It would be an easy mistake to assume that outgoing About Face Theatre artistic director Bonnie Metzgar's swansong with the company is going to be the Chicago premiere of Alexi Kaye Campbell's acclaimed British drama The Pride, running from June 6 through July 13 at Victory Gardens Theater. Although Metzgar is stepping down after five years as artistic director, it doesn't mean that she's completely parting ways with the celebrated Chicago theater famed for focusing on LGBTQ artists and issues.
"My relationship with About Face will definitely continue and I love everyone there," Metzgar said, also expressing excitement for incoming About Face Theatre artistic director Andrew Volkoff in a telephone interview.
"I am planning on staying in Chicago. I have two kids and I'm raising them here," Metzgar said. "I will continue to make theater and will absolutely continue to help About Face in any way I can."
Metzgar has already considerably helped About Face Theatre through her leadership. Metzgar became the company's artistic director in 2008, following her previous work producing Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan Lori-Parks' massive 365 Days/365 Plays project and serving as an associate producer at New York's Public Theater under acclaimed out playwright and director George C. Wolfe.
Although About Face received plenty of acclaim since its founding in 1995, notably helping to develop the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning drama I Am My Own Wife, the company was dealing with debts when company co-founder and former artistic director Eric Rosen stepped down to take a job with Kansas City Repertory.
Metzgar described her duties as "turning About Face into an institution that was going to be stable, sustainable and had systems that were going to make it viable for years to come."
Under Metzgar's watch, she helped About Face through a company-saving fundraising campaign, developed a strategic plan and guided it through a new data systemthe behind-the-scenes institutional stuff that's not always that exciting to boast about but vital. On the artistic side, Metzgar oversaw several world premiere productions like The Homosexuals, The Kid Thing and Float while also launching the xyz Festival of new work and continuing work with the About Face Youth Theatre (which recently remounted its acclaimed 2012 production of What's the T?).
Metzgar felt that at this juncture it would be a good time to step aside.
"I'm just hungry to do something new," said Metzgar, mentioning the difficulties of running a theater company and staying out late many nights while also raising her small kids. "It just felt like it was the right time to go."
Metzgar will continue teaching play writing and literature at the University of Chicago, and will devote more time to her own writing and directing on a freelance basis. Metzgar mentioned that she has also developed a forthcoming project that, unfortunately for the press, can't be disclosed at this time.
But before Metzgar gets more time her own future artistic endeavors, her main focus is on staging the Chicago premiere of The Pride for About Face. Campbell's drama wowed the critics when it was originally produced at London's Royal Court Theatre in 2008, eventually transferring to New York's off-Broadway Lucille Lortel Theatre in 2010.
"We have been talking about this play for the past three years," said Metzgar, excited to produce The Pride under her watch. "I'm really fascinated by this moment in our cultural history in LGBT identity because of the generational divide."
Metzgar said the core of The Pride is the question of commitment and what does a queer relationship look like.
The Pride focuses on two intertwined gay relationships separated by half a century. In the 1950s, Oliver (Patrick Andrews) is in love with Philip (John Francisco), a closeted man married to Sylvia (Jessie Fisher) when homosexuality was still officially against the law in Great Britain. The Pride also focuses on the first decade of the 2000s, when Philip and Oliver (played by the same actors) are free to enter into a commitment ceremony, but they're having relationship troubles because Oliver insists that part of his personal gay identity means that he's entitled to having multiple sex partners.
"At this moment in the United States with all of this dialogue in our community around marriage equality, this play is really in some ways talking about the underlying questions of marriage itself and committed relationships and what that means to the LGBT community," Metzgar said.
Metzgar is pleased to be working once again with About Face Theater artistic associates and actors Andrews, Francisco and Ben Sprunger on The Pride with guest artist Jessie Fisher, who is making her About Face debut.
"It's a really special opportunity for me because these are artists that I'm very close to," Metzgar said. "These are actors that I love and who have a long commitment to this kind of, really complex work that I'm drawn to. It's really trying to crack open a really touchy subject."
Metzgar also mentioned her commitment to staying in her adopted city of Chicago for the foreseeable future.
"It's part of the identity of the city that we all go to the theater," Metzgar said. "It's so woven into the fabric of what it is to live in Chicago and be in Chicago is to express yourself artistically through being on a stage and that's just really exciting for someone who has chosen to make a life in the theater and it just makes living here feel so right."
About Face Theatre's Chicago premiere of Alexi Kaye Campbell's The Pride runs from Thursday, June 6, through Saturday, July 13, at the Victory Gardens Richard Christiansen Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave. Previews run from Thursday, June 6, to Wednesday, June 12. The official opening night is 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 13. The regular run is 7:30 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 5 and 9 p.m. Saturdays and 5 p.m. Sundays. Note that there are no shows Friday, June 14, or Thursday, July 4. There is an added performance 7:30 p.m. Monday, July 8. Tickets are $20 for previews and $30 for the regular run. Student tickets are $15 and there are group rates available. Call 773-871-3000 or visit www.aboutfacetheatre.com .