Repertory Cast: Caleb Lee Jenkins, Miguel Long, Emily Lotspeich, David Lovejoy, Joan Nahid, Emily Nichelson, Tia Pinson, Manuela Rentea, and Hannah Silverman.

Scenic Designer: J. Michael Griggs / Costume Designer: Rachel Sypniewski / Lighting Designer: Richard Norwood / Music Composer: Jonathan Guillen / Sound Designer: Danny Rockett / Stage Manager: Kasia Olechno / Make-Up Designer: Zsófia Ötvös / Graphic Designer: Michal Janicki

Playwright

Heiner Müller (Playwright) was one of the most important playwrights of the twentieth century European theater; he was also one of the most controversial and outspoken artists of his time. He was born in 1929 in Saxony, a state in eastern Germany and, apart from writing plays and directing shows, he was a journalist, critic, poet, and philosopher. He received many literary prizes including the Lessing Prize, Germany’s highest literary honor. Müller’s work emerged from the rubble of postwar Europe and its political and economic decay. The division of Germany, the Cold War, and the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 were important events that contributed to his literary oeuvre. His theatrical models include the ancient Greek tragedians, Shakespeare, and Brecht, but he will be best remembered as the creator of the post-dramatic, non-linear, image-driven synthetic fragment intended to disintegrate the “fourth wall.” Müller’s themes concern human beings in a state of flux due to sociopolitical displacement and, like Brecht, he wanted his audience to ponder and, if necessary, to choose. His best-known plays are Cement (1972), The Hamletmachine (1977), The Mission (1979), Quartet (1981), Medea Material (1982) and Death Destruction Detroit II (1987). Müller died in 1995.

About Trap Door’s Repertory System

Trap Door Theatre’s newly formed repertory system has been created to breathe new life into favorite Trap shows, rarely produced in the United States. Reviving past shows from our rich production history while giving new artists a fresh take on the performance elements, audiences can now experience these obscure productions with reinvented directorial concepts and new acting styles. Following a European model, Trap Door’s ensemble of actors will perform three classic Trap Door shows in rep alongside our mainstage productions throughout the season: The Martyrdom of Peter Ohey, Medea Material, and Mother Courage and her Children.

Medea Material

Trap Door in Repertory

 

Written by Heiner Müller

Translated and Adapted by Sarah Tolan-Mee

Directed by Max Truax

Music Composed by Jonathan Guillen

Trap Door Theatre is thrilled to continue its 31st season of repertory and mainstage combined work with a remount of the Trap Door favorite of Medea Material featuring a new cast of stellar Trap Door ensemble members. Adapted from Heiner Müller’s play by Sarah Tolan-Mee, Medea Material will be directed by Resident Director Max Truax, who directed the original production in 2022.

The classic story of Medea, told through the lens of music and movement. Nominated for five Jeff Awards in its original run, Medea Material explores Euridepes’ Medea and its surrounding mythology, and engages Müller’s poetry and complex intersectionality in a dancetheatre spectacle.

October 17th – 26th, 2024 and July 10th-12th, 2025

Runs: 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
Admission: $30, with two for one admission on Thursdays.

Where: Trap Door Theatre is located at 1655 W. Cortland St.

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Group tickets: Special group rates are available. For information, call (773) 384-0494 or email boxofficetrapdoor@gmail.com.

Accessibility:
Trap Door Theatre is wheelchair accessible.

Director

Max Truax (he/him) has been a Resident Director at Trap Door since 2008. For Trap Door, he has directed many critically acclaimed productions, including No Matter How Hard We Try, The Balcony, They Are Dying Out, A Couple of Poor Polish-Speaking Romanians, and No Darkness Round My Stone. His production of A Couple of Poor Polish-Speaking Romanians went on to perform in both Poland and Romania. He also directed Trap Door’s 2011 production of Heiner Muller’s Hamletmachine, which he conceived as an opera in collaboration with composer Jonathan Guillen. Max served as Artistic Director for Oracle Productions from 2011 to 2016, where he directed No Beast So Fierce, The President, The Mother, Woyzeck, Ghost Sonata, and Termen Vox Machina. His production of The Mother received 7 Jeff Awards, including awards for “Best Production”, “Best Adaptation”, and “Best Ensemble”. In addition to Chicago, Max has directed for multiple stages in Los Angeles and at the Krannert Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He studied visual art, performance art, and choreography at Oberlin College and he received his MFA in theater directing from California Institute of the Arts. Max currently serves as Artistic Director for Red Tape Theatre.

Assistant Director and Choreography: Claire Bauman / Set Designer: J. Michael Griggs / Lighting Designer: Hannah Wein / Music Composer: Jonathan Guillen / Costume Designer: Rachel Sypniewski / Sound Designer: Danny Rockett / Make-up Designer: Zsofia Otvos / Graphic Designer: Michal Janicki / Stage Manager: Audrey Ney / Assistant Stage Manager: Shannon Rourke

Cast: Venice Averyheart, Alexis DawTyne, Catrina Evans, Miguel Long, Emily Lotspeich, Laura Nelson, Emily Nichelson, Steven Schaeffer, and Keith Surney.