Theatre LILA is proud to announce that its highly anticipated 2025–26 season begins this November with Planets as Stars, an autobiographical, immersive work by poet and performance artist Gina Cornejo.
Part cosmic romp, part intimate confessional, Planets as Stars follows Cornejo’s storytelling guide through white-knuckle wedding rants, divorce dance breaks, and the fumbling delight of late-bloomer queerness. The result is a “cringeworthy yet charming” evening that reminds us how the complexity of love is nothing if not comical, cataclysmic, and cosmic.
Blending music and soundscapes, prose and poetry, movement and whimsy, Cornejo crafts a space for collective healing with gusto and guts. This non-linear, autobiographical journey amplifies the devilish details we all know too well, while offering a humanizing, humbling reminder: the only constant is change.
The Style: Immersive & Intimate
Forget the traditional stage. Theatre LILA’s inventive storytelling meets Gina Cornejo’s unique style in an intimate, immersive performance. The ART House 360 lounge transforms with café-style seating, allowing the poet to weave her stories all around the audience. Plus, the atmosphere is set with both champagne and coffee served!
Theatre LILA and Gina Cornejo will partner with Verona Area High School students in a Finding Your Voice poetry residency, culminating in students attending a performance of Planets as Stars. This collaboration is supported by a grant from Park Bank and the Verona Optimist Club.
About Gina Cornejo
Gina Cornejo (She/They) is a Queer, Peruvian-American multidisciplinary artist specializing in autobiographical performance. They curate intimate, immersive works designed for collective healing, celebrated for their honesty, playfulness, and fierce dedication to amplifying diverse voices.
Their original installation and performance piece SCREWBALL—created during an Artist in Residence at Tooth and Nail Gallery in Milwaukee—marked a powerful return to their hometown arts community. In collaboration with curator and local legend Bill Walker, Cornejo has built an artistic partnership fueled by shared curiosity, creative risk, and existential exploration.
Cornejo’s career includes work with renowned companies such as American Players Theatre, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, Northern Sky Theater, Chicago Dramatists, and Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Their writing, creative process, and performances have been featured on festival stages, on Audible, at Creative Mornings, Asheville Fringe Festival, Green Bay Fringe Festival, The Dirty Spoon and The Mezzanine podcasts, and in several features on Blue Ridge Public Radio (NPR).
Their 2025 chapbook Home Remedies is available through Bottlecap Press. And for an unforgettable story, ask about their years with the WWE—or the Easter Sunday they spent on the road with Hillbilly Jim and “The Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart.
When asked why she writes, Cornejo responded in prose: “I am writing constantly… Ownership of my fumbling truths challenges me to take my wild-hair stories of wide-eyed-alive moments into the arena where connection is paramount… Holy are words! Stories: the reverberation of personal truths amplified to rally voices in search of a common tune.”
Performance Details
Planets as Stars
Created and Performed by Gina Cornejo
Directed by Jessica Lanius
Presented by Theatre LILA at ART House 360
Dates/Times:
November 13 – 22, 2025
7pm evenings or 3pm matinees
Happy Hour begins 1 hour prior to show time. 2pm and 6pm.
Friday, November 14, 7pm Opening Night
Saturday, November 15, 3pm Pay What You Wish
Saturday, November 15, 7pm
Sunday, November 16, 3pm
Thursday, November 20, 7pm
Friday, November 21, 7pm
Saturday, November 22, 3pm and 7pm (Closing Night)
Venue:
ART House 360 Lounge, Verona, WI
Tickets:
$28 General Admission / $20 Student Tickets
https://www.theatrelila.com/tickets
About Theatre LILA
Theatre LILA is a Dane County-based company dedicated to creating unique, movement-based new works. Through its immersive and experimental approach, the company challenges perceptions, amplifies underrepresented voices, and inspires profound human connection.For more information and tickets, visit www.theatrelila.com