By: About Face Youth Theatre
At: Goodman, 170 N. Dearborn
Phone: (312) 443-3800; $25-$28
Through: Aug. 17
It's always a joy to see About Face Youth Theatre each summer. This year marks the fifth anniversary of the collaboration between About Face and its youth ensemble, who come together to create a unique proclamation about what it means to be LGBTQA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, questioning, and their allies) youth.
This year the collaboration takes a look at how the youth theater has grown through the past half decade. Filtered through the eyes of one youth, who saw About Face Youth Theatre's first production at age 11. First Breath, that first show, opened his eyes. He had the unique story of coming out at age 10 to his family. Too young at the time to join the cast (which is for youth between the ages of 14 and 20), he dreams of being part of the dynamic group. The young boy saw each of the four previous productions, and knew that his own story could be equally inspiring.
Up Until Now continues the tradition of showing—with style, poignancy, and humor—what it means to grow up 'different.' The storieschronicle the territory of identifying and accepting oneself through the filter of family, friends, school peers, and society. Along the road of this complex journey, we witness first love, sexual awakening, prejudice, and the business of accepting oneself as a unique individual, with strengths and weaknesses defined—or not—by gender and sexuality. There's the girl who has an obsession with novelist Willa Cather and her book, My Antonia, where the author uses lyrical prose about the American prairie as a touchstone for her own lesbianism. There's the high school boy who decides to protest his family living class's decision not to allow same-sex unions in their mock marriages. There's the running gag of a burly lesbian cop and her on-the-road encounters with a drag queen, presented comically as a silent movie that explores issues of love, identity, and gender. There's the slight boy who uses the musical canon of David Bowie to self-actualize the 'changes' he's seeing in his own life. Overall, Up Until Now is about what it means to be different in a society where being different can be a dangerous choice, holding out the threat of ostracism.
And that's what makes Up Until Now such a beautiful experience. Not only are the stories these young people tell inspiring in their onstage context, but they are deeply moving in the real world. Anyone who has ever struggled with his own identity can appreciate the courage it takes for these 14 to 20 year olds to get up on stage and proclaim their sexuality and gender, even if those two things are decidedly not in line with societal and cultural definitions.
It would be enough to witness this act of courage in the very public context of theater, but About Face Youth Theater takes it a step further, adding real excellence to their production. The sharp, clear, and economical direction by the About Face Youth Theater artistic staff, headed up by Megan Carney, leads us to a show that stands on its own as superior theatrical work. With a versatile, spare, and artistic set by Geoffrey M. Curley, evocative lighting design by Darin Keesing, and a haunting, complementary soundscape by Andre Pluess and Ben Sussman, Up Until Now is a winner, a youthful tour-de-force that brings a lump to the throat, a pang to the heart, and a joyous laugh that emerges, with recognition and force, from the entire being.
