The TRAP DOOR THEATRE
in cooperation with the GOETHE INSTITUT
presents:
from the writer and director of Trap Door's 2005 hit AmeriKafka
the World premiere of
Beholder
Written by: Ken Prestininzi
Directed by: Kate Hendrickson
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This production won a Jeff Award for Best New Work!
Betsy Zajko was also nominated for
Best Actress in a Lead Role.
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Elegant. Poetic. Archetypal. Fluid. Surreal. Luscious. Highly recommended.
-Justin Hayford, Chicago Reader
Wonderfully evocative! A protofeminist tale that also delves deeply into the push-pull of an artist's psyche -- Prestininzi's play is as poetic, emotionally fraught and unresolved as the lives of its fascinating (and perfectly neurotic) characters. Betsy Zajko [gives] a wonderfully unpredictable, volatile, self-testing performance that perfectly echoes her character. Directed by Kate Hendrickson with great sensitivity and a sense of true emotional wildness, the production is as beautiful and richly haunted as a Modersohn-Becker painting.
--Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-times
"Highly recommended! Top five shows to see!"
-Monica Westin, New City Chicago
"A fluid and poetic voice...Prestininzi gives us the living texture behind the canvas."
-Kerry Reid, Chicago Tribune
"Bold and beguiling! A fierce, brassy, and throughly convincing portrait of a true revolutionary. Strong performances and crisp mercifully humorous writing make this uncompromising play a taste worth cultivating."
-Time Out Chicago
"An exceptionally wonderful world premiere. Beautifully voyeuristic and dramatically intimate. Filled with breathtaking observations on art and love, this is as much a portrait of the artist in general as it is a specific rendering of Paula Modersohn-Becker’s life and work. Betsy Zajko and Kristen Williams Smith have magnificent chemistry together, as Paula and her friend Clara Rilke-Westhoff respectively. Judy Loyd delivers Anna Dreeban, model for and friend to Paula, with subtle comic timing and commanding presence. Alison Chesley’s original musical composition is exquisite. Trap Door Theatre continues to exemplify extraordinary and curious lives with this compelling and unique production"
-Venus Zarris, Gay Chicago Magazine
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Cast: Featuring Betsy Zajko as Paula, with Jason Huysman, John Kahara, Judy Loyd, and Kristen Williams
Music composed by Alison Chesley aka Helen Money
Lighting Design by Gina Patterson
Assistant Director: Emily Lotspeich
Productions Stage Manager: Andrew Luckenbill
Assistant Stage Manager: Amber Lageman
Lighting Designer: Gina Patterson
Scenic Designers: Kate Hendrickson & Emily Lotspeich
Scenic Design Mentor: Ewelina Dobiesz
Costume Designers: Kate Hendrickson & Beata Pilch
Master Seamstress: Sir Iris Bainum-Houle
Graphic Designer: Michal Janicki
Paintings by: Connie Hinkle
May 15-June 21, 2008
BEHOLDER is inspired by the notebooks and letters of painter Paula Modersohn-Becker and her friend poet Rainer Maria Rilke. The script also takes inspiration from Rilke's poem Requiem for a Friend.
A love story on many levels, BEHOLDER explores how Paula's continually evolving relationship to her work is reflected in her relationship to herself and to the people in her life.
A year after Modersohn-Becker's death, Rilke sequestered himself in his room for three nights, and wrote the 259 line poem Requiem for a Friend. The poem is an outcry against her death, as well as a tribute to her greatness and vision as an artist.
During her short career Modersohn-Becker’s art was hardly known, although she produced over 400 paintings and at least a thousand
drawings and graphic works. In art categories, she is hard to
place. She is a rare individualist, a precursor to the German expressionist movement and a synthesizer of German and French sources. She describes her own development as a move towards “great simplicity of form.”
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Playwright/director/dramaturg Ken Prestininzi's work has been performed in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and in the Czech Republic, England, Mexico, and Scotland. His existential extravaganza play, AmeriKafka, was produced by Trap Door, under the direction of Kate Hendrickson, in 2005. He is also the author of the musicals Favorite of the King, Pe'er Flynt, and Ariadne and the plays The Burger Girl Jingle, The Hole, and Kept. An active force in new play development in San Francisco in the 1990's, Ken is currently based in Rhode Island and will soon be moving to New Haven, Connecticut. In October, his play As American As will premiere in Washington, D.C. He has an MFA from the University of Iowa and is currently a Ph.D candidate (ABD) at Brown University in theatre and performance studies where he co-produced the Performance Studies international conference 2005. He is Associate Artistic Director of the Brown/Trinity Playwrights Repertory Theatre. He has been a director and dramaturg for many of the MFA playwrights in Paula Vogel's master program at Brown and ART and has developed and directed work by Jennifer Hayley, Quiara Alegria Hudes, and Peter and Paula Vogel. He has taught playwriting at Intersection for the Arts and American Conservatory Theatre and has also directed the playwriting program for the Literary Arts International in Prague and Mexico City. His work has been honored with awards from ACTF, the California Council of the Arts, Djerassi Arts Colony, National Endowment of the Humanities, Northwestern University, Rockefeller Foundation, San Francisco Cultural Equity Office, Shenandoah Arts, and the University of Iowa. He can be reached at kprestinin@aol.com.
