About Face Theatre Announces Cast For World Premiere Of LACED, March 17 - April 16

About Face Theatre begins its 27th season with the World Premiere of Samantha Mueller's drama LACED, running March 17 through April 16, 2022, at the Den Theatre.

Set in the aftermath of the vandalism of a beloved queer bar, LACED is a timely story about the importance of queer-positive spaces and of what it takes to come back together after your world has been shaken. Three bartenders arrive at their beloved queer bar to find that the establishment has been vandalized. As they try to piece together the events of the night before, the three friends grieve, riot, point fingers, and ultimately must decide: is it better to understand what and why this happened, or to just clean up and move on?

Fiery, poetic, and up-to-the-minute contemporary, LACED ferociously celebrates the spaces in which we find our truest selves and the spectrum of ways the LGBTQ+ community comes together in the face of trauma. The press opening is Friday, March 25 at 7:30 pm, at The Den Theatre.

LACED will be directed by About Face Artistic Associate Lexi Saunders (American Blues Theatre's ROAN @ THE GATES). Saunders' cast is Mariah Copeland, Aida Delaz, and Collin Quinn Rice, as the three bartenders.

LACED Playwright Samantha Mueller (they/them) is a Chicago-born, Florida-raised, New York-based playwright. Their most recent play, Laced, was featured on the 2020 Kilroys List and was a finalist for the 2019 National Playwrights Conference at the O'Neill Theater Center. Sam is a member of Youngblood at Ensemble Studio Theater.is Chicago-born and New York-based. Their play THE WAY THIS CITY BLEEDS was a 2017 semi-finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, as well as a 2015 winner of the Agnes Nixon Playwriting Award.

Director Lexi Saunders says, "What struck me most about this play are these unapologetically queer femme identities we hardly ever get to see onstage," says director Lexi Saunders. "Samantha Mueller has crafted a world full of laughter, heart, and muscle in the midst of absolute ruin. LACED is a poetic ode to Stonewall, to Pulse, to Berlin, to the places we make home and the strangers we call family. In a landscape that wants to only further politicize and vandalize our bodies, our love, our spaces - how can we keep ourselves and each other safe?" The production team is Jacinda Ratcliffe (Choreographer and Assistant Director), Sydney Lynne (Scenic Designer), Regina Garcia (Associate Scenic Designer), Heather Sparling (Lighting Designer), Thomas Dixon (Sound Designer), Ariel Zetina (Associate Sound Designer), Jos N. Banks (Costume Designer), Caitlin McCarthy (Properties Designer), Amalie Vega (Stage Manager), Audrey Kleine (Production Manager), Hannah Herrera Greenspan (Dramaturg), Becca Venable (Technical Director).

Tickets go on sale January 17 online at AboutFaceTheatre.com, by calling 773.697.3830, or in-person at the Den Theatre box office. Ticket prices range from $5 to $35.

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