By Meghan E. Jones

Directed by Jenny Reed

Women hear it all the time. “You’re overreacting.” “What are you so emotional?” “She’s crazy.” While the diagnosis of “female hysteria” has shrunk from medical lexicons, the gendered myth continues as a pervasive meme in modern American culture. The Shelter continues its 7th season of original theatre with TRAPPER by Meghan E. Jones, directed by Jenny Reed. Inspired by interviews conducted across an ethnically and economically diverse cross-section of New York City, TRAPPER confronts the modernized meme of female hysteria through both traditional drama and collaborative choreography.

Jones and Reed tackle this complex subject through the microcosm of a 27 year-old journalist, Jillian. A two-week stay at a New York City mental hospital has provided Jillian a welcome escape from her job writing at the celebrity gossip website Trapper. While in the hospital, she develops a close friendship with her roommate, the troubled starlet Jackie Batiste—who checked into the hospital incognito. In the office of Trapper, it won’t be long before such prime tabloid fodder is sniffed out and Jillian will be faced with some painful choices: loyalty or career, substance or smear. Ultimately, she’ll be forced to choose between sanity and what passes for it in a world where pop scandals and cruel obsessions are the order of the day.