Trap Door Theatre to Present FANTASY ISLAND FOR DUMMIES

The Trap Door Theatre presents Fantasy Island For Dummies (low cut daydream too near, too near), written by Ruth Margraff and directed by Kate Hendrickson, with original music composed by Nikos Brisco. The production opens Thursday, September 29, 2016 at 8 p.m. and runs through Saturday, November 5, 2016.

Fantasy Island for Dummies (low cut daydream too near, too near) is a new music-theatre work inspired by an episode of the iconic television series about the pleasures and perils of wish fulfillment.

A 1980 "Fantasy Island" episode about a ventriloquist and her devious dummy inspires a voyage into suppressed identities, ancient Babylonian sex goddesses, and a "perfect wife" struggling with her defiant side.

Starring: Holly Thomas-Cerney, Casey Chapman, Skye Fort, John Kahara, Lyndsay Rose Kane, Emily Lotspeich, Chris Popio and Bob Wilson.

Production Team: Assistant Director/SM Kristin Davis/ Lighting Design Richard Norwood / Set Design AJ Tarzian/ Costume Design Rachel Sypniewski / Music Composer Nikos Brisco/ Graphic Design Michal Janicki/ Sound Design Mike Mazzocca/ Movement Director Kasey Foster/ Makeup Design Zsófia Ötvös.

Runs: Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays at 8PM. Admission: $20 on Thursdays and Fridays; $25 on Saturdays, Special two-for-one admission on Fridays. The TRAP DOOR THEATRE is located at 1655 West Cortland Ave., Chicago, IL 60622. For more information and reservations, call 773-384-0494 or go online at www.trapdoortheatre.com.

Ruth Margraff (Playwright) Ruth Margraff has been called a leader in America's avant garde for her "audaciously original" (Moscow Times) use of language as poetic and vocal art to provide "layer after layer of richly textured emotion...and imminent danger" (Dallas Morning News). Best known in Chicago for her critically acclaimed ANGER/FLY with Trap Door and Kate Hendrickson in 2012; in NYC for writing six critically acclaimed martial arts operas with the late composer Fred Ho for the Apollo, Guggenheim Museum, Brooklyn Academy Of Music and several national tours; for her Night Wind from Afghanistan for the play SEVEN, touring the world since 2008, introduced in 2010 by Hillary Clinton with Meryl Streep at the Broadway Hudson Theater; and for touring with her Cafe? Antarsia Ensemble's projects such as PREVIOUSLY BLUE (Dah Teatar, Serbia; 7Stages, Atlanta; Coe College/ Marquis Series, Dows Theatre, Iowa; Links Hall, Chicago Fringe Festival). She has received awards from Rockefeller, McKnight, Jerome, NEA, TCG, TMUNY, NYSCA, IAC, and Fulbright foundations. She's a member of Theater Without Borders, LPTW and Red Tape Theater, a New Dramatist and Playwrights' Center alumnae, a Chicago Dramatist playwright emeritus, and is Professor and Chair of the Writing Program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. www.ruthmargraff.com

Kate Hendrickson (Director) Kate Hendrickson is a resident director at Trap Door Theatre where her particular focus is on premiering new plays by radical American Playwrights. She has developed and sustained long-term collaborative relationships with several playwrights, steering multiple world premiere productions to critical and popular success. Together with Margraff and the Trap Door ensemble Hendrickson created ANGER/FLY which was recognized in the Chicago Reader "Best Of" edition as part of a Trap Door season presenting the "best string of theatrical stunners." Other Trap Door credits include Cookie Play, Chaste and Beholder (Jeff Award for Best New Work, After Dark Award for Best Original Music), by Ken Prestininzi. Chaste received "Best of the Year" nods in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Stage Review, and the Huffington Post. Kate also directed Midwest premieres of Prestininzi's AmeriKafka, Howard Zinn's Emma (After Dark Award for Best Ensemble), and 12 Ophelias by Caridad Svich.

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