Pride Films and Plays Stages ANGRY FAGS as Part of Steppenwolf's GARAGE REP, Beginning Tonight

Pride Films and Plays presents Topher Payne's dark comedy Angry Fags as part of the Steppenwolf Theater Company's Garage Rep, beginning tonight, March 7, 2015.

Topher Payne's comedy Angry Fags illustrates what happens when activism gets angry. Cooper and Bennett are men who feel helpless when their friend is the victim of an assault at a bar. Then, they feel something new: pure, unfiltered rage. Cooper presents the argument that no one is granted the rights they deserve until people are a little afraid of them. And no one is afraid of gay guys. Not yet. Angry Fags is an Oscar Wilde-meets-'Fight Club' fever dream about how good ideas go bad, with fascinating forays into American politics, bomb building, and pistachios. "It doesn't get better. We have to MAKE it better."

Pride Films and Plays is excited to introduce Chicago audiences to this award-winning new writer, and thrilled that his fierce, fabulous, and unapologetic new play will be presented as part of Steppenwolf Theatre Company's Garage Rep in Spring, 2015.

Angry Fags is directed by Derek Van Barham*, and features Kevin Webb*, James Nedrud*, Jude Hansen*, Kelli Walker, Joan McGrath*, Lisa Herceg, and Dennis Frymire. Designs are by Raquel Adorno (costumes), G. Max Maxin IV (projections and set), Kallie Noelle Rolison (sound) and Rebecca Barrett (lights). *Indicates a member of Pride Films and Plays Artistic Ensemble.

Angry Fags by Topher Payne will play The Steppenwolf Garage, 1624 N Halsted St, Chicago. Previews: Sun Feb 22, Fri Feb 27, Sun March 1 and Wed March 4 at 8PM. Press performance/opening: Saturday, March 7 at 8PM Sunday March 8 at 1PM. Performances run through April 26 (Specific dates/times below). Tickets: $20; Students: $15; Wednesday performances are Pay-What-You-Can. 2-Play Garage Rep Passes are available for $45. Tickets go on sale December 5 through the Steppenwolf Box Office. Call 312-335-1650 or order on line at www.steppenwolf.org.

About the Playwright - TOPHER PAYNE is the author of more than a dozen plays, which have been performed on stages across the United States. Topher has been named "Best Local Playwright" by readers of both The GA Voice and Creative Loafing for the last four years, and served as Grand Marshal of the 2011 Atlanta Pride Parade. His plays Swell Party and Angry Fags were both nominated for Outstanding World Premiere and The Gene-Gabriel Moore Playwriting Award at the 2013 Suzi Awards- Angry Fags won The Gene-Gabriel Moore Award. His play Perfect Arrangement was selected for the 2013 Source Festival in Washington DC, His play The Medicine Showdown (co-authored with Adam Koplan) was produced in October 2013 at The East 4th Street Theatre in Manhattan, and Georgia Ensemble Theatre premiered his comedy The Only Light in Reno in January 2014. Topher has written about his life with "humiliating candor" for nearly a decade - from 2005-2009 in his David Magazine column, Necessary Luxuries, which was compiled into a book of the same name. From 2010-2013, he chronicled suburban life in his Domestically Disturbed column in The GA Voice, which won the 2012 National Newspaper Association award for Best Humor Column. Topher is an artistic associate with Atlanta's Process Theatre Company and Flying Carpet Theatre in New York. He is the Executive Producer of the Atlanta 24-Hour Plays for Working Title Playwrights.

About the Director Derek Van Barham is an Artistic Associate with Pride Films and Plays, where he directed and choreographed Songs from an Unmade Bed (Jeff nomination: Best Director of a Musical or Revue), Terrence McNally's Some Men (co-directed with David Zak) and Kill Your Boyfriends (an original dance performance). He was recently named Artistic Director of The Ruckus Theater, where he served as Literary Manager since 2012. He has choreographed for Black Button Eyes (Coraline the Musical), The Plagiarists, Inappropriate Theatre, Brain Surgeon Theatre, and Salonathon, and is the founder of the Crush Dance Collective. He has performed with BoHo Theatre (Hauptmann), Red Tape Theatre (The Skriker, Stadium Devildare, The Life & Death of Madame Barker), and The Island Theatre (Wallace Shawn's The Fever). He can currently be seen improvising with the LGBT team Baby Wine (Fridays at iO Chicago). MFA: Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. More info and photos at www.derekvanbarham.com.

About Pride Films and Plays - Pride Films and Plays discovers and develops new voices in LGBT writing for the stage and screen, and a leading presenter of film and theater pieces new to Chicago audiences. Pride Films and Plays has received 10 Jeff Nominations and 3 Awards in its first two full seasons. Under A Rainbow Flag won Jeff Awards in 2013 for Best New Work and Best Musical, and The Children's Hour won for Best Supporting Actor (Nora Lise Ulrey) in 2014. Our current season began with the Jeff Recommended Chicago premieres of Some Men by Terrence McNally and The Submission by Jeff Talbott. The season continues with the highly anticipated world premiere of The Book of Merman by Leo Schwartz opening in January at Mary's Attic. It will be a followed by Topher Payne's comedy Angry Fags which is included in the spring Garage Rep at Steppenwolf. PFP also produces three festivals of new plays and screenplays at Center on Halsted throughout the year, as well as the Queer Bits Film Festival of short LGBT in their Chicago premieres presented at Public House Theater. For more information, visit www.pridefilmsandplays.com.

About Garage Rep - Garage Rep, now in its sixth year, presents the work of three of Chicago's most innovative storefront theater companies in rotating rep under Steppenwolf's banner. Steppenwolf invites applications from companies around the city. With this program we aim to: learn from the next generation about what excites them; introduce Steppenwolf audiences to their work and their audiences to ours; and above all, contribute to the ongoing vibrancy of Chicago's theater ecology. Find more information at www.steppenwolf.org/Plays-Events/The-Garage/Garage-Rep.aspx.

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