Max Truax
Trap Door credits
Directing
- No Matter How Hard We Try
- The Balcony
- They Are Dying Out
- Hamletmachine
- No Darkness Round My Stone
- A Couple Of Poor, Polish-Speaking Romanians
Resident Director
Max Truax (he/him/his) has been a Resident Director at Trap Door since 2008. For Trap Door, he has directed many critically acclaimed productions. He served as the Artistic Director of Oracle Productions from 2011 to 2016. His production of The Mother received 7 Jeff Awards, including awards for “Best Production”, “Best Adaptation”, and “Best Ensemble”. In addition to Chicago, Max has directed for multiple stages in Los Angeles and at the Krannert Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He studied visual art, performance art, and choreography at Oberlin College and he received his MFA in theatre directing from California Institute of the Arts. Max currently serves as Artistic Director for Red Tape Theatre.
Gallery
..one of the most visually, well, visionary directors in Chicago’s storefront scene..
Kerry Reid, Chicago Tribune (about Hamletmachine)
… a dark masterpiece. Director Max Truax paints the surreal portrait with exacting strokes.
Director Max Truax has created an impossibly entertaining production.
Monica Westin, Newcity Stage (about No Darkness Round My Stone)
Director Max Truax draws the audience into the characters’ disoriented world: his actors walk around rather than attempt to realistically represent sitting in a car, while video designer Aaron Covich’s grainy highway footage heightens this hallucinatory road movie for the stage.
Albert Williams, Chicago Reader (about A Couple of Poor, Polish-Speaking Romanians)
Through 90 minutes of hallucinogenic mayhem, nicely corralled by director Max Truax, Masłowska ruminates on the post-World War II evisceration of a meaningful Polish identity. It’s hard to sit through-exactly as it should be.