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About Face Theatre Announces Local and National Partnerships for 30th Anniversary Season
Plans include a new “choose your own adventure” play ready to tour the region
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, consent, 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 with a special engagement two-weekend run of its next touring show, We Could Be in association 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. Next, the company is thrilled to celebrate its 30th Anniversary Season with a 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 and vibrant community events that serve our mission,” states Megan Carney, About Face Theatre’s Artistic Director. “We designed the season to expand our reach and offer different and meaningful ways to connect, grow, and create change together. We’re excited to be out and about during this landmark year.”
ABOUT FACE THEATRE’S 2024-2025 SEASON
We Could Be
in association with Rivendell Theatre
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 18
Showtimes: Mon (10/21 only), Thurs & Fri @ 8:00pm, Sat @ 4:00pm & 8:00pm, Sun @ 6:00pm at Rivendell Theatre, 5779 N Ridge Ave, Chicago
Pay-what-you-can tickets ($5 – $35) on sale September 20, 2024, through the About Face Theatre website: aboutfacetheatre.com and the Rivendell Theatre website and box office.
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 About Face Theatre.
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?
30th Anniversary Party
Thursday, November 7, 2024
6:00pm Cocktails, Cocktails and Supper
7:00pm Entertainment 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 festive event to celebrate the company’s 30th Anniversary Season. The event promises to bring 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 are on sale now at aboutfacetheatre.com.
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
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 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.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Dionne Addai (they/she): We Could Be Creative Producer
Dionne Addai is a performer, writer, director, and teaching artist local to Chicago. They’re a passionate advocate for reproductive rights, racial justice, and free comprehensive sex education. Their artistic practice centers on educating in order to encourage sociopolitical action and mutual aid. As a performer, Dionne has multiple on-camera credits and has worked with over 20 renowned theatre companies in the U.S. (Merrimack Repertory, Raven Theatre, Filament Theatre; etc). Prior to joining About Face Theatre as Education Manager, she worked with AFT as an actor, director, and writer (Kickback Festival, Power in Pride, Re/Generation Studio). Dionne is represented by Actors Talent Group
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.
Alyssa Vera Ramos (she/her/ella): We Could Be Director
Alyssa is a theatre director, devising artist, cultural strategist, and blossoming intimacy director dedicated to dreaming—and living into—a liberated world. Her always-collaborative artistic work explores themes of bodily autonomy and delight, racial justice and decolonization, collective learning, and her Boricua heritage. Directing and lead developer credits include: Epic Tales From the Land of Melanin (FEMelanin at Latinx Theatre Commons’ International TYA Festival and Free Street Theater), Expectation (For Youth Inquiry), Meeting Our Desires (Night Out In the Parks – also a podcast!), and You Can’t Cover the Sky With Your Hand (Pivot Arts’ The Memory Place), in-development with her mother, novelist Marisel Vera. For many years, she served as the Artistic Director of For Youth Inquiry Performance Company at the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health (ICAH), where she also co-facilitated the youth organizing cohort and helped win major legislation for abortion access. Alyssa is a practitioner of Theatre of the Oppressed, Creative Drama, and Participatory Theatre. She co-authored The Sex Ed Playbook: Participatory Theatre for Health Education and is a contributor to the upcoming volumes Applied Theatre and Gender Justice and Into Abolitionist Theatre: A Guidebook for Liberatory Theatre-making. She is also a proud curator of Swarm Artist Residency and a dedicated student at La Escuelita Bombera de Corazón — two of her cultural homes.
About Brave Space Alliance
Brave Space Alliance is the first Black-led, trans-led LGBTQ+ Center located on the South Side of Chicago, dedicated to creating and providing affirming, culturally competent, for-us by-us resources, programming, and services for LGBTQ+ individuals on the South and West sides of the city. They strive to empower, embolden, and educate each other through mutual aid, knowledge-sharing, and the creation of community-sourced resources as we build toward the liberation of all oppressed peoples.
About Rivendell Theatre Ensemble
Founded in 1994, Rivendell Theatre Ensemble advances the lives of women through theatre. Rivendell cultivates the talents of women artists—writers, actors, directors, designers and technicians—by seeking out innovative plays that explore unique female experiences and producing them in an intimate salon environment. The company employs women theatre artists, offers mind-expanding experiences with new voices and perspectives, and sparks dialogue and action on critical issues in the lives of women and their communities. In its 25+ year history, Rivendell has earned 12 Joseph Jefferson Awards and nearly four dozen nominations. They are recognized as a national force in new play development and a home for women theatre artists, and the company engages about 200 artists and 3,000+ audience members each year through their mainstage season and new work development.
About Long Wharf Theatre
Founded in 1965, Long Wharf Theatre (Jacob G. Padrón, Artistic Director; Kit Ingui, Managing Director) is a Tony Award-winning company of international renown. It was founded on the notion that New Haven deserves an active culture that is locally created, supported by community leaders and patrons of the arts. It is recognized for a historic commitment to commissioning, developing, and producing new plays and musicals that have become a part of the modern American canon. More than 30 of its productions have transferred to Broadway or Off-Broadway runs, three of which—Wit, The Shadow Box, and The Gin Game—won Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. It was among the earliest recipients of the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre (1978) and its productions have won numerous accolades, including Tony, New York Drama Critics' Circle, and Obie Awards; a Margo Jones Award; and nominations and Connecticut Critics Circle Awards in nearly every category.
ABOUT FACE THEATRE advances LGBTQ+ equity through community building, education, and performance. Learn more at aboutfacetheatre.com
