The Shawna Foundation and the Creating Dangerously Podcast presents the New Classics Audio Play Series, where we reframe timeless stories through a modern lens.

Our first episode is an adaptation of The Illuminati in Drama Libre, a short, audacious one-act by Alice Gerstenberg, a pioneering American feminist playwright of the early twentieth century.

Alice Gerstenberg (1885–1972) was a bold and inventive voice in American theater, best known for experimenting with form and for her commitment to women’s voices on stage. Written in 1914, The Illuminati in Drama Libre is a sharp, satirical play that challenges authority, censorship, and the gatekeepers of art.

Gerstenberg was writing during a time of immense change—the women’s suffrage movement, social upheaval, and radical shifts in art and culture. Her play pokes fun at institutions that tried to silence creativity and limit who could tell stories, echoing the struggles of women and artists of her era.

Today, more than a century later, the questions she raised still feel urgent. Who controls art?Whose stories are told? How do power and censorship shape what audiences get to see and hear? The Illuminati in Drama Libre reminds us that theater can be both playful and political, a place to laugh while also questioning the world around us.

We revisit Gerstenberg’s work not only to honor a pioneering feminist playwright, but also to show how her spirit of defiance and experimentation continues to inspire.


Join host Gregory Velez and cast Emma McKenzie and Patrick Bracken for our adaptation.