Drama School 202: The Illusion

The Production

Play: Tony Kushner’s The Illusion (adapted from Corneille’s L’Illusion Comique)
Director: Leo Gene Peters
Venue: Black Box Theatre, Drama School 202
Run: Sep 15–20, 2022

The Vision

We reimagined Kushner’s baroque meta-theatrical fantasy as a contemporary meditation on love, artifice, and the transformative power of storytelling. Director Leo Gene Peters challenged us to "make the audience question reality as fiercely as Pridamant questions his son’s disappearance."

Our Approach

🎭 Staging the Unreal

Built a 1 to 1 cave to bring the audience into the world.

Costume quick-changes performed in full view, highlighting theatrical artifice

Projected text fragments (Kushner’s stage directions) onto actors’ bodies

🔥 Actor Challenges

Mastered 17th-century verse while finding modern emotional truth

Developed physical precision for magical effects (disappearances, transformations)

Built ensemble trust for intimate, vulnerable moments

My Role

Theogenes (The Lover): Connected with the verbs that bring the character to life. Really fell in love on the stage

Warmup: Taught yoga to the company every other day. Starting connecting with the breath and the body