Immersed in the act(or), Chicago artist delights in the challenge of site-specific theatre

Actor Lukas Felix Schooler may be a newcomer to Chicago, but he is no stranger to immersive performances.

Though his current production, The Dover Road with Chicago’s Ghostlight Ensemble Theatre Co., is his first in the city, Schooler previously spent eight years as a company member with NoExit Performance, Indianapolis’ premier site-responsive theatre company.

“I fell in love with theatre and found a knack for presenting theatrical work in immersive and/or non-traditional spaces,” Schooler said.

In Indy, the show he was most proud of was The House of Blue Lights — an immersive play housed in a building on the campus of the historic Central State mental hospital about Skiles Test, a real-life eccentric millionaire who lived on the northside of Indianapolis in the 1900s with dozens of cats, the first in-ground swimming pool in Indiana and a host of lore about his love life.

His current immersive show is also about an eccentric millionaire from the early 20^th Century…albeit a very different fictious character conceived by A.A. Milne (most well-known as the creator of Winnie-the-Pooh).

The Dover Road is set in the home of the eccentric Latimer, who waylays couples running away together (to France via the eponymous Dover Road) and gives them a taste of what their lives together might be like by forcing them into sustained exposure to each other's habits and idiosyncrasies.

Milne’s rarely produced comedy premiered on Broadway in 1921 and is a not-so-subtle dissection of romantic love. Ghostlight’s production, set in 1930, brings to the forefront the play’s implied observations on sexuality and gender expression that have always existed in society if you knew where to look.

Schooler, who plays Leonard – one half of a runaway couple – thinks audience will like that the show feels like a classic British comedy, but it is rather unknown.

“The audience will get a kick out of the lover’s quarrel twist at the end,” he added.

Schooler says his character is rather simple and very easily distracted.

“If things don’t go his way he tends to throw a fit,” Schooler said. “He’s quite the man-child and that’s fun to play with. I get to play with my clown training within the confines of a very stiff and blustery man, and that’s lots of fun.”

When not acting, Schooler designs and create puppets, props and wearable sculptures. Since 2022, he’s been working with his collaborative partner, Ventiko, for her ongoing award-winning performance art piece, Sylva Dean and Me, for which he’s been creating wearable sculptures.

Up next for Schooler is Another Medea, a one-person show by Aaron Marks, which will go up in November at Bramble Arts Loft. He previously performed the piece last year as part of the IndyFringe Festival.

“It’s a very dark show with sprinkles of humor throughout,” he said. “I’m thrilled to be able to present the work to Chicago audiences!”

In the meantime, catch Schooler in The Dover Road, which takes place in the coach house of the historic Glessner House (1800 S. Prairie Avenue, Chicago, IL) through May 3.

A National Historic Landmark, the Glessner House was completed in 1887 in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, which took elements of European Romanesque architecture from buildings constructed in the 11th and 12th centuries, and adapted them to American idioms.

Performances take place on Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. Please note: There is a designated understudy performance on Monday, April 27 at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are pay-what-you-will, with an average donation of $30. Tickets include a tour of the historic house before the show. Tickets are available via Ghostlight Ensemble’s website at ghostlightensemble.com/the-dover-road.

Learn more about Schooler’s past and future work at LukasFelixSchooler.com.