Daniel Alexander Jones will direct. About Face Theatre will produce the show in association with Jane M. Saks, the executive director of the Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media, a think tank based at Columbia College Chicago. Johnson's book and play are oral histories taken from interviews with black, gay Southern men. About Face's artistic director Bonnie Metzgar said in a statement, "The journey E. Patrick Johnson takes as a star academic, anthropologist and gay man returning to his roots is truly inspiring. Through him Chicago audiences will see how black gay men over several generations have wrestled with what's important to them: everything from the church and family to their mothers' recipe for sweet tea."

Johnson, the chair of the performance studies department at Northwestern University, has written and toured in the one-man shows Strange Fruit and Pouring Tea: Black Gay Men of the South Tell Their Tales, which is also based on his book "Sweet Tea."

The Viaduct Theater is located at 3111 N. Western in Chicago. For tickets, call (773) 296-6024 or visit aboutfacetheatre.com.