Since its inception in 1995, About Face has developed and produced over 30 new productions for Chicago audiences, including 25 world premieres by emerging and nationally recognized theatre artists. Plays developed and produced by About Face have been seen across the country to critical acclaim and major recognition, including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Tony Award for Best Play, 13 Joseph Jefferson Awards, and 14 After Dark Awards. Other community honors include the highest accolades in Chicago’s gay and lesbian community, notably the Human Rights Campaign Equality Award, the Human First Award, the GLSEN Pathfinder Award, a Presidential Citation from the American Psychological Association, the Cook County Community Empowerment Award, and induction into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame. About Face Youth Theatre is a year-round theatre arts-based program for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth and their allies, including at-risk youth, living in and near the Chicago Metropolitan area. About Face Youth Theatre programming consists of weekly workshops where youth collaborate with adult artists on the development of a new play based on a youth-identified theme. In addition to this work, the Youth Theatre produces open mic and showcase performances of youth work, leadership development, and education outreach programming in schools and communities. The Youth Theatre was founded on the belief that innovative and rigorous arts-based programs designed around population-specific issues increase the safety, empowerment and leadership capacity of LGBTQ youth, encouraging them to become agents of change in their schools and communities.

About Face was founded in 1995 by Kyle Hall and Eric Rosen to create exceptional, innovative and adventurous plays to advance the national dialogue on gender and sexual identity, and to challenge and entertain audiences in Chicago and beyond. About Face is committed to artistic excellence and community transformation and sustains its core values through three programming arms: its award-winning mainstage season; its ambitious new works program; and its nationally recognized education programs.

About Face Theatre consists of three programmatic arms: the About Face Youth Theatre, which offers theatre-arts instruction and programs to train and empower LGBTQA youth as well as address homophobia and violence in schools; a mainstage season of productions that enhance the national dialogue on gender and sexual identity; and a new plays development program that engages and nurtures artists and art relevant to the LGBTQA community. About Face Youth Theatre (AFYT) provides an innovative and rigourous arts-based series of programs that increase the safety, empowerment, and leadership capacity of LGBTQ youth and their allies. Annually, the Youth Theatre: • conducts a series of theatre and writing Youth Workshops that impact over 200 youth • generates original artistic materials for the development of a new play in a two-year cycle • performs new work for public audiences • conducts Outreach tours in high schools and community centers in Chicago and across the region • offers youth the opportunity to engage extensively with professional theatre artists through workshops and the Youth Task Force • creates safer schools through 5+ visit InterAction Tours AFYT teaches the fundamentals of writing and performing, while nurturing a lifelong appreciation for the transformative powers of the performing arts. In addition to providing empowerment and encouragement to disenfranchised youth, AFYT programs have resulted in eight critically acclaimed, youth-created productions, all of which have been produced during the About Face mainstage season and subsequently adapted for touring to schools and community centers. In addition to local tours, the 2005-06 Youth Theatre production, the HOME PROJECT toured nationally for two years, and more recent productions of FAST FORWARD and QUEERTOPIA have received similar national interest. About Face’s mainstage season consists of three or more professional productions that speak to the company’s mission. AFT places a heavy emphasis on world premiere productions; the 2010-2011 season is comprised wholly of world premieres. Writers, directors, composers, and other artists are drawn heavily from the LGBTQA community. New work is nurtured within the Artistic Associates and beyond and culminates in the annual XYZ Festival of New Works. About Face Theatre supports risk-taking work by LGBTQA artists in all stages of development with a fall festival that includes a mainstage headliner production, workshops, readings, and public forums. Workshop productions provide audiences the opportunity to encounter exciting new ork that needs staging, movement, or design work in order to reach the final phases of development. AFT also solicits new plays by emerging LGBTQA playwrights for an annual reading series.