Cast: Dennis Bisto, Abby Blankenship, Holly Cerney, Logan Hulick, Michael Mejia, Laura Nelson, Kevin Webb.

Playwright

Eugene Ionesco was born in 1909 (or in 1912, according to some sources) in Slatina, Romania. His father was Romanian and his mother French-Romanian and he spent his early years both in his native land and in France. During WW2 he moved to France and lived there until his death in 1994. During his long career he published essays, books for children, and a novel, but he is best known as a playwright and one of the major forces, alongside Beckett, Genet and Adamov, behind the Theatre of the Absurd in France. His first play, The Bold Soprano (1950) inaugurated a series of short, antilogical anti-plays (The Lesson [1951], The Chairs [1952], The New Tenant [1995]) in which many of his themes, such as the cliches of thought and language, the irrationality of materialist values and the loneliness and isolation of the individual, first appeared. Later, full-length plays, such as The Killer (1959), Rhinoceros (1960), Exit the King (1960) and Macbett (1972) offered somewhat more positive protagonists who hold out against the conformity but lack any rational explanation for their actions. His characters tend to be unthinking automatons unaware of their own mechanical behavior. All of Ionesco’s plays deal with a human situation from which the element of rationality (and of rational language) is absent; more specifically, all Ionesco’s drama is a satire upon a middle class, its speech, its manners, and its morals. Ionesco is a master of partial communication. A speaks, B listens, B then replies as if A has not relayed any information whatsoever. In 1970 Ionesco was elected to the Acadamie Francaise. He died in 1994 in Paris, France.

Stage Manager: Roxie Kooi / Set Design: Nicholas Schwartz/ Costume Design: Rachel Sypniewski/ Makeup Design: Zsófia Ötvös/ Sound Design: Matt Test and Sam Clapp/ Lighting Design: Richard Norwood/ Choreography: Jesse Hoisington/ Graphic Design: Michal Janicki/ Dramaturge: David Lovejoy/ Assistant Director: Skye Fort

Director

Mike Steele is a director, performer, writer and proud member of Trap Door Theatre currently residing in Austin, Texas. Recent directing credits include poolboy00 by Sam Mayer (UT Austin), OCD by Hee-Won Kim (UT Austin), The Killer by Ionesco (Trap Door Theatre), Sad Happy Sucker by Lee Kirk (Trap Door Theatre), and The Capillaries (Links Hall). Mike is also the former founding Artistic Director of The Island Theatre of Chicago. With The Island he led the creation of several original theatrical events including Tourist Trap and The Glass Inward. Recently, Mike has been developing an immersive performance piece titled High Strangeness dealing with belief, aliens, spirituality, mischief and fakery. Also an actor, Mike has performed with numerous companies both in Chicago and regionally. He plays trumpet sometimes with The Garvey train and is currently pursuing an MFA in directing at The University of Texas at Austin.