Megan Hill doubles as The Magician and narrator called Kristen in Crystal Skillman’s solo play Open.
In the revival of Crystal Skillman’s Open, now playing under the deft direction of Jessi D. Hill, Megan Hill delivers a mesmerizing solo performance as the Magician—a woman who attempts to conjure the truth of a personal tragedy through the language of illusion. What unfolds is not merely a magic show, but a deeply felt meditation on love, loss, and the fragile hope that words—and maybe even spells—can undo the past.
Although Hill steps onstage as the Magician, she quickly pulls back the curtain to reveal her true identity: Kristen is a New York City–based writer who holds down a day job at Staples. She explains she was working on a novel about young magicians when she happened to meet Jenny in the occult section of the Strand bookstore.
Hill, as The Magician, executes one of her invisible magic tricks in Open, directed by Jessi D. Hill. Photographs by Jeremy Varner.
Kristen’s magic isn’t sleight-of-hand but rather the result of Emma Wilk’s superb sound design and Sarah Johnston’s evocative chiaroscuro lighting. Early on, Kristen juggles invisible balls, tossing a few to audience members who seem born to catch. She shuffles an imaginary deck, its sound like rustling Chinese silk—just as her father taught her. Johnston’s lighting isolates the Magician mid-trick, underscores emotional shifts, and casts haunting shadows. Throughout, Kristen invites the audience to suspend disbelief and accept her magic show as a final, tender gift to Jenny.
Kristen doesn’t claim to be a performer with perfect timing! She’s disarmingly open from the start, admitting she doesn’t expect to keep all her balls in the air. In fact, she compares them to secrets—fragile, precarious things that, for reasons even she can’t fully explain, are destined to fall tonight, right before our eyes. Or, as she puts it, “Secrets are the balls we keep in the air. Ours will come crashing down this evening.”
Suffice it to say, little by little, the truth starts to come into focus: Jenny is already gone, out of Kristen’s reach; the sound of ambulance sirens isn’t just background noise—it’s a clue to the silence that follows; and no matter how hard the Magician tries, there’s no trick powerful enough to bring Jenny back.
Kristen also steps in as narrator, using language as her instrument to tell Jenny’s story. She begins by recalling Jenny’s work at the LGBT Community Center in the West Village, where she also volunteered at the youth drop-in center in her spare time. Jenny, Kristen remembers, was never cautious—never watched her back, never imagined that her life could be threatened in a post-Stonewall world. Jenny was the fearless Pollyanna; Kristen, by contrast, stayed under the radar. And yet Jenny’s words echo in Kristen’s mind:
We show up, we bring hope. They want us afraid. But we are here. We will always be here. We keep showing who we are, and the world will change.
Kristen, dressed in a sparkly black jacket, a Merlin-esque T-shirt, and a slightly askew top hat (costumes by Madeline Wall), looks as if she might have pieced her outfit together from a local thrift store. But the costume works—its scrappy, Little Tramp charm feels intentional—because it reflects Kristen’s deep commitment to embodying the Magician and doing everything in her power to return Jenny to her world.
“Hill balances comic bravado with underlying vulnerability.”
Hill balances comic bravado with underlying vulnerability in Open—qualities she also brought to her standout performance as David Lee Roth in Eddie and Dave (2019). In a darker and more emotionally charged part, Hill portrayed the anxious-souled Eva in Do You Feel Anger? (2019), a role that clearly resonates with her current turn as Kristen.
Skillman seems drawn to pushing the envelope with each of her stage works. She walks a fine line between drollness and devotion in Open (2019), delves into the darker side of reality television in Cut (2011), and crafts a heartfelt road trip narrative in Geek (2013).
In Open, Skillman casts a quiet, urgent spell—reminding us that, even in the face of tragedy, our most enduring forms of magic remain love, storytelling, and belief. Like Paulina urging Leontes to “awake your faith” in the statue scene of The Winter’s Tale, the Magician in Open calls on the audience to believe—not in illusion, but in the transformative power of language and love. Her final “abracadabra” (literally meaning “as it is spoken”) is not a trick, but a real act of faith: a belief that what we imagine, when spoken aloud, can shape reality.
Open plays through July 27 at WP Theater (2162 Broadway). Evening performances are 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; matinees are 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For tickets and more information, visit opentheplay.
Playwright: Crystal Skillman
Director: Jessi D. Hill
Set & Lighting: Sarah Johnston
Costumes: Madeline Wall
Sound: Emma Wilk
