SUGAR DOWN, BILLIE HOAK
BY: Brian Silberman
DIRECTED BY: Michael S. Pieper

CAST: Danny Belrose, David Coleman, Rob Skroki
LIGHTING DESIGN: Richard Norwood
SOUND DESIGN: Bob Rokos
SET DESIGN: Michael S. Pieper

A MIDWEST PREMIERE | WINNER OF AN AFTER DARK AWARD

"Trap Door, edgy and ambitious, here stands proud on the strength of three riveting performances, which combine ferocious visceral power with impressive craft and discipline."
-Albert Williams, The Chicago Reader

"There's a power play happening on Cortland Street..."
-Lawrence Bommer, The Windy City Times

Sugar Down, Billie Hoak...
Two NY hustlers confront the cycles of abuse in their lives in a dirty underground bathroom.

Two Powder Monkeys from New York Ciy, / They're down little junkies./ They Sugar Down with Billie Hoak,/ It ain't no joke.

Two New York Hustlers, bitten by the white mosquito, can't afford Doritos, and ain't got no libido....

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT:

Brian Silberman's one act plays about orphans and abandonment in a small Virginia town, Walkin' Backward and The Gospel according to Toots Pope, the first two sections of a larger, five-play collection entitled, The Buckland Canticle, were the recipients of awards from the Kennedy Center's American College Theatre Festival, 21st Century Playwrights, TADA!, Carnegie Mellon's summer Showcase of New Plays, and the Poets' Theatre. His other plays include Manifest, a finalist at the 1996 Eugene O 'Neill National Playwrights Conference, the San Francisco Playwrights Center, the Jerome Fellowship at the Playwrights Center of Minneaopolis, and the receipient of a workshop at The Drama League of New York; Half Court, a dark comedy about young men and basketball. and salvage Operations, a 10 minute play. Mr. Silberman holds and M.F.A. in Playwriting from Carnegie Mellon University, where he recieved two Shubert Drama Fellowships and the Mary Marlin Fisher Playwriting Award. He is a member of The Dramatists Guild.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:
Michael S. Pieper
Michael is currently the Head of Acting at the Second city Training Center. He created this program almost nine years ago with the late Martin da Maat. He also was on the faculty of the United States International University of San Diego for 8 years and Artistic Director of the North Coast Repertory Theatre Conservatory in San Diego for four years. In Chicago, Michael was Artistic Director at the Boxer Rebellion Theatre and Resident Director/Artistic Associate at the Trap Door Theatre. He has been a Guest Director and Instructor at Northern Illinois University over the past 7 years. He has directed over 80 productions in his career. His plays have received 9 Jeff recommendations, 7 Jeff nominations, 3 Jeff citations and 5 After Dark Awards.

Opened: March 1998