Displaying items by tag: Gus Thomas

No Dogs in the Kitchen Theatre is thrilled to continue its third season with The Importance of Being Earnest, written by Oscar Wilde and directed by Genevieve Corkery. "The Importance of Being Earnest" will play July 9-26 at Facility Theatre in Chicago. Tickets are now on sale at nodogsinthekitchen.org. Press is encouraged to join on opening night, July 9. The cast includes Garrett Wiegel, Gus Thomas, Michaela Voit, Jasmine Luethy, David Lovejoy, Gretchen Kimmeth, and Mitch Karmis.

This "trivial comedy for serious people" is just the antidote for our trying times. First performed in 1895 and featuring broadly witty waggery, memorable characters, and mistaken identities, "The Importance of Being Earnest" is Oscar Wilde's most enduringly popular play. The farce focuses on two bachelors who invent fake personas to escape their social obligations. Romantic complications and hilarious revelations about true identities and the insignificance of marriage and reputation ensues.

The production team includes Sara Corkery (Assistant Director), Kasia Olechno (Stage Manager), Eric Edstrom (Assistant Stage Manager), Grace Patterson (Intimacy Coordinator / Sound Designer), Tom Fitzmaurice (Tech Director / Scenic Designer), Eli Green (Lighting Designer), Emma Millisor (Costume Designer), Joan Starkey (Dramaturg), Sydney Clayton and Alix Burhardt (Wardrobe / Production Assistants), Lilly Caines (Scenic / Production Assistant), and Jeff Landsman (Producer).

Production Details:
Title: The Importance of Being Earnest
Playwright: Oscar Wilde
Director: Genevieve Corkery
Cast (in alphabetical order): David Lovejoy (Lady Bracknell), Garrett Wiegel (Jack), Gretchen Kimmeth (Miss Prism), Gus Thomas (Algernon), Jasmine Luethy (Cecily), Michaela Voit (Gwendolen), and Mitch Karmis (Lane).
Location: Facility Theatre (1138 N California Ave., Chicago, IL 60622)
Dates: Regular Run: July 9 through July 26, 2026
Curtain Times: Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30pm, Saturdays at 3pm and 7pm, and Sundays at 1pm and 5pm.
Press performance: Press are encouraged to attend opening weekend.
Tickets: $35 Adult, $25 Student/Senior. Tickets are currently available at nodogsinthekitchen.org.

About the Artists
Oscar Wilde Born in Ireland in 1854, Oscar Wilde grew to become one of the most famous and well-regarded writers of his time. Outside of his dramatic work, Wilde published poems, political essays, and one novel: The Picture of Dorian Gray. Wilde's work is often viewed within the context of Aestheticism, a movement in which he was a key participant and remains a quintessential example of. Other plays include An Ideal Husband and Lady Windermere’s Fan.

Genevieve Corkery
As a lifelong theatre-lover and Chicagoland native, Genevieve (she/her) is thrilled and lucky to be creating work in the city she calls home. After graduating from Tulane University in 2022, Genevieve returned to Chicago to begin making a name for herself. Over the past three years, she has been lucky to work with Big Noise Theatre, Impostors Theatre Co., Metropolis Performing Arts Centre, The Marriott Theatre, and Trap Door Theatre, where she is an associate ensemble member. She has trained with Susan Hart Shakespeare, The Artistic Home, and The Annoyance. Genevieve is a co-Artistic Director of No Dogs in the Kitchen Theatre Company, where she has had the privilege of directing Airswimming, and performing in The Wolves. When not singing, performing, directing, writing, or tooting on her bassoon, she enjoys watching Classical Hollywood Cinema, going for long walks around the city, eating peanut butter, changing her hair color, and cosplaying as a real young professional on her laptop at local coffee shops. She is proudly represented by Gray Talent Group.

About No Dogs in the Kitchen Theatre
Joining the robust, proud tradition of Chicago storefront theatre so late in the game is no mean feat. Luckily, there is no “too late” in the theatre. In an art form that is constantly changing and growing, the conversation never concludes. We hope to assert our unique vision for what live performance can and should be, which stories and voices deserve to be highlighted, and what meaningful change we can effect with our work. While developing our artistic direction and focus, we explore texts that are political, absurd, controversial, and thought-provoking. We seek out  obscure or rarely produced texts that we believe should be well known, new texts that we can develop in unprecedented ways, and old texts that we can revive with some creative reimagining to speak to the current moment. In the ephemeral, ever-threatened and endlessly evolving performing arts, we believe it is important to draw from our rich roots, consciously engage with our present reality, and work towards shaping a more inclusive and sustainable future.

For additional information, visit https://nodogsinthekitchen.org/importance-of-being-earnest

Can you have a play run 90 minutes with no dialog? Indubitably, as Trap Door Theatre demonstrates with its new production, “Le Bal.”

Adapted to the stage by Stephen Buescher, it is inspired by a 1983 French film of the same title. Of the absence of dialog, one Trap Door company member told me  “Actors love it.” With no lines to memorize, the audience gets to see more clearly all the other things actors do to bring characters and scenes to life—and that is amazing to witness. Like the film, sans dialog scenes in “Le Bal” on stage are set against a backdrop of sound and music that captures the sweep of history, each reflecting those moments in time. 

The film follows 50 years in the life of a Parisian dance hall, and the characters are drawn entirely from the patrons and employees as it evolves from from the 1930s through the war years, German occupation, into present day. Trap Door’s version which was commissioned to the playwright, Buescher (he also directs), shows a longer sweep of time—nearlya century—and we move in reverse chronological order from the current times back to the 1930s.

