Beata Pilch

Trap Door credits

Acting
  • Occidental Express
  • No Matter How Hard We Try
  • How to Explain the History of Communism to Mental Patients
  • John Doe
  • Regarding The Just
  • the word progress on my mother’s lips doesn’t ring true
  • OVERWEIGHT, unimportant: MISSHAPE  — A European Supper
  • First Ladies
  • Me Too, I am Catherine Deneuve
  • Horses at the Window
  • The Unconquered
  • Emma
  • The Bitter Tears of Petra Van Kant
  • The Fourth Sister
  • The Crazy Locomotive (2005 in New York & Romania in 2007)
  • People Annihilation or My Liver is Senseless
  • Garden of Delights
  • The Venetian Twins
  • Katzelmacher
  • Nana
  • Quills
  • The Shoemakers 
  • Automobile Graveyard
  • Baal
  • Ten Tiny Fingers, Nine Tiny Toes
  • The Crazy Locomotive 
  • Pre Paradise, Sorry Now
  • The Killing Game 
  • Polaroid Stories
  • Alien Hand or Let the Right be a Vision of the Left
  • The Mother
  • Bremen Freedom 
  • Fever Dream Cocktail
  • Dad’s Ham
  • Troy Women
  • Blood on the Cat’s Neck
  • Orgasmo Adulto Escapes from the Zoo
  • The Gnadiges Fraulein
  • Aria Da Capo
  • Dr. Faustus
  • The Inevitable Crunch Factor
  • Ivona, Princess of Burgundia
  • Birdbath
  • Madman and the Nun

Artistic Director

Beata Pilch (she/her/hers) founded Chicago’s Trap Door Theatre in 1994 and still presides as its Artistic Director. Originally from Chicago, she holds a BFA in Acting from the United States International University in San Diego and a MFA in Acting from California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, CA. She had the honor to graduate as a magna cum laude from both universities and was later awarded the Prestigious Alumni award from CalArts. She has directed and performed in over 80 Trap Door productions and has toured abroad annually with the company to France, Romania, Hungary, Poland and was the first US theatre company ever to perform in the Republic of Moldova. In 2015, Beata created a sister company, Trap Door International, which produces out of Barcelona, Spain.

Gallery

…founder Beata Pilch grounds the entire production with her humorous, technically layered and adventurous performance.

Brian Kirst, Chicago Free Press (on performing in Horses at the Window)

Pilch has some deliciously baffling actions that are pure laugh-out-loud absurdity.

Katy Walsh, The Fourth Walsh.com (on performing in Me Too, I am Catherine Deneuve)

Pilch becomes absolution. Her transformation is breathtaking.

Venus Zarris, Chicago Stage Review (on performing in the word progress on my mother’s lips doesn’t ring true)

Pilch interprets The Mother’s anger and grief in a way that is visceral; at times I feared for her safety onstage.

J. H. Palmer, Theatre Beat (on performing in the word progress on my mother’s lips doesn’t ring true)

With its meticulous direction by Beata Pilch…

Nina Metz, Chicago Tribune (on directing Request Programme)

 Beata Pilch’s clever direction…

Nelson Rodriguez, Chicago Stage Standard (on directing The Unveiling and Dozens of Cousins)

Beata Pilch’s manicured, high-strung staging makes the submerged menace of the pieces hilarious, bracing, and deeply disturbing. Her laser-sharp cast turn 65 minutes of increasing irrationality into a giddy psychological thrill ride.

Justin Hayford, Chicago Reader (on directing The Unveiling and Dozens of Cousins)

Beata Pilch (Artistic Director of the Trap Door) demonstrates a profound understanding of the text…

Paul Kubicki, Chicago Theatre Review (on directing The Unveiling and Dozens of Cousins)

Particularly memorable is the long, awkward monologue by Mrs. Growlfire (Beata Pilch) as she surveys the poisoned corpses of her dinner-party guests—a monologue punctuated by an astonishing reversal.

John Beer, Newcity Stage (on performing in People Annihilation or My Liver is Senseless)

Beata Pilch ruefully delivers a monologue that describes the entirety of a life made miserable by self-destructive mental patterns.

Jacob Davis, Around the Town (on performing in Occidental Express)

Credits (continued…)

Directing
  • 25/25 Anniversary Celebration
  • They
  • Vatzlav
  • Blood on the Cat’s Neck 
  • The Unveiling and Dozens of Cousins
  • The Unconquered
  • Eva Peron
  • The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant
  • Request Programme
  • The Fourth Sister
  • The Crazy Locomotive 
  • Garden of Delights
  • Katzelmacher
  • Nana
  • The Architect and Emperor of Assyria 
  • Quills
  • The Shoemakers
  • The Homosexual, Or The Difficulty of Sexpressing Oneself 
  • La Ronde
  • The Crazy Locomotive
  • The Mother
  • Woman Behind Bars
  • Madman and the Nun
Trap Door International Directing
  • Migraaants! (Barcelona, Spain)
  • Blood on the Cat’s Neck (Barcelona, Spain)