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.
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.
Original Production
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.
Gallery
Medea Material
Written by Heiner Müller
Translated and Adapted by Sarah Tolan-Mee
Directed by Max Truax
Music Composed by Jonathan Guillen
May 5 – June 5, 2022
With added two weeks June 23-July 2
MULTIPLE NOMINATIONS!!
Jonathan Guillen – “Original Music in a Play”
The Ensemble (Movement) – “Artistic Specialization”
The Ensemble – “Best Ensemble-Play”
Danny Rockett – “Sound Design”
Hannah Wein – “Lighting Design”
Resident Director Max Truax returns to Trap Door to direct another Heiner Müller piece, after his triumphant production of Hamletmachine, which “calculated chaos and mastered madness with purpose, conviction, theatrical artistry, and artistic integrity.” Medea Material explores the story of Euridepes’ Medea and its surrounding mythology, and will engage Müller’s poetry and complex intersectionality in a dancetheatre spectacle.
Under Max Truax’s able direction, this group of actors makes often complicated feelings utterly palpable. I don’t know how they did that and don’t want to ask, but I’m grateful to them for working their dark magic. – – Highly Recommended
Dmitry Samarov, Chicago Reader
It is an intellectual work as much as a kinetic one, and at 70 minutes with no intermission, leaves lots of time for a post show conversation with any fellow witnesses.
Angela Allyn, Chicago Stage and Screen
Michael Griggs’ minimalist concept provides endless mileage, and its use culminates in one of the most truly unnerving climaxes of the year. – Highly Recommended
Nathaniel Fishburn, New City Stage
…the kind of abstract media experience that can only be found in live theatre. – Highly Recommended
Jacob Davis, Around the Town
…the play undeniably, effectively, creates viscerally uncomfortable and beautiful sensations in the audience to turn myth into a waking dream. – Highly Recommened
Nathaniel Fishburn, NewCity Stage