Performance History

MISSION

Artistic Director, Beata Pilch, founded Trap Door with a commitment to seeking out challenging yet obscure works and bringing them to life; from European classics rarely seen in the United States to new forces in American theatre. Trap Door innovatively presents these voices by utilizing old traditions mixed with new to celebrate the absurdities and ironies of life.

Founded in 1990, Trap Door began as a nomadic troupe, thrilling the European theaters of Stockholm, Berlin, Zakopane and Paris with its grass-roots, avant-garde expressionism. It was on these stages that our trademark style of myth, ritual and revolution first crystallized. In March of 1994, Trap Door brought the stage-coach home to America, along with the exotic sensibilities that it had developed on its low budget, international tours.

HISTORY

Incorporated in March of 1994, Trap Door Theatre took their three-year tradition of touring European Theatres and Festivals and transferred it to Chicago's world renowned Off-Loop Theatre scene. Residing in it's permanent home, which is a 45 seat, 900 square foot converted performance space in Bucktown, Trap Door has presented over sixty productions on the cusp of its ninth season, winning the praise of critics and patrons that catapults a whirlwind of activity, keeping the doors open five days a week.

The next few years unfold to lead the young theatre and its ensemble members to accomplishments and growth unexpected for such a fledgling company. For eight successful seasons, our work has earned us multiple awards, crammed our house to the gills and more than doubled our company membership. Laurels came in droves from The Saints, The Illinois Arts Council, the Mayer & Morris Kaplan Foundation, The Richard Driehaus Foundation, The AlphaWood Foundation, The Bucktown Community Organization, The French Embassy, Governor Jim Thompson, private businesses and The Joseph Jefferson Committee. Chicago Sun Times journalist Lucia Mauro designated Trap Door the best avant-garde theater in the city, and co-founder Sean Marlow was nominated for Best Actor at the 1996 Jeff Awards for his powerhouse role in Jean Genet's The Maids. Trap Door enjoyed packed houses after earning Tip of the Week in New City. Chief critic Albert Williams called it, "the kind of reckless, impractical, edgily energetic production that established Chicago theatre as a force to be reckoned with a generation ago--and that marks Trap door as a significant troupe for today."

Selling out and standing high on the Chicago Reader, New City, and Chicago Tribune's recommended lists, Trap Door’s productions brought our dynamic ensemble hosts of local investors and the following merits from critic, Chris Jones: "Trap Door demonstrates its nerve and competence in work few others would dare perform." In 1998, Trap Door went back to its Eastern European roots with Polish absurdist classic The Mother. Capping off that dream season was our Jeff Nominated Alien Hand, a live-wire adaptation of Moss Hart's old Broadway musical Lady in the Dark. Chicago Reader's Chief Critic, Albert Williams, wrote that Alien Hand "affirms Trap Door's place at the forefront of the Chicago fringe theater scene." Such extensive credits have indeed made Trap Door the vanguard of the alternative arts in Chicago.

Our fifth season was an even greater success. Noted Steppenwolf director Sheldon Patinkin joined forces with Trap Door to direct our production of Eugene Ionesco's The Killing Game. It was also a main showpiece in the Chicago Cultural Center's Bastille Day Festival. Patrick Meyer's Feedlot went on to win an After Dark Award for Best Ensemble. "Trap Door is known for attacking complex, subversive works with gusto, and this production only adds to that reputation." Nick Green, The Chicago Reader.

Never have we had such a successful season opener as our sixth season's production of Lebensraum by Israel Horowitz. Gay Chicago hailed it as "our finest work to date and one of the year's very best”. As a result, Lebensraum had a lucrative, sold-out run and won three Jeff awards for Best Supporting Actor, Actress and Ensemble.

The 2001/2002 season brought in scores of reviews, allowing Trap Door to work with some of the best artist’s in Chicago. We took a step back in time and brought Bertolt Brecht's Baal to bear on the self-destruction of the modern artist. German director, Stefan Brun, founder of Chicago's Prop Theater, plied his talents on our stage as an Epic Theater specialist and member of the Berliner Ensemble, the world's foremost theater for Brecht. Trap Door then went on to become the proud recipient of a Joseph Jefferson award for Best Ensemble for Chay Yew’s Porcelain. In this psychodrama, a young man relives the whole gestalt of his real-life nightmare with wide-open eyes. Standing tall on all of the city’s highly recommended lists, Trap Door wrapped up the season with its sold-out summer hit, The Automobile Graveyard by Fernando Arrabal. “Trap Door has carved a niche reviving the European avant-garde and reviving it quite well.” Chris Jones, The Chicago Tribune.

Trap Door opened its eighth season with Stanislaw Witkiewicz's The Shoemakers. The Shoemakers turns all our usual perceptions of the workaday world on their heads, as the tinkers and tailors suddenly engage with tyrants and termagants in fierce, proto-psychedelic discourse about class, individualism, and the fate of humankind. Due to popular demand, we gave this production an extended run and sold out. Trap Door then ventured on to do Doug Wright's Quills, directed by Trap Door’s very own artistic director, Beata Pilch. This long-awaited production made Trap Door reach new heights in their artistic growth and the response was so overwhelming, that Trap Door extended the production. “Beata Pilch’s Trap Door production is the most visually interesting and creative show at this theater in quite some time…the show is intense, lively, fast-paced and never dull.” Chris Jones, The Chicago Tribune. The Trap Door finished off the season with Clive Barker’s The History of the Devil. Clive Barker fans came in droves to witness this macabre masterpiece.

To start off the 02-03 season, Michael Pieper directed Jean-Paul Sartre’s The Flies, which was Jeff Nominated and won prestigious recognition. Next Beata Pilch directed the Trap's biggest hit- to- date, the American premiere of Olwen Wymark’s splendid dramatization of Zola’s most famous novel, Nana. Nana received widespread critical acclaim and was given a Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Ensemble. “Electrifying…Highly Stylized Production…Ingenious staging...Fascinating and Harrowing,” Justin Hayford, The Chicago Reader. Following Nana was Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Katzelmacher, a play that explores how xenophobia infiltrates an already crippling small town mentality. Katzelmacher sold out and was extended and received high critical acclaim. “The laudably fast-paced and provocative production of Katzelmacher directed with nerve and verve by Beata Pilch and Krishna LeFan, is the best Fassbinder outing to date,” Chris Jones, The Chicago Tribune. The future looks bright indeed for Trap Door.

Trap Door continues to fund-raise each year to take a company of actors to Europe to visit festivals, theatres, and meet other artists in search of the same quest. In the future, Trap Door hopes to collaborate with foreign artists and participate in international festivals, bringing their work abroad and exposing it on a global level. Trap Door has also been invited to perform in LA! Trap Door's artistic team will take a production to The Odyssey Theater in Los Angeles next fall.

Trap Door Theatre maintains a family of artists, loyal to each other, the art, and their own artistic integrity.