About Face Theatre Presents Chicago Premiere of DADA WOOF PAPA HOT

About Face Theatre is pleased to continue its 2018-19 season with DADA WOOF PAPA HOT, a sexy comedy about gay parenting and modern families from Peter Parnell (The Cider House Rules), directed by Jeff Award-nominated AFT Artistic Associate Keira Fromm*. DADA WOOF PAPA HOT will play January 10 - February 16, 2019 at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave. in Chicago. Tickets go on sale Saturday, December 1, 2018 at aboutfacetheatre.com, by calling (773) 975-8150 or in person at the Theater Wit Box Office. The press opening is Thursday, January 17, 2019 at 7:30 pm.

DADA WOOF PAPA HOT will feature AFT Artistic Associate Benjamin Sprunger* with Jos N. Banks, Shane Kenyon, Keith Kupferer, Lily Mojekwu, Bruch Reed and Rachel Sullivan.

This funny, sexy play introduces two gay couples and their friends venturing into the world of modern parenting. As friendships deepen and vulnerabilities get exposed, the foundations of family and commitment are shaken. Now that marriage equality is the law of the land, DADA WOOF PAPA HOT explores the many ways that lives change and relationships shift when children enter the picture.

Comments Artistic Director Megan Carney, "Peter Parnell's work has long captivated audiences in

Chicago and around the country and this is a hilarious, forthright and deeply revealing play. The journey of Dada Woof Papa Hot connects people across many different experiences in the struggle to balance the delights of autonomy and independence with the comforts of coupledom and family. I love Keira Fromm's vision for the production to illuminate how social pressures and personal longing impact couples."

Adds Director Keira Fromm, "Dada Woof Papa Hot is a funny and moving play about the challenges of modern day marriage and parenting. It's also a play about how becoming a parent impacts one's sense of identity and individuality. I love how the play reaches into contemporary married life and examines its difficulties for straight and gay people alike. The play takes place today in our post-marriage-equality moment where gay relationships and parenting have been normalized in our culture. The way it explores the unique problems that Alan and Rob (the central couple in the play) encounter while raising their young daughter in the wake of marriage equality makes for incredibly potent and compelling theater."

The production team for DADA WOOF PAPA HOT includes William Boles* (scenic designer), Noël Huntzinger (costume design), Claire Chrzan (lighting design), Christopher Kriz (sound design, music composition), Jamie Karas (properties design) and Catherine Allen (production manager).

*Denotes AFT Artistic Associate

This production is sponsored in part by a generous donation from Dr. Charles Rhee.

Artist Biographies

Peter Parnell's (Playwright, he/him/his) plays, including Sorrows of Stephen, The Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket, Romance Language, Hyde in Hollywood, Flaubert's Latest and An Imaginary Life, have been produced by The Public Theater, Playwrights Horizons, the Mark Taper Forum, the Seattle Rep Theatre, The Old Globe and Center Stage in Baltimore, among others. His two-part stage adaptation of John Irving's The Cider House Rules won the American Theatre Critics Association Award, Ovation Awards, Joseph Jefferson Awards and Drama League nominations, and was produced at the Seattle Rep, the Taper, Trinity Repertory and the Atlantic Theatre Company in New York. His play QED was produced at the Taper and then on Broadway at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theatre. For television, he was a co-producer for The West Wing (NBC; two Emmy Award Citations, two Humanitas Awards), producer for The Guardian (CBS, GLAAD episode nomination), and Inconceivable (NBC). He has written television pilots for ABC and Fox. He has served on the Literary Award Committee in Playwriting for PEN, and been the recipient of Guggenheim, Ingram Merrill, NEA and Fund for New American Plays grants. He has taught playwriting at Dartmouth and at the New School, and television writing in the Columbia University Film Division. His children's book, And Tango Makes Three, co-authored with Justin Richardson, was published by Simon & Schuster in 2005, and is an ALA Notable Book, a Henry Bergh Award winner and was nominated for a LAMBDA Literary Award as best children's book of the year.

Keira Fromm (Director, she/her/hers) is a Jeff Award-nominated director, casting director and teacher based in Chicago. Some favorite recent directing credits include: Bull in a China Shop (About Face Theatre), hang (Remy Bumppo), Significant Other (About Face Theatre), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center of New York City (Route 66 Theatre Company), Bright Half Life (About Face Theatre), The Columnist (American Blues Theater), How the World Began (Rivendell Theatre Ensemble), A Kid Like Jake (About Face), Luce (Next Theatre), Charles Ives Take Me Home (Strawdog), The How and the Why (TimeLine Theatre), Broadsword (Gift Theatre) and Fallow (Steep Theatre). Keira is a proud Artistic Associate with About Face Theatre. She received her MFA from DePaul University, her BFA from Boston University, is an alumna of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, and is a member of SDC, the professional directors union. Keira is a frequent guest director at DePaul, as well as Roosevelt University. She will be directing Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley at TheatreSquared in Northwest Arkansas this fall.

About Face Theatre creates exceptional, innovative, and adventurous theatre and educational programming that advances the national dialogue on sexual and gender identity, and challenges and entertains audiences in Chicago and beyond.

PHOTO CREDIT: (left to right) Shane Kenyon, Lily Mojekwu and Benjamin Sprunger in a publicity image for About Face Theatre's Chicago premiere of DADA WOOF PAPA HOT. Photo by Anna Gelman.