Trap Door's NAKED Extends Thru Nov 3rd

A young woman in despair returns to Rome with little more than her suitcase - and a dark secret. Vulnerable and with a past, she encounters several men who push her to edge. Luigi Pirandello and his "Naked" heroine open up the debate about gender power dynamics amidst the powerful social and cultural mores with which the characters must contend.

Cast: Tiffany Bedwell, Ambrose Cappuccio, Darren Hill, Manuela Rentea, Keith Surney, Nora Lise Ulrey, Bob Wilson.

Luigi Pirandello (Playwright) was an Italian dramatist, novelist and short-story writer born in 1867 and dead at the age of sixty-nine in 1936. He studied philology and earned a doctorate in 1891. Early on, he won fame with his novels and short stories, but turned to playwriting in 1910; his breakthrough play was Right You Are-If You Think You Are (1916). His most famous play, Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921) made him know internationally. From 1924 to 1928 he headed the Art Theatre of Rome. Other well-known plays include Henry IV (1922), Naked (1922), Each in His Own Way (1924), As You Desire Me (1930) and Tonight We Improvise (1930). He won the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature. His work explores the boundaries between reality and illusion and raises doubts about the validity of objective approach to truth as truth is necessarily personal and subjective. He was also concerned about the relationship between art and nature. Since nature continually changes, and art is fixed, he found live theatre the most satisfying form of art as it differs at each performance. He compared theatre to a living statue. Pirandello's plays use meta-theatre (role-playing, play-within-play, the limits of stage illusionism and breaking of the "fourth wall") to present a theatricalized, unstable vision of identity. His most prominent question present in all of his major works: "How can we be certain about who we are when others hold radically different perceptions of our deeds and attitudes?" influenced many artists and philosophers working after WW2 and is still relevant today.

Nina daVinci Nichols: (Translator): Nina da Vinci Nichols is a novelist and translator and formerly a professor of English at Rutgers University. She is the author of Pirandello and Film, about the writer's attempts to convert Six Characters in Search of an Author into film. She is a member of the American Foundation of Italian Arts , the Shakespeare Association, and the Pirandello Society of America.

Kay Martinovich (Director) is excited to return to Trap Door for its 25th anniversary season having previously directed the Jeff-award winning La Bete by David Hirson, Polaroid Stories by Naomi Iizuka, and Bremen Freedom by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Other recent credits include the critically acclaimed Deirdre of the Sorrows by J.M. Synge (City Lit Theatre), Winsor McCay by Laura Marks (TEN Festival at The Gift), Anything of Value by Brett Neveu (RIPPED at American Blues), and Down Range by Jeffrey Skinner (Genesis). Kay was Associate Artistic Director of Irish Repertory of Chicago, where she directed the American premieres of Marina Carr's By the Bog of Cats and Brian Friel's The Yalta Game, among others. She is Head of Performance and Assistant Professor of Acting at Northern Illinois University, where she has also directed several productions. Up next, Kay will be directing The Father by Florian Zeller at Remy Bumppo opening February 2019. She is a proud member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers (SDC).

Set Designer Nick Schwartz/ Costume Designer Rachel Sypniewski/ Sound Designer Evan Forbes/ Lighting Designer David Goodman-Edberg/ Props Designer Jacqueline Frole/ Make-Up Designer Zsofia Otvos/ Graphic Designer Michal Janicki/ Dramaturg Milan Pribisic/ Stage Manager Roxie Kooi/ Assistant Stage Manager Helen O'Brien

Admission: $20 on Thursdays and Fridays, $25 on Saturdays, 2 for 1 Admission on Thursdays

TRAP DOOR THEATRE 1655 West Cortland Ave. Chicago, IL 60622

For Information/Reservations: 773-384-0494 To purchase online www.trapdoortheatre.com