Each year, the Tony Awards recognizes outstanding achievements on Broadway with special Tony Awards. This year, one of those was bestowed upon the illusions and visual effects team of Broadway’s new sci-fi thriller “Stranger Things: The First Shadow.”

To watch “The First Shadow” is to witness innovation in design and technical theater — in addition to its dramaturgical and performance accomplishments. “The First Shadow” leveraged the talents of illusions and visual effects designers Jamie Harrison and Chris Fisher, technical director Gary Beestone and scenic design supervisor Edward Pierce.

Harrison, Fisher, Beestone and Pierce are the recipients of the special Tony for creating battleships that disappear in a flash, mind flayers that descend from the heavens, levitating actors and much more.

Here, Pierce delves into the team’s approach to the stage magic, a secret of the mind flayer and the most complex task he had to accomplish for the Broadway production in a conversation with host Ruthie Fierberg, executive editor of  Broadway News.

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Photo credit: Edward Pierce, photo by Mike Coppola for Getty Images/Tony Awards Productions