Artistic Director Bonnie Metzgar, along with new Managing Director Rick Dildine, today announced their first season as the new leadership of About Face Theatre. The 2008/2009 Season at the Center on Halsted Hoover-Leppen Theater will feature “The Young Ladies of…” by performance artist Taylor Mac, “Stupid Kids” by John C. Russell directed by Bonnie Metzgar and Megan Carney and the world premiere of “What Once We Felt” by playwright Ann Marie Healy. About Face Theatre will also launch a yearlong festival of in-process works called the CHICAGO XYZ Series, showcasing the most imaginative and daring artists engaged with issues of sexuality and gender.

“This season we look forward to surprising Chicago audiences with a variety of young and edgy artists from around the country,” says Metzgar. “So, as we celebrate the success of our past with the opening of the About Face production of “Clay” at Lincoln Center, we look forward to a lot of experimentation in the work we do this year as we build on that exciting About Face tradition.”

TAYLOR MAC, Iconoclastic and Irreverent NYC Performance Artist Opens Season

The 2008/2009 About Face Theatre season begins Friday, September 26, 2008, with a limited engagement of “The Young Ladies of” by critically acclaimed New York theatre artist Taylor Mac. An internationally celebrated performer and award-winning playwright, Taylor Mac has never before performed in Chicago. Taylor Mac is perhaps best known for his dynamic one-man show, “Be(A)st of Taylor Mac” currently running in New York City, and his popular YouTube video “The Palace of the End”, about Lynn Cheney and Saddam Hussein.

“Taylor Mac is an electrifying performer and a deeply compelling playwright,” says About Face Artistic Director Bonnie Metzgar. “We are honored to host his Chicago debut. His beautifully provocative work truly sets the tone for our season.”

“The Young Ladies of…” will run through Sunday, October 26, 2008.

“Stupid Kids”, by the late John C. Russell, a multi-media reinvention directed by Bonnie Metzgar

Metzgar will direct her first show at About Face in the winter, with the production of “Stupid Kids” by the late John C. Russell, an award-winning playwright and friend of Metzgar who died of AIDS in 1994. With the support of Russell’s family, Metzgar will add contemporary spin to this classic tale of young desire set against the backdrop of the AIDS crisis in Reagan-era America.

Directed by Bonnie Metzgar in collaboration with Megan Carney, the production will feature adult actors as well as members of the About Face Youth Theatre Program and will include a rhythmic mix of music, video, slam poetry and dance, creating a collision of ‘80s pop culture with contemporary media. The collaboration with the Youth Theater Program will create a new layer, reflecting what it means to be the “stupid kids” of today.

“The Youth Theatre Program is an integral part of the work at About Face,” says Metzgar. “This play reflects our commitment to developing young performers and artists and including our Youth Ensemble in all aspects of the Theatre.”

Previews of “Stupid Kids” will begin Wednesday, February 4, 2009.

“What Once We Felt” by Ann Marie Healy, a world premiere directed by Ken Rus Schmoll

In the spring, About Face takes Chicago audiences to a parallel universe with the world premiere of “What Once We Felt”, a comedic, futuristic thriller by playwright Ann Marie Healy. The play is a dystopian look at a futuristic society in which men have become extinct and natural selection has been sidelined by DNA “downloading”. New York director Ken Rus Schmoll will direct this provocative, terrifying and hilarious romp through the annals of genocide, suicide, infanticide and bad manners.

Previews will begin Monday, April 8, 2009 and the show will run through Sunday, May 17, 2009.

CHICAGO XYZ Series of New Works

Throughout the season, About Face will also showcase some of America’s most brilliant new artists and ensembles during the Chicago XYZ Series. The “in process” series, designed to foster the creation of new work, will present material in various stages of development.

Artists featured will include Dan Rothenberg and Dito von Reigersberg, members of Philadelphia’s revered Pig Iron Theatre Company who will begin to rework a classic musical theater score. Hip hop artist and social activist Rha Goddess will share several projects with About Face audiences, including the investigation phase of her latest work. The XYZ Series will also feature an ongoing program of new plays by lesbian playwrights, including plays by Pat Kane and Sally Oswald. The first reading of this program will be in September by About Face artist-in-residence Leigh Fondakowski.

