Trap Door Theatre is Headed to Poland

The Trap Door Theatre is proud to announce that they will be traveling to eastern Europe to work at the Teatr Witkacy in Zakopane, Poland.

The cast will depart on July 25 to rehearse with Artistic Director Andrzej Dziuk, for a production that will premiere at the Teatr Witkacy, before we bring it home for a Chicago production that will open our season on September 25th!

This is a dream come true for Artistic Director, Beata Pilch, who's greatest inspiration for creating the Trap Door Theatre and its unique mission, came from experiencing the work of this magical theatre in the mountains of Poland!

Dementia: based on the writing of Stanislaw I. Witkiewicz, translated by Daniel Gerould. Adapted and Directed by: Andrzej Dziuk. Guest Artist from the Teatr Witkacy in Zakopane, Poland.

Cast: Featuring Holly Thomas Cerney, Michael Garvey, Johnny Graff, John Gray, Mike Steele, Beata Pilch, Wesley Walker and Nicole Wiesner

Stanislaw I. Witkiewicz (playwright) is one the most brilliant figures of the European avant-garde, Witkiewicz was a poet, painter, playwright, an expert on drugs, an early spokesman for a radically non-realistic theatre and an original philosopher and social critic of mass culture, post-industrial society, and the rise of totalitarianism. He was also a pioneer in serious experimentation with narcotics and prophetically recognized the growing importance that they would have on Western civilization. Politics, revolution, and even art were similar "drugs." Witkiewicz committed suicide shortly after the outbreak of War in September of 1939. He is best known for his plays The Madman and the Nun, The Mother, The Water Hen, The Anonymous Work, and The Shoemakers.

Andrzej Dziuk (Director) holds a degree in polish linguistics from the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. After a year of studying Philosophy at the Christian Theology Academy in Warszawa, he began his studies at the Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts, where he majored in directing and graduated with honors in 1984. At the beginning of his professional career, he collaborated with Teatr Stary in Kraków, where he realized his thesis project. Mr. Dziuk is a founding member and the artistic director of St.I. Witkiewicz Theatre in Zakopane. Each season, he creates and directs the majority of their shows. Dziuks' work is continuously inspired by the writings of St. I. Witkiewicz: "Pragmatists", "Authoparody", "Sonata b", "OL 12-7 Steg, Wien" based on "The Crazy Locomotive", "The Madman and the Nun", "The Water Hen", "Witkacy - Appendix" based on "Niemyte dusze" ("Narkotics" being a partial translation of it into English), "Good Morning - Witkacy" based on "The Anonymous Work: Four Acts of a Rather Nasty Nightmare", "CCY-Witkac-y" based on "Juwenilia" but he also directed classical and modern dramas such as "Doctor Faustus" by Charles Marlowe, "Cabaret Voltaire", "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller, "Nothing" by F. Mitterer, "Caligula" and "The Plague" by A. Camus, "The Magic Mountain" by T. Mann, "Na prze??czy" based on St. Witkiewicz and W. Eljasz's work, "Ball in the Opera" by J. Tuwim, "Barabas" by P. Lagerkwist and "What you Pretend Has Become Real" by Lope de Vega.

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