About Face unveils a hot new season

After a year marked by economic struggles, About Face Theatre is decisively back. Its schedule for next year, announced today, begins with the new XYZ Festival, a "showcase for innovative artists presenting work at all stages of development" that includes some real gems. Perhaps the biggest news: Obie-winning playwright Adam Bock is premiering his new play Flowers. Bock's earlier work, including The Thugs (produced here last year by Profiles) and The Receptionist, has made him a rising star in New York. The lineup also includes Philadelphia's Pig Iron, a wildly inventive physical theater ensemble, with its adaptation of Gilbert & Sullivan, as well as performance icon Holly Hughes.

The season will continue with What We Once Felt, the play by Ann Marie Healy postponed from the 2008–2009 season, and an adaptation of Northwestern professor E. Patrick Johnson’s study of Southern black gay men, Sweet Tea. All in all, AD Bonnie Metzgar looks set to demonstrate About Face's continuing impact.