Chicago may not be as popular of a city as Las Vegas when it comes to magic and magicians.  A local theater company felt the same way, and has been working on becoming more popular by making magic-on stage.

“The Devil’s Daughter” will be playing at La Costa Theater Company, 3931 N. Elston Ave., from Nov. 6 to Dec. 14. The company has been in business for a year-and-a-half. Owner and senior theater major at Columbia, Jonathan Hymen, calls the play a “family fantasy magical experience.”

The play tells the story of a professional magician/illusionist who falls in love with the devil’s daughter without knowing who she really is.  She becomes his new assistant after his former assistant, the girl he liked, leaves him for a baseball player.

Throughout the play, the devil is trying to get his daughter to go back to hell with him with the help of her younger brother, Carmichael. Five of the seven actors in the cast are Columbia students, professors or alumni.

Aside from being the owner, Hymen is also the director of the play  and has been planning it for the past six months. He said the idea for the show came after he met Fred Paul Bailey, a writer and magic consultant for other well known magicians.

Earlier in the year, the duo produced “Amazing Chicago Magic,” a show Bailey co-hosted. Because it was so successful, he decided to host the show once a month. Combining Hymen’s theater background and Bailey’s magic tricks seemed like the perfect idea for a play.

Bailey wrote the script for “The Devil’s Daughter” 14 years ago, and when he showed Hymen the script, they decided adding magic and illusions would fit the play.

“There aren’t too many places for magicians to perform their craft in Chicago,” Hymen said. “It’s not a thriving art in Chicago.”

The play is performed like a musical, but magic replaces any musical numbers. Bailey, who has been performing magic since he was 8, has been training the actors to become professional magicians and assistants.

The first two weeks of rehearsing were spent in “magic boot camp,” as none of the actors had any magic experience. All the actors had to sign a confidentiality agreement and take an oath that they will never tell how the tricks are done.

“The things that these actors are doing, some magicians and actors spend months learning how to perfect illusions. And this cast spent two weeks learning what [for] some magicians takes months,” said Bailey.

Hymen said many of the actresses had bruises on their bodies from training, since most of the stunts and illusions force them to do things that can be dangerous.

The play has six stage illusions that were custom built for the production. Two are escape scenes and another shows the magician sawing his assistant in half.

One of the actresses who didn’t have to go through the intense magic training is Lona Livingston, who works in the Office of Institutional Advancement at Columbia.

Her role in the play is Aunt Lorraine, the mother-figure to the main character and she owns Club Magique, the place where the main character performs his magic shows.

“The play is aimed at anybody who loves magic,” she said. “Since it’s only rated G, we expect a wide range of audience members. It’s the first time we have a play with so many actors from Columbia, so we’re hoping we get the word out there.”

For more information on the show, visit La CostaTheater.com.