The Unveiling and

Dozens of Cousins

Written by Václav Havel

Translated b  Jan Novak

Directed by Beata Pilch

The cast includes Tiffany Bedwell, Kevin Cox, Ryan Czerwonko, Michael Doonan

 

A humorous commentary of a marginalized man taunted with the life he could be living. What happens when a man visits friends for the grand reveal of their new décor and discovers that their next project is him?

“Beata Pilch’s manicured, high-strung staging makes the submerged menace of the pieces hilarious, bracing, and deeply disturbing.”
Recommended! – Justin Hayford, The Chicago Reader
“As is standard with the Trap Door, the cast is wholly excellent.”
Recommended! – Paul Kubicki,  Stage and Cinema

“Trap Door is a Chicago treasure…” Recommended! – Tom Williams, Chicagocritic

Václav Havel (playwright) was a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. Because of his family’s links to the cultural and political events in Czechoslovakia from the 1920s to the 1940s, the communists did not allow Havel to study formally. In the first part of the 1950s, Havel entered into a four-year apprenticeship as a chemical laboratory assistant and simultaneously took evening classes to complete his secondary education (which he did in 1954). For political reasons he was not accepted into any post-secondary school with a humanities program; therefore, he opted to study at the Faculty of Economics of Czech Technical University. He left this program after two years. Following his return from two years of military service, he worked as a stage technician – first at Divadlo ABC, and then, in 1960, at Divadlo Na zabradli. From 1962 until 1966, he studied Drama by correspondence at the Faculty of Theatre of the Academy of Musical Arts. Havel was the ninth and last president of Czechoslovakia (1989-1992) and the first president of the Czech Republic (1993-2003). He wrote more than 20 plays and numerous non-fiction works. Havel received much recognition before his death in 2011, including the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Gandhi Peace Price, the Philadelphia Liberty Medal and the Ambassador of Conscience Award. Dozens of Cousins was written in 2010 as a modern sequel to The Unveiling. This is its first production in an English translation by Jan Novak.

Beata Pilch (Director) is the Artistic Director of the Trap Door Theatre. Born in the Polish district of Chicago, Beata holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Acting from the United States International University in San Diego, California, and a Master’s Degree in Acting from the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California. Pilch founded Chicago’s Trap Door Theatre in 1990 and still presides as its Artistic Director. She has produced, acted and/or directed in over fifty productions for Trap Door. Beata was most recently granted an artist residency from Cite Internationale des Arts in Paris, where she spent three months networking with artists, directors, and playwrights for future collaborations with Trap Door.
Assistant Director Michael Doonan / Choreographer Simina Contras / Set Designer Mike Mroch /
Lighting Designer Richard Norwood / Sound Design Danny Rockett / Costume Designer Mikayla Pasquale / Stage Manager Gary Damico / Make-Up Design Zsofia Ötvos / Dramaturge Milan Pribisic/ Graphic Design Michal Janicki