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.

Pilch’s favorite line from a Trap Door production:

“Tornado Babelberg is my maiden name!” —The Shoemakers

Gallery

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

(Horses at the Window) by Brian Kirst, Chicago Free Press 

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

(Me Too, I am Catherine Deneuve) by Katy Walsh, The Fourth Walsh.com 

“Pilch becomes absolution. Her transformation is breathtaking.”

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

(The Word Progress On My Mother’s Lips Doesn’t Ring True) by Venus Zarris,  Chicago Stage Review/ J. H. Palmer, Theatre Beat 

“With its meticulous direction by Beata Pilch…”

(on directing Request Programme) by Nina Metz, The Chicago Tribune 

 “Beata Pilch’s clever direction…”

“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.”

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

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)