Trap Door Theater Presents CHASTE, Opens 5/13

Trap Door presents the World Premiere of Chaste Written by Ken Prestininzi and Directed by Kate Hendrickson. The cast consists of Antonio Brunetti, John Kahara, Sara Tolan Mee, and Tiffany Joy Ross.

Director Kate Hendrickson and playwright Ken Prestininzi tapped into the mesmerizing and maddening with AmeriKafka, while their intimate and bold Beholder garnered several awards, including the 2008 Jeff Award for Best New Work. Now these two longtime collaborators seek out the ecstatic in Chaste.

Chaste is the third in a series of Prestininzi plays (all premiered at Trap Door under Hendrickson's direction) taking inspiration from the lives of German-speaking thinkers and artists: Franz Kafka in AmeriKafka, Rainer Maria Rilke & Paula Modersohn-Becker in Beholder, and now Friedrich Nietzsche in Chaste.

In 1882 Paul Ree introduced his friend Nietzsche to a young Russian woman named Lou Salome (a novelist, essayist, and thinker who would later become a muse and colleague to both Rilke and Freud). The three formed a plan to live together as a chaste trio dedicated to a life of the mind. Calling up and distorting this history, Chaste wildly imagines what would have happened if they had realized their dream. In this chaste ménage a trios, Nietzsche bets the triumph of his will against the incomparable desires of a virginal girl. Despite their promises to bring out the most brilliant in each other, a primal battle for love and domination begins. Their unchecked ambition and reckless intimacy surprises all three. Pygmalion never had it so bad, nor Red Riding Hood so good, as they do in this perverse comedy of their own devising.

Hendrickson and Prestininzi began working together in the early 1990s when Hendrickson commissioned Prestininzi to write The Hole, a new play inspired by Dostoyevsky's Notes From Underground. They've sustained their collaborative relationship for over 15 years, and under the auspices of Trap Door Theatre, it is thriving. In their work, Hendrickson and Prestininzi spark each other to make precise leaps of imagination, intellect and emotion in order to invite and instigate palpable human connections with the theatrical choices they make. Together they form a director/playwright team of shared reverie, theatrical vision and the belief in the persuasion of intimacy and commitment.

Assistant Director Jen Ellison / Sound Designers Jason Meyer & Shane Oman / Lighting Designer Gina Patterson / Set Designer Joseph Riley / Stage Manager Gary Damico / Costume Designer Nevena Todorovic /
Graphic Designer Michal Janicki

Opens: Saturday, May 13, 2010 at 8 PM.
Closes: Saturday, June 19, 2010 at 8 PM.
Runs: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM.
Admission: $20 (2-for-1 on Thursdays)

Where: TRAP DOOR THEATRE, 1655 W. Cortland Ave., Chicago, IL 60622
Info/Reservations: 773-384-0494 To purchase tickets online: www.trapdoortheatre.com