New Classics Audio Play Adaptation of Alice Gerstenberg's The Illuminati in Drama Libre

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 ...