Holly (Thomas) Cerney

Trap Door credits

Acting
  • And Away We Stared
  • The Killer
  • 25/25 – Trap Door Celebrates 25 Years
  • The Locketteer
  • Fantasy Island for Dummies
  • John Doe (Poland in 2014 and 2015 and Chicago)
  • Vatzlav
  • They Are Dying Out
  • Me Too, I am Catherine Deneuve (Chicago, Atlanta, Washington D.C., and France)
  • Horses at the Window (Chicago, Lexington, Virginia, and Romania)
  • Eva Peron
  • The Fourth Sister
  • Amerikafka
  • The Garden of Delights

Website Manager

Website manager and principle performer, Holly (Thomas) Cerney (she/her/hers) has been a part of the Trap Door community since 2006 and served as the grant manager and development director from 2008 to 2015. She received a BA in theater arts from the University of Oregon and an MLIS from Dominican University. Visit her resume here.

Gallery

St. Dziuk’s staging is funny, frighten-ing, and, thanks to Wesley Walker’s Walpurg and Holly Thomas Cerney’s Anna, unexpectedly beautiful.

Tony Adler, Chicago Reader (about John Doe)

Anchoring the production are Walker and Cerney’s raw, revelatory performances. Cerney, more so than the other actors, portrays her character’s interior state through body language, including rapid movement, awkward contortions and coiled limbs.

Barnaby Hughes, Chicago Stage Review (about John Doe)

It’s a strange trip but also strangely exhilarating in its unapologetic indulgence, anchored by hypnotic performances by Wesley Walker as poet Alexander Walpurg, and by Holly Thomas Cerney as achingly vulnerable Sister Anna…

Kerry Reid, Chicago Tribune (about John Doe)

…a gutter-regal central performance by Holly Thomas as Eva…

Kris Vire, Time Out Chicago (about Eva Peron)

Holly Thomas’ Eva is a regally demanding, humorously wicked creation; she anchors the production with a statuesque grace and haughty sense of amusement.

Brian Krist, Chicago Free Press (about Eva Peron)

Beata Pilch, Nicole Wiesner, Carolyn Shoemaker and Holly Thomas anchor and carry the frantic absurdist farce – Trap Door Theatre’s ensemble has so much fun it becomes contagious.

Tom Williams, Chicago Critic (about The Fourth Sister)

In a play full-to-bursting with striking visual metaphors, the pas de trois among Kahara, Thomas and a cello is first among equals.

Kris Vire, Time Out Chicago (about Horses at the Window)

Holly Thomas’s inclusion of live cello music to her characterization renders lovely additional depth and melancholy.

Venus Zarris, Chicago Stage Review (about Horses at the Window)

A counterpoint to all of them is when, delicate Holly Thomas, half naked and bowing her rich-toned cello while John Kahara’s husband raves about the creative power of war.

Tony Adler, Chicago Reader (about Horses at the Window)

Thomas captures Genevieve’s implacable belief that she can only find herself by pretending to be somebody else.

Kerry Reid, Chicago Tribune (about Me Too, I Am Catherine Deneuve)

The entire cast is sharp, but Holly Thomas shows exceptional comic style as a mogul’s wife.

Tony Adler, Chicago Reader (about They Are Dying Out)