A pastiche of skits reflects the period of the music, and evokes not just the passage of time, but the feel and spirit of those moments. Unlike the film, which sticks with dancing, Buescher gives us dynamic vivant tableaus, opening with music, drugs and sex then coursing backward through powerful settings expressing post-war grief, or the shocking onslaught of COVID. As corpses are shrouded by masked nurses, I was moved and the melancholy that enveloped us in those days arose for me. And the unvisited sorrow at the deaths.

We witness the incredulity and unchained anger of younger generations as the Black Lives Matter movement sweeps the nation. In this, Buescher allows for a departure, as the cast gasps George Floyd's words: “I can’t breathe!” We see the tumult of the 1960s political revolt against Viet Nam, the 1950s housewives awaiting their men’s return from the Korean War, and back and back through WWII and the formalized grief that met millions of deaths. Then through the pre-WWII Depression accompanied by a Franklin Roosevelt inaugural address. And back further to the bursting bubble of speculation that brought on the Great Depression, with its breadlines, soup kitchens, and hard times. All of it shown, including the thundering oppressiveness of the factory lines that fueled the riches, with risky working conditions that could be dangerous, even deadly, and that spawned the sometimes violent labor movement.

Two recurring themes Buescher brings forth are the fragmentation of social frameworks, and the recurring response of Americans to unite and demonstrate for justice and a better life. In insightful Dramaturgy Notes, these listings of recurring unrest and mass demonstrations have touched so many areas: that labor unrest of the 1930s, through demands for racial equality arising in the 1950s, the political and anti-war unrest of the 1960s (though it’s not called out in the notes I detected it on the stage), ACTUP’s demand for support during the AIDs crisis, Occupy Wall St. in the early 2000s, then Black Lives Matter, rising Gay Pride visiblity, MAGA rallies, women’s and immigrants rights marches, and much more.

It is not just music accompanying the major timeframes on stage, but sounds - Dany Rockett, sound technician, does a remarkable job working in real-time with the cast. The costumes designed by Rachel Sypniewski, are just enough to create the impressions needed, from sailor suits, to poodle skirts. Quick changes, usually onstage, are handled with minimal fuss, as the scenes of epochs elide one to another.

Buescher's vision for "Le Bal," and the work of the amazing cast at Trap Door—Dan Cobbler, Genevieve Corkery, Cat Evans, Emily Nichelson, Gius Thomas, Jasz Ward and Carl Wisniewski—stretch the bounds of what theater can be. 

“Le Bal,” adapted and designed by Steven Buescher comes recommended; a unique theatre experience and another example of why Trap Door is a treasure. “Le Bal” runs through June 20, 2026 at Trap Door Theatre 1655 W. Cortland in Chicago.

This review is proudly shared with our friends at www.TheatreInChicago.com. 

“Galileo” written in 1938 by German playwright Bertolt Brecht, tells the straightforward story of the 17th century physicist and astronomer’s run-in with church authorities for asserting that the earth revolved around the sun. For this Galileo, played with Brechtian finesse by Trap Door’s David Lovejoy, was hauled before the Roman Inquisition, and threatened with torture until he recanted.

Brecht’s play centers on how this conflict played out in Galileo’s personal and professional life, and his final years under house arrest under the watchful eyes of the authorities. Galileo was torn between unfettered scientific assessment of the world, and his need to make a living. Even before the play opens, director Max Truax has Lovejoy’s Galileo seated, nearly naked, facing away from the audience posing in contemplation, reminiscent of Rodin’s famous sculpture. Throughout the scenes that follow, Galileo’s nakedness seemed to represent the periods when he was thinking most freely. He seemed to be dressed when he was engaging the public or the authorities.

But the style of Brecht’s script for “Galileo” is not naturalistic - this version of the script was the second, written in English with Charles Laughton who starred in it in 1947 - and the audience is distanced from the characters who dwell with him: Galileo’s daughter Virginia (Genevieve Corkery), his protege Andrea (Shail Modi), his student Ludovico (Caleb Lee Jenkins), and a character, the Inquisitor, who is present throughout. Brecht wanted audiences to be unattached to the emotions of the characters, so they could focus intellectually on the story and the social values he wanted to convey, a style known as Epic.

Lines are repeated multiple times with different emphases. At certain points, the actors address the audience directly, breaking the fourth wall, said to be another technique favored by Brecht. The Inquisitor (Joan Naid) who is blindfolded in early scenes, at times seems more like a spouse to Galileo in the household.

Lovejoy’s performance of Galileo is described by Trap Door as “a humanizing portrait,” and he is in this respect distinct from the other characters on stage. One example: when his daughter Virginia’s betrothal is threatened by Galileo’s branding as a heretic for his work, she registers no emotion. We simply hear the facts of the matter. Lovejoy’s performance is intense, and a remarkable achievement overall: and he is on stage every minute of the two hour show. Also notable is Modi as Andrea, a character with whom I was able to connect. 

I can’t say I am a fan of Brecht, and am always surprised that he continues to be popular among troupes and actors. For me Brecht takes a lot of work to appreciate and enjoy. But “Galileo” has remarkable currency for our times, as the retreat from modernism finds factual science and the age of reason under attack by the authorities. For this concern alone the Trap Door production of “Galileo” is valuable. Kudos to Merje Veski for stage design and Jonathan Quigley for projection design that gives us synopses of historical contexts at key moments.

“Galileo” runs through June 14, 2025 at Trap Door Theatre, 1655 W Cortland St. inChicago. Tickets are now on sale at trapdoortheatre.com

*Extended through June 28th