About Face Theatre is one of Chicago’s most acclaimed theatre companies, and is a national leader in the development of new work exploring gender and sexual identity. Since its founding by Kyle Hall and Eric Rosen in 1995, the company has premiered more than 30 new plays by writers and directors who have been recognized with several Tony Awards, The Pulitzer Prize for Drama, The MacArthur Fellowship and dozens of Joseph Jefferson Awards.

Landmark world premieres include Doug Wright’s Pulitzer and Tony-winning “I Am My Own Wife”; Moisés Kaufman’s production of Tennessee Williams’ “One Arm” (a co-production with Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Tectonic Theatre Project); Mary Zimmerman’s “M. Proust”, and, with Lookingglass Theatre, the famed “Eleven Rooms of Proust”; Frank Galati and Stephen Flaherty’s “Loving Repeating: A Musical of Gertrude Stein” (a co-production with the Museum of Contemporary Art, Original Cast Album recorded by Jay Records); the multi-award winning musical “Winesburg, Ohio” by Eric Rosen, Andre Pluess, Ben Sussman and Jessica Thebus; and the cult hit “Pulp”, by Patricia Kane.

In addition to its award-winning mainstage performances, About Face is known nationally for its ground- breaking Youth Theatre, which creates critically acclaimed new work by and about LGBTQ youth and their allies. The Youth Theatre has performed on major stages across the country, and, through its outreach tour, changes the lives of thousands of young people each year. Building on the success of the youth theatre model, About Face recently launched its corporate outreach program to provide diversity training and onsite workshops to the corporate community. About Face Theatre creates exceptional, innovative and adventurous plays to advance the national dialogue on gender and sexual identity, and to challenge and entertain audiences in Chicago, across the country and around the world.

Biographical Information

Taylor Mac: In 2007 the Village Voice, Time Out, and The New York Press named Taylor Mac one of New York’s best. His most recent plays have been produced at Joe’s Pub, Under the Radar Festival at the NY’s Public Theater, HERE Arts Center, PS 122, London, Stockholm, Dublin, Spoleto Festival and 40 other venues around the world. As a guest performer Taylor has worked solo for BBC, Fischerspooner, Nina Hagen, The Dresden Dolls, Karen Finley and many others.

Ann Marie Healy: In June 2008, Anne Marie Healy’s play “The Gentleman Caller” was produced by Clubbed Thumb in June 2008. “Have You Seen Steve Steven?” was produced by 13P in NY in 2007 after receiving a workshop at the prestigious Sundance Institute and at Soho Rep and MCC’s Playwright’s Coalition. “Dearest Eugenia Haggis” received a workshop production with Clubbed Thumb's Summerworks 2005. In summer 2008, Ann Marie was a guest artist at the O’Neill Center and had a reading of “What Once We Felt” at Playwrights Horizons. Ann Marie is a graduate of the Brown MFA playwriting program.

John C. Russell: Member of NY’s Circle Repertory's Playwrights Project and of the New Dramatists and was the author of half a dozen plays, some of which were staged at BACA Downtown in Brooklyn (Artistic Director, Bonnie Metzgar) and at the Joseph Papp Public Theater. He was a graduate of Oberlin College and received an MFA from Brown University. His play STUPID KIDS has had many productions around the world. John died in 1994 from AIDS.

About Face Theatre 2008/2009 Season

“The Young Ladies of…”
Written and performed by Taylor Mac
Previews September 26 though September 28
Opening night September 29, 2008
Closes October 26, 2008

“Stupid Kids”
Written by John C. Russell
Directed by Bonnie Metzgar and Megan Carney
Previews begin February 4, 2009
Closes March 15, 2009

What Once We Felt
Written by Ann-Marie Healy
Directed by Ken Rus Schmoll
Previews begin April 8, 2009
Closes May 17, 2009

For ticket information, please visitwww.AboutFaceTheatre.com.