There's a deliberate synchronicity to the title of About Face Youth Theater's new show Fifteen Breaths. It was 15 years ago that the queer youth theater produced its first show, which had the title of First Breath.
"We've had an incredible run and we've been really lucky to see queer youth theater that has been lauded and applauded," said About Face Theatre education and outreach director Ali Hoefnagel, who is also directing Fifteen Breaths.
About Face Theatre launched its About Face Youth Theatre program as a response to the 1998 murder of college student Matthew Shepard. Its purpose was to engage queer youth in theater, activism and empowerment, and to push them to become catalysts for dialogue around gender and sexual identity.
So in addition to the historical ties, Hoefnagel said Fifteen Breaths as a title was also chosen to tap into the Black Lives Matter movement and the expression "I Can't Breathe" that was captured on video when Eric Garner died in 2014 when he was put into a chokehold by New York police.
"It's also specifically a nod to 'artivists,' and I say 'artivists' which is sort of the term we're using here at About Face Theatre for artists and activists who need to collectively breathe together sometimes," Hoefnagel said. "This is not easy work that we engage in. It's work that can take healing and time to process."
Unlike past About Face Youth Theater shows that were devised by the members of the youth group and then scripted by a grown-up playwright, Fifteen Breaths is written entirely by its cast, who range in ages from 13 to 24. And the timetable for About Face Youth Theater shows was also sped up at the request of artistic director Andrew Volkoff, who insisted that the youth productions appear on an annual basis rather than the past practice of using two years to devise a piece around a specific topic.
"We were very close to exploring mental health within the queer community, and we were also very close to doing a show specifically about race and one about violence abroad against queer people," Hoefnagel said. "But at the end of the day, we realized we could kind of talk about all of these things in speaking about this generational gap."
Fifteen Breaths focuses on a chance meeting between a young queer boy named Harold and an older trans woman named Lil. Both are isolated within the queer community, and must unite to forge a space they can call their own.
To write the show, AFYT members had writing exercises and they conducted interviews with a diverse array of people in the queer community.
"It was a long process, but it was a really cool process in that we got to explore a lot," said Kyla Norton, a member of both the AFYT ensemble and Youth Task Force.
To tell the story, Hoefnagel and Norton said the show features some voiceovers that are verbatim from interviews, but that the characters depicted in the narrative portion of the play are composites based upon the lives and experiences of the youth ensemble members. And since Fifteen Breaths deals with generation gaps within the queer community, the company had to weigh whether to bring in adult actors. But ultimately the decision was mad to stick with just the youth ensemble.
"I think that it reinforces what we're trying to say about the community and how we need to bridge this gap," said Norton. "By playing people who don't necessarily look like us or aren't necessarily our age, it says that we aren't all that different and that we need to be one community."
About Face Youth Theatre's Fifteen Breaths plays at three locations this summer. First up is the Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., with performances at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, July 23 to 25, with a 3 p.m. matinee Sunday, July 26. Performances are $15 and $10 for students ( pay-what-you-can preview is July 23 ). Call 773-404-7336.
Fifteen Breaths then is presented free in association with the Chicago Park District at 6:30 p.m. July 30 and 31 at the Humboldt Park Boathouse, 1301 N. Sacramento Ave., and then at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 6 and 7 at Chase Park, 4701 N. Ashland Ave. Though the park performances are free, About Face Youth Theatre requests a $10 donation when reserving tickets. For more information, visit www.aboutfacetheatre.com .
A loss to Chicago theater
Abena Joan P. Brown, a native Chicagoan and co-founder of eta Creative Arts Foundation, passed away July 12 following a short illness. Brown served as president and producer of eta from its inception in 1971 until her retirement in March 2011.
Brown built eta into a major presence in Black theater. During her tenure, Brown steered eta to the purchase and renovation of a 15,000-square-foot facility that houses a 200-seat theater with gallery and other community spaces. She later spearheaded the acquisition of an entire city block along South Chicago Avenue from 75th to 76th Streets for future expansion.
Check the eta Creative Arts Foundation website at www.etacreativearts.org for updates or call 773-752-3955 for funeral arrangements. In lieu of flowers, Brown's family requests donations to the following organizations: eta Creative Arts Foundation, 7558 S. South Chicago Ave., Chicago, IL 60619, and Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago, 1809 E. 71st St., #203, Chicago, IL 60649.
