About Face Theatre Announces 27th Season to Begin March 2022
About Face Theatre announced its return to live, in-person theatre with its 27th season. Dedicated to telling queer stories that advance dialogue about gender and sexuality, AFT will produce a trio of new works that meet this moment of extraordinary change in our communities.
About Face's 2021-2022 season will begin in March of 2022 with the Chicago premiere of Samantha Mueller's new play LACED, directed by AFT Artistic Associate Lexi Saunders. LACED tells the story of how a queer community comes together after its local hangout is vandalized. Originally announced for the 2019-2020 season, About Face is proud to finally bring this energetic work to Chicago.
The season will continue with the Chicago premiere of THE MAGNOLIA BALLET, a haunting new play by Terry Guest about the secrets kept through multiple generations of a Black family in the American South. Developed in collaboration with Phoenix Theatre of Indianapolis, THE MAGNOLIA BALLET will be workshopped in fall 2021 and receive a full production at About Face in May 2022, directed by AFT Associate Artistic Director Mikael Burke.
The season will conclude with an original production by the About Face Youth Theatre ensemble in the summer of 2022.
Beginning this season, About Face will present its performances at The Den Theatre in Wicker Park. AFT shows will appear in the 99-seat Bookspan Theatre, an adaptable blackbox space which will allow the company to continue to produce innovative new works in intimate and up-close stagings. Through its expansive programming, About Face Theatre's reach spans the entire city, and this new location will provide a more central destination for all of AFT's audiences, artists, and youth.
About Face Theatre will also continue its commitment to the Green Room Collective, a new program for early career LGBTQ+ arts leaders. Following in the footsteps of AFT's Youth Task Force, which created the popular KINSHIP, an all-ages variety show, the participants of the Green Room Collective will work closely with AFT staff and artists to create new projects aimed at engaging the queer community and its allies locally and nation-wide.
"There is no looking back; there is only moving toward what's next," says Artistic Director Megan Carney. "The season ahead honors the need to release the ties that bind in order to thrive. These magnificent and evocative plays introduce characters on the precipice of change, pushed forward by events outside of their control. Our organizational commitment to building a more equitable American theatre is driving everything we do at About Face. The work onstage next year reflects the same values of equity, care, and sustainability that we want to see offstage as well."