Richard Driehaus News

Casting for Pride Films and Plays' Chicago premiere of YANK! A WWII Love Story was announced today by David Zak, Executive Director of Pride Films and Plays.

Performers announced for PAC THE HOUSE: UNWRAPPED - Today, December 30. Holiday edition of Pride Arts Center's monthly variety showcase to include standup comedy, burlesque and drag.

PRIDE FILM FESTIVAL titles announced for January 9 screenings Pride Films and Plays' monthly festival of LGBTQ independent films, which was launched in October, will continue with its fourth monthly festival on Tuesday, January 9, 2018. The theme for this 90 minute program of eight films is 'Issues, Anxieties and Obsessions.

Tony Award nominee, Drama Desk Lifetime Achievement honoree and two-time MAC Award winner, Charles Busch, who performed two sold-out shows at Pride Arts Center in January 2017, will return on January 21 and 22 with CHARLES BUSCH: MY KINDA '60S - a new show that gets to the essence of this legendary entertainer.

Performers announced for PAC THE HOUSE: UNWRAPPED - Saturday, December 30. Holiday edition of Pride Arts Center's monthly variety showcase to include standup comedy, burlesque and drag.

Pride Films and Plays' monthly festival of LGBTQ independent films, which was launched in October, will continue with its third monthly festival today, December 12. The four films to be screened all reflect on the theme The Families of the LGBT Community. Understanding our family members, revealing who we are as individuals and who we are as families.

Pride Films and Plays' monthly festival of LGBTQ independent films, which was launched in October, will continue with its third monthly festival on Tuesday, December 12. The four films to be screened all reflect on the theme The Families of the LGBT Community. Understanding our family members, revealing who we are as individuals and who we are as families.

WeFest (formerly SheFest and LezFest) is Pride Arts Center's' semi-annual celebration of Chicago's queer female, non-binary and trans artists.

The Chicago premiere of HIS GREATNESS, Daniel MacIvor's 'potentially true' story of two days late in the life of playwright Tennessee Williams, has scheduled additional performances for Friday, November 17 and Saturday, November 18. Pride Films and Plays Executive Director David Zak, who also directs the production, made the announcement today. Since the production's opening on October 17, it has received rave reviews from critics and audience members alike, prompting the company's decision to add performances to meet demand.

Casting for Pride Films and Plays' Chicago premiere of YANK! A WWII Love Story was announced today by David Zak, Executive Director of Pride Films and Plays.

26 PRESENTS: NET-FLIX AND KILL, the third installment of '26,' opening September 30 and running up to the Today before Halloween, will take on a horror theme for its twenty-six scenes of horror-comedy and straight up horror written by various guest writers.

Three men - a great American playwright, his trusted and loyal assistant, and a young Canadian street hustler - find themselves together for two days in a hotel room in Vancouver. The ensuing battle for power, love and loyalty is frequently funny, engagingly dark and ultimately moving. HIS GREATNESS, inspired by a 'potentially true story' during the declining days of Tennessee Williams, is an intimate insight into the mind of a familiar public figure, grappling with the loss of former glory and desperate for a return to form and success. Pride Films and Plays will stage the play from October 14 November 12, 2017 in The Buena, the 50-seat venue of the Pride Arts Center. The Buena is located at 4147 N. Broadway, Chicago. The press opening will be Tuesday, October 17 at 7:30 pm.

Pride Films and Plays' annual fall benefit, Simply Sensational, will feature Broadway musical theater star NICK ADAMS, who originated the role of Adam/Felicia in PRISCILLA: QUEEN OF THE DESERT, in its American premiere on Broadway. Prior to PRISCILLA, Adams had major roles in the hit revivals of A CHORUS LINE, GUYS AND DOLLS, CHICAGO and LA CAGE AUX FOLLES and leads in productions at top U.S. regional theaters including Paper Mill Playhouse, Gateway Playhouse and North Shore Music Theater in the New York metro area, and Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera. Adams has also been active in film and television work, with roles in the films SEX AND THE CITY 2, and AN ENGLISHMAN IN NEW YORK, and the TV series SMASH, AS THE WORLD TURNS, and THE GUIDING LIGHT. The festivities will take place in The Broadway, the 85-seat venue at Pride Arts Center, 4139 N. Broadway, Chicago. A limited number of VIP tickets are available for the benefit at $75, and include reserved center-section seating for the 7:15 pm performance. General Admission tickets are $50 and include the performance and a post-show dessert reception.SELECT tickets are also available for a $1,000.00, which includes 2 VIP tickets and admission for two to a show rehearsal with Nick the night before the benefit.

Pride Films and Plays will curate and screen a monthly festival of LGBTQ independent films from around the world, PFP Executive Director David Zak announced today. The inaugural screening will be held Tuesday, October 10, the eve of National Coming Out Day on October 11, 2017.  To celebrate that occasion, the PRIDE FILM FESTIVAL premiere will feature six films focused on the theme of coming out. Zak says, "Coming out is an experience shared by all out LGBT people - yet our experiences in that passage all have their uniquenesses. The films of the first PRIDE FILM FESTIVAL screening are each special in their own ways of capturing that moment when we open our hearts and share our identity with someone new."

26 PRESENTS: NET-FLIX AND KILL, the third installment of '26,' opening September 30 and running up to the Saturday before Halloween, will take on a horror theme for its twenty-six scenes of horror-comedy and straight up horror written by various guest writers.

Pride Films and Plays today announced a new monthly series of shows spotlighting a cross-genre feast of queer and queer-ally local performers.

Full casting was announced today for Pride Films and Plays' Chicago premiere of PERFECT ARRANGEMENT by Associate Artistic Director Derek Van Barham, who's directing the production. In Topher Payne's comedy, it's 1950, and new colors are being added to the Red Scare. Two U.S. State Department employees, Bob and Norma, have been tasked with identifying sexual deviants within their ranks. There's just one problem: Both Bob and Norma are gay, and have married each other's partners and moved next door to each other as a carefully constructed cover. Inspired by the true story of the earliest stirrings of the American gay rights movement, madcap classic sitcom-style laughs give way to provocative drama as two "All-American" couples are forced to stare down the closet door.

Members of the sold-out audience at the seventh edition of the semi-annual Queer Bits Film Festival on Saturday, June 17 selected a silent film depicting same-sex love affairs in India, where homosexual activity is illegal, as their favorite of the 11 films screened in the festival.

Pride Films and Plays changes lives through the generation of diverse new work (or work that is new to Chicago) with LGBTQ+ characters or themes that is essential viewing for all audiences. We accomplish this mission through fully-staged productions, writing contests and staged readings, film screenings, and special events. We foster long term relationships with artists to create programming that is as diverse, unique, and complex as the community we represent. In 2015, Huffington Post called PFP "A powerful and empowering entity." The company acquired its two performance spaces at 4139 and 4147 N. Broadway in July 2016, renaming the spaces the Pride Arts Center.

 Pride Films and Plays will again host its annual Nominee Night cabaret showcasing many of the musical theater performers nominated in the Non-Equity Jeff Awards. The nominees were announced on April 24 and the awards will be presented June 5, 2017 at the Atheneaum Theatre. This year's cabaret will for the first time be performed in the Broadway, Pride Arts Center - the new home the company acquired in summer 2016. The theater is located at 4139 N. Broadway, Chicago. Audience members will have the opportunity to purchase raffle tickets for a door prize drawing for $400.00 in airfare from Southwest Airlines.