Richard Norwood News

Celebrate Trap Door Theatre's 30th anniversary with a reimagined production of NANA, adapted from Emile Zola's novel. Directed by Miguel Long.

Trap Door Theatre presents 'Mother Courage and her Children,' a boisterous and musical production of Bertolt Brecht's classic play.

Trap Door Theatre will open its 30th anniversary season with a new adaptation of Stanislaw Witkiewicz’s dark and shockingly absurd chamber piece, The Pragmatists. Directed by guest director Zeljko Djukic, The Pragmatists will play September 21 – October 28, 2023 at Trap Door Theatre, 1655 W Cortland St. in Chicago.

The Vaclav Havel Library Foundation and Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association will present the 2023 Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival honoring playwright and human rights activist Vaclav Havel. From June 2 to June 14, the Bohemian National Hall will feature award-winning performances from the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and the US.

Trap Door Theatre will round out its 29th season with the US premiere of Bowie in Warsaw, Dorota Masłowska's absurd comedy about freedom of self expression in Soviet era Poland.

Trap Door Theatre will continue its 29th season with the US premiere of Joan and the Fire, Matei Vişniec's playful and timely piece about revisionist history's effect on the iconic figure of Joan of Arc. Directed by Nicole Wiesner, Joan and the Fire will play March 9 – April 15, 2023 at Trap Door Theatre, 1655 W Cortland St. in Chicago.

By popular demand, Trap Door will be adding 4 performances to the run of Princess Ivona at 7PM on Sundays through February 19th.

Ivona, a woman of few words, is forcibly entangled into the intrigues of a dysfunctional royal court when she becomes Prince Philip's fiancée. Soon, Ivona becomes a royal spoiler revealing to each courtier their vices and blemishes.

Lette was never concerned with his looks until his peers, coworkers, and wife told him he's the ugliest man in the world. If a pretty face is all he needs to succeed, and plastic surgery is the solution, will he be willing to go under the knife?

Director Nicole Wiesner brings her signature Trap Door style to adapt and direct this obscure Mrożek farce. One of Poland's most celebrated playwrights, Sławomir Mrożek wrote this absurdist piece as a subtle critique of the political system of the time.

Director Nicole Wiesner brings her signature Trap Door style to adapt and direct this obscure Mrożek farce. One of Poland's most celebrated playwrights, Sławomir Mrożek wrote this absurdist piece as a subtle critique of the political system of the time.

Laura Ruohonen creates her own special world in her plays, whether depicting a seventeenth-century court or a modern apartment block. Ruohonen's texts are both poetic and down-to-earth, combining humour and tragedy into an organic whole.

Trap Door Theatre will present And Away We Stared, devised and directed by Skye Fort and Mike Steele. 

Trap Door Theatre will continue its 27th season with Matei Vişniec's Discourse Without Grammar, fragments from Vişniec's 'Cabaret of Words'.

Trap Door Theatre has announced that all eight episodes of Matei Vişniec’s Decomposed Theatre are now for rent on their website. Directed by Neema Lahon, Marian Masoliver, Michael Mejia, Zachary Nicol, Cristina Pronzati, Catherine Sullivan, Nicole Wiesner, and Katarzyna Wińska. 

This winter, Trap Door Theatre will collaborate with eight directors to create a series of episodes adapted from Matei Visniec's Decomposed Theatre Or The Human Trashcan. From Dec. 3, 2020, to Feb.4, 2021, a unique adaptation from Visniec's 'dialogic spectacle of monologues' will be performed live on Zoom between the resident Chicago ensemble and an international group of guest performers and directors.

Trap Door Theatre is adding three more performances to its run of a?oeLipstick Lobotomy,a?? written by Krista Knight and directed by Kate Hendrickson. Additional shows will be at 8 p.m. March 26, 27 and 28. The show features Dennis Bisto, Abby Blankenship, Natara Easter, Ann James, Eleanor Katz, Emily Lotspeich, Michael Mejia, Kirk Osgood, Ann Sonneville, Michaela Voit, Bob Wilson and Bernadetta Zawiejska. 

To begin the new year with laughs a-plenty, First Folio Theatre (Mayslake Peabody Estate, 31st St & Rt. 83) presents the World Premiere production of JEEVES SAVES THE DAY, by Margaret Raether, to continue its 2019-2020 season. Based on stories by P.G. Wodehouse and directed by Artistic Associate Joe Foust, JEEVES SAVES THE DAY previews January 29-31, opens February 1, and runs through March 1, 2020.

To begin the new year with laughs a-plenty, First Folio Theatre (Mayslake Peabody Estate, 31st St & Rt. 83) presents the World Premiere production of JEEVES SAVES THE DAY, by Margaret Raether, to continue its 2019-2020 season. Based on stories by P.G. Wodehouse and directed by Artistic Associate Joe Foust, JEEVES SAVES THE DAY previews January 29-31, opens February 1, and runs through March 1, 2020.

In the world premiere of a?oeLipstick Lobotomy,a?? John F. Kennedy's little sister, Rosemary Kennedy, and the playwright's Great Aunt Ginny develop a friendship at an exclusive high-end sanitarium for women in the fall of 1941. The women undergo the peculiar cutting-edge treatments on offer by a society desperate to find the cure for womanhood in this incisive comedy.