Mason was dubbed by Theatre Mania as "a major voice in the theatrical vanguard."  Their playwriting has been seen on Broadway (Circle in the Square Reading Series); Off and Off-Off-Broadway; and regionally.  Mason's critically-acclaimed world premiere of Lavender Men was recently lauded by the LA Times as "a daring theatrical talent on display...evoking the mingled visions of Suzan-Lori Parks, Jeremy O. Harris and Michael R. Jackson."   As a filmmaker, Mason has been recognized by the British Film Institute, Lonely Wolf International Film Festival, SCAD Film Festival, AT&T Film Award, and Atlanta International Film Festival. Their films have screened in the US, UK, Poland, Brazil, and Asia.  Mason holds degrees from Princeton University, Middlebury College, and Northwestern University. They are a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, Page 73’s Interstate 73 Writers Group, and Primary Stages Writing Cohort; the co-host of Sister Roger’s Gayborhood podcast; the host of This Way Out Radio's Queerly Yours: Portraits in Courage; and lead mentor of the Marsha P. Johnson Starship Fellowship, Shay Foundation Fellowship, and New Visions Fellowship.

DEREK LEE McPHATTER (he/him), Playwright (underdrown)

Derek Lee McPhatter is committed to new work at intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality and technology. A 2021 Creative Capital Awardee, Derek is currently developing the NightQueen Performance Suite as a triptych of evening-length works spanning theater, music, opera, spoken word and new media.  The project has been supported by a 2022 Chicago Performance Commission from the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, as well as additional residency and developmental support from Chicago Dramatists, Prop Thtr, Perceptions Theatre and Primary Stages. Derek served as librettist, book-writer and/or lyricist for five new music-theatre works with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, as well as various theater projects with JACK, Hi-ARTS, and The Drama League, among others. His work has been supported by grants and prizes from the Jerome Foundation, the Chicago Digital Media Production Fund, the Puffin Foundation, the Propeller Fund, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, and the United States Embassy in the United Kingdom, to name a few. He is a native of Pickerington Ohio and currently splits his time between Chicago, NYC and Los Angeles. www.derekleemcphatter.com

AJ SCHWARTZ (they/them), Artistic Producer / Director (The Model Congressman)

AJ Schwartz is a theatre director and producer in Chicago, making work focused on queerness, relationships, and the fall of the American Empire. You may have seen their production of How You Kiss Me Is Not How I Like To Be Kissed by Dan Giles at Haven Chicago. They have also worked with storefront companies in Chicago including About Face Theatre, Steep Theatre, First Floor Theater, The New Coordinates, Sideshow Theatre Company, and The Syndicate. In their free time they enjoy photography and hosting dinner parties.

LUCKY STIFF (they/them), Director (Lavender Men)

Lucky Stiff is a trans and nonbinary director, writer, and performer working in Chicago and New York. They build original experiences that combine nightclub culture and performance art which have been featured at the Museum of Con­temporary Art Chicago, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Blue Man Group Chicago, Boy Friday Dance Company, and Bushwig Festival of Drag, among many others. They hold an MFA in Directing for Theater from Northwestern University and have lectured in performance and directing at UC Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara, Northwestern University, University of Illinois at Chicago, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. luckystiffdrag.com

STEVEN STRAFFORD (he/him), Playwright (The Model Congressman)

Steven Strafford is grateful to be a part of this festival and to return to working with About Face Theatre where he performed his award-winning solo play, Methtacular! He has performed that show across the country for a long time now, and he loves it every single time. Methtacular! was recorded at Steppenwolf Theatre’s 1700 Space in 2019. His play Small Jokes About Monsters won the New American Voices Contest in 2016, was a semifinalist for The O’Neill, and won the 2022 Ready-to-Publish Award and will be published and licensed by Broadway Licensing later this year. Small Jokes About Monsters was produced at Landing Theatre in Houston (Nominated, Outstanding New Play), 16th Street Theater in Chicago, and at Lamb Theatre in Sioux City. His play The Match Game won the 2022 Jackie Demaline Award at Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati. His play Greater Illinois was semifinalist at The O’Neill in 2021. The play was an official selection of Tantum East’s New Play Development, MATC, Great Plains Theatre Conference, and received a workshop with The Road Theatre in Los Angeles in 2022. His essays have been published on various sites and in the book The Anatomy of Silence. He has an MFA in Playwriting from Ohio University.  As an actor, he's been across the globe on fancy and less fancy stages. He has been on TV, in commercials and movies, and one time played Hepatitis A for an industrial, which is a performance he still receives emails about...so, go figure.

ABOUT FACE THEATRE advances LGBTQ+ equity through community building, education, and performance. AFT envisions an affirming and equitable world in which all LGBTQ+ individuals are thriving and free from prejudice and discrimination. About Face Theatre is also dedicated to being an intentionally and increasingly anti-racist organization. Due to the intersectionality of our identities, we understand our work to advance LGBTQ+ equity as directly connected to movements for racial justice.


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