Planets as Stars

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Maureen Janson Heintz

Gina Cornejo in 'Planets as Stars.'

Gina Cornejo in 'Planets as Stars,' Theatre LILA, 2025.

Theatre LILA returns with Planets as Stars, a one-woman show from Gina Cornejo and directed by ART House 360 founder Jessica Lanius. Cornejo, an assistant director at American Players Theatre, is also a performer and storyteller as well as a “self-proclaimed professional feelings-haver.” This evening of immersive storytelling deals with intimate topics like divorce and later-life queerness, But also, dance breaks! Shows are at 7 p.m. Thursday-Friday and 3 and 7 p.m. Saturday, plus 3 p.m. on Nov. 16.

11/14-22, at 7 pm Friday and 3 and 7 pm Saturday, plus 3 pm on 11/16 and 7 pm, 11/20. $28 ($20 students).

media release: 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.”