After 10 years in Europe, Naperville actress returns to Chicago storefront
As a young actress, Anne Trodden didn’t care about fame. She cared about doing work that made her proud. And Chicago was a place where she could do that.
“I never wanted to leave Chicago. There was such a vibrant scene here,” said the Naperville resident who co-stars in Invictus Theatre Company’s Chicago-area premiere of “Network,” a scathing, 1976 satire of the broadcast media, corporate greed and celebrity culture adapted from Paddy Chayefsky’s Academy Award-winning screenplay.
As an undergraduate at Columbia College Chicago, Trodden fell in love with Irish theater. After graduating in 2009, she performed locally for a couple of years then applied to the theater and performance masters program at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.
“I wanted to try something new,” she said, and studying in Ireland “scratched all my itches”: love of theater, the ability to tailor her course of study to her interests and her family heritage (Trodden is Irish by descent).
She became interested in solo performance, which she says forces an actor to be uncomfortable. She says that’s what inspires great performances.
“You have to go for it. If you fail, you fail. But usually the most brilliant moments (occur as a result),” she said paraphrasing a quote credited to playwright Samuel Beckett about trying and failing; trying again and failing better.
As it happened, Trodden left Ireland with more than a degree; she left with a husband. After a decade living in Europe, in mostly non-English speaking countries — where Trodden did a lot of writing and not much acting — they returned to the U.S. with their kids two years ago.
After some additional training at The Artistic Home, she became aware of Invictus. The emphasis on text-based theater appealed to Trodden, who felt a kinship with the company that also produces Shakespeare, works by BIPOC writers and modern, text-heavy plays.
“This is the type of theater I like to do,” said Trodden, who plays hard-driving Diana Christiansen in “Network,” a role that earned Faye Dunaway an Oscar.
Describing the play as Shakespearean with “Succession” vibes, Trodden says the story feels of the moment despite being nearly 50 years old.
“Take out the world of television and replace it with TikTok and this play could be modern,” she said.
Trodden says her character — a network executive desperate for a hit show and willing to do anything to get one — “is the villain, but she’s not.”
The “bad guy” never thinks of himself as the bad guy, says Trodden, who describes the character as “hyper-intelligent and hyper-aware of the limitations” women faced during the 1970s.
“These are the things she wants,” Trodden said. “The TV station is her family … This job is her family.”
“I’m a mom, and if someone comes after my family I see red,” she said. “That’s how I think of Diana. This TV show is her baby and when something threatens it … In a funny way, it’s a mothering instinct: This is my baby and I need to protect it.”
As to what audiences might take away from this 1970s tale, Trodden says she and director Charles Askenaizer hope audiences will leave understanding that people are “not as different as we think we are, or as different as media outfits like to pretend we are.
“Our salvation is in our local communities,” she said. “We need to connect with people around us. That’s what’s going to help us move forward.”
• • •
“Network”
When: Runs through Sept. 29
Where: Invictus Theatre Company at Windy City Playhouse, 3014 W. Irving Park Road, Chicago
Tickets: $45 at invictustheatreco.com/network