Formation | 1990 |
---|---|
Type | Theatre group |
Purpose | Avant-garde expressionism |
Location |
|
Artistic director(s) | Beata Pilch |
Website | trapdoortheatre |
Trap Door Theatre is an American, Jeff Award-winning, [1] avant-garde theatre company based in Chicago. Its focus is on European and original experimental material. [2]
Trap Door Theatre, founded by Beata Pilch and Sean Marlow, was incorporated in 1990 as a nomadic company touring theatre in Stockholm, Berlin, Zakopane, and Paris. In 1994, Trap Door brought its European tradition to the United States, creating a permanent home for the company in Chicago. [3]
Trap Door Theatre is located in Bucktown in Chicago in a 900-square-foot (84 m2) converted performance space which seats 45. [4]
Honorary Members include Danny Belrose, Summer Chance, Dani Deac, Ewelina Dobiesz, Kristie Hassinger, Kim McKean, Catherine Sullivan, Andrew Cooper Wasser, Michael Garvey, Bob Rokos, Tiffany Joy Ross, Wesley Walker, Michael S. Pieper, and Krishna Le Fan.
Joseph Jefferson Award citations
William Louis Petersen is an American actor and producer. He is best known for his role as Gil Grissom in the CBS drama series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000–2015), for which he won a Screen Actors Guild Award and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award; he was further nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards as a producer of the show. He reprised his role as Gil Grissom in the sequel CSI: Vegas, which premiered on October 6, 2021.
The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise and is the first ongoing improvisational theater troupe to be continually based in Chicago, with training programs and live theatres in Toronto and Los Angeles. The Second City Theatre opened on December 16, 1959, and has since become one of the most influential and prolific comedy theatres in the world. In February 2021, ZMC, a private equity investment firm based in Manhattan, purchased the Second City.
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The Joseph Jefferson Award, more commonly known informally as the Jeff Award, is given for theatre arts produced in the Chicago area. Founded in 1968, the awards are named in tribute to actor Joseph Jefferson, a 19th-century American theater star who, as a child, was a player in Chicago's first theater company. Two types of awards are given: "Equity" for work done under an Actors' Equity Association contract, and "Non-Equity" for non-union work. Award recipients are determined by a secret ballot.
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Clybourne Park is a 2010 play by Bruce Norris written as a spin-off to Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun (1959). It portrays fictional events set during and after the Hansberry play, and is loosely based on historical events that took place in the city of Chicago. It premiered in February 2010 at Playwrights Horizons in New York. The play received its UK premiere at the Royal Court Theatre in London in a production directed by Dominic Cooke. The play received its Chicago premiere at Steppenwolf Theatre Company in a production directed by Steppenwolf ensemble member Amy Morton. As described by The Washington Post, the play "applies a modern twist to the issues of race and housing and aspirations for a better life." Clybourne Park was awarded the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2012 Tony Award for Best Play.
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