About Face Theatre to Stage THE MAGNOLIA BALLET

About Face Theatre continues its 27th season with the Chicago premiere of Terry Guest's haunting new drama THE MAGNOLIA BALLET, running May 12 through June 11, 2022, at the Den Theatre. Following the story of a young Black man in Georgia who finds a shocking discovery among his grandfather's letters, THE MAGNOLIA BALLET explores the need to tear down the rules that are killing us in order to finally live. Associate Artistic Director Mikael Burke premiered this new work in March 2022 at Phoenix Theatre in Indianapolis and now brings the play to Chicago with playwright Terry Guest in the lead role.

LISTING DETAILS

THE MAGNOLIA BALLET
By Terry Guest
Directed by AFT Associate Artistic Director Mikael Burke
May 12 - June 11, 2022
Performing at The Den Theatre, 1331 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago

PERFORMANCE TIMES

Previews: Thursday, May 12 - Thursday, May 19
Press Opening: Friday, May 20
Performance Run: Saturday, May 21 - Saturday, June 11
Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30pm and Sundays at 3:00pm

TICKETS

Tickets are on sale now online at About FaceTheatre.com, by calling 773.697.3830, or in-person at the Den Theatre box office. Ticket prices range from $5 to $35.

AFT offers a ticket pricing system that allows each patron to decide the price that they can comfortably afford to pay for a ticket. Ultimately, About Face wants everyone who wants to attend a show to be able to do so. Please note, there are limited quantities available at each pricing level.

THE PLAY

Ezekiel is a Black teenager with a secret that threatens to destroy his already broken home. He's haunted by the ghosts of racism, homophobia, and toxic masculinity-the same ghosts that have plagued men in Georgia for generations, including his emotionally distant father. But when he discovers a trove of forbidden love letters among his late grandfather's belongings, Ezekiel begins to believe that the only way to fight these multi-generational ghosts is to burn everything to the ground. THE MAGNOLIA BALLET is a Southern Gothic fable that melds high drama, dance, poetry, and spectacle to explore masculinity, racism, and the love between a queer kid and his father.

"As a queer Black man raised in the American south, this play is hugely important to me," says director Mikael Burke. "No young person should ever be made to feel the way I did, like they are wrong simply for existing. This play forces all of us to reckon with the legacies of toxic masculinity and racism in this country. It's a play that demands that we all wrestle with the ghosts of our prejudices and recognize where the rules we once set in order to survive have become the killers of a new generation."

CAST

Terry Guest as Ezekiel "Z" Mitchell VI
Wardell Julius Clark as Ezekiel Mitchell V
Sheldon D. Brown as Apparition
Ben Sulzberger as Danny

Left-right: Sheldon D. Brown, Terry Guest, and Wardell Julius Clark. Photo Credits: Nathanael Filbert

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