FROM A NEWS RELEASE
CHICAGO- Artistic Director Bonnie Metzgar today announced that About Face Theatre will present the groundbreaking LARAMIE PROJECT Epilogue in a historic event that joins over 100 theaters around the country. Mayor Richard M. Daley will serve as the Honorary Chair of this one-night only benefit for About Face Youth Theatre that will take place at the Owen Theater at the Goodman, on October 12, 2009. The About Face reading will be directed by Metzgar and feature Mary Beth Fisher along with an outstanding ensemble of actors. The Chicago performance begins precisely at 6:45pm Central Time, with a VIP reception beginning at 5:30pm.
"About Face is proud to continue our long relationship with Tectonic Theater Project and Moisés Kaufman with our benefit performance of the next step of their powerful tribute to Matthew Shepard," says Metzgar. "We are honored that Mayor Daley and Mary Beth Fisher are supporting us in what we expect to be an unforgettable night at the Goodman theater."
Tickets go on sale today. All proceeds from the one-night only event will benefit About Face's Youth Theatre, which was created in response to Matthew Shepard's murder eleven years ago to provide a safe space for LGBTQ youth and their allies to become artists and advocates. About Face Youth Theatre is currently collecting stories about violence from youth all over Chicago, while also actively ushering in a new world filled with peace. Contributions from the Epilogue reading will support the creation of this new show on peace and violence called QUEERTOPIA which will perform in July, 2010.
Entitled THE LARAMIE PROJECT: 10 YEARS LATER, the Epilogue will be performed in a simultaneous world premiere reading led by Tectonic Theater Project, the original creators of THE LARAMIE PROJECT in New York at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, and over 100 other theaters in all fifty states, including About Face Theatre. The writers of this play are Tectonic Theater Project members Moisés Kaufman, Leigh Fondakowski, Greg Pierotti, Andy Paris, and Stephen Belber.
Tectonic Theater Project returned to Wyoming to focus on the long-term effects of the murder of Matthew Shepard on the town of Laramie. It explores how the town has changed and how the murder continues to reverberate in the community. The play also includes new interviews with Matthew's mother Judy Shepard and Mathew's murderer Aaron McKinney, who's serving two consecutive life sentences. The writers also conducted many follow-up interviews Laramie residents from the original piece. The highly acclaimed original text of The Laramie Project has been one of the most performed plays in America since 2000 and made into a movie by HBO.
"The Tectonic Theater Project set out to find out how Laramie had changed in the ten years since the murder of Matthew Shepard. When we arrived, we were forced to confront the question, 'How do you measure change in a community?' One of the things we found when we got there, which greatly surprised us, was people in Laramie saying this was not
a hate crime," said Moises Kaufman, Artistic Director of Tectonic Theater Project.
"We found the people of Laramie still fighting to own their own history, their own identity, their own story, and part of that is shaped by how they understand what happened that night to Matthew," continued writer and Tectonic Theater member Leigh Fondakowski. Fondakowski was a playwright-in-residence at About Face Theatre in 2007-8.
In addition to the Goodman performance, About Face is coordinating a Chicago-based university community collaboration. Participants at this time include Northwestern University and Loyola University.
In tandem with preparations for the premiere of the Epilogue, an online interactive community has been launched where collaborating theaters and universities can blog, upload video and photos and share their stories about the play, experiences in preparing and presenting the Epilogue in their communities. For more information about the online community, please go to www.laramieproject.org .
About Face Theatre
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.
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LARAMIE PROJECT:10 YEARS LATER
About Face Theatre presents
A one-night only world premiere reading
October 12, 2009
Reading begins promptly at 6:45pm Central time
VIP reception begins at 5:30pm
Owen Theater at the Goodman
170 North Dearborn Street
About Face Laramie Epilogue Honorary Chair:
Mayor Richard M. Daley
Benefit Co-Chairs:
Cathy Nathan & Peter Calibraro
Benefit Producer:
Stevie Ball
For ticket information, please visit www.aboutfacetheatre.com or call ( 773 ) 784-8565.
More Information on The Laramie Project and Tectonic Theatre Project
Tectonic Theater Project ( Moisés Kaufman, Artistic Director, Greg Reiner, Executive Director, Jeffrey LaHoste, Managing Director, Dominick Balletta, General Manager ) is an award-winning company whose plays have been performed around the world. Since 1992 TTP has produced innovative works that explore theatrical language and form, fostering an artistic dialogue with our audiences on the social, political and human issues of the day. The company has developed and produced works for theater and film, including: the smash hit Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde; The Laramie Project ( one of the most produced plays in the country, as well as an HBO movie written and directed by Kaufman ) ; and I Am My Own Wife ( 2004 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for best play ) . Tectonic has garnered numerous awards including the Humanitas Prize, the Obie, the Lucille Lortel Award, The Outer Critics Circle Award, the GLAAD Media Award, the Artistic Integrity Award from the Human Rights Campaign, and the Making a Difference Award from the Matthew Shepard Foundation. The film of The Laramie Project was also honored with four Emmy Nominations, The National Board of Review Award for Outstanding Made for Television Movie and a Golden Bear Award from the Berlin Film Festival. In addition to creating theatrical works, Tectonic Theater Project works in residence at Universities around the country and hosts a New York based training lab for theater artists.
As a non-profit laboratory we are grateful for the long term support of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Greenwall Foundation, The Arcus Foundation, The Small Change Foundation, The Educational Foundation of America, Shawn Donnelley, Judy Dimon, and the donors and friends of Tectonic. For more information on the company, visit www.tectonictheaterproject.org .
