About Face Theatre To Present a Reading of The Historic LARAMIE PROJECT Epilogue 10/12

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.

For ticket information, please visit www.aboutfacetheatre.com or call (773)784-8565.

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