Lookingglass Comes to PBS in a Rare Broadcast of Regional Theater

We all know regional theater is in trouble. One of my favorite companies, the Lookingglass Theatre Company, is in the middle of a semi-pause while it assesses how to produce live theater in this new world. But, luckily, in what will perhaps serve as a model for the future, Lookingglass’ work is still getting out there. The theater itself is screening a recording of its The Steadfast Tin Solider, a Mary Zimmerman holiday triumph. And this coming Friday, its Lookingglass Alice will air on PBS.

“The first time I saw Lookingglass Alice, which was the first time the company did it, I thought I’d love to put it on television,” said Scott Silberstein, who is an Artistic Associate at Lookingglass, and co-founder (with Matt Hoffman) of HMS Media, which filmed the show. “I'm in constant touch with PBS. HMS has produced a lot of shows for national and regional public television, and we're always batting ideas around. Last year, we were talking with PBS about the desire to connect viewers around the country with the magic of their regional theaters. Lookingglass Alice ticked every box—it transcends everything you would want in theater.”

Lookingglass Alice, which premiered in Chicago in 2005, has toured all over the US and Canada. While I believe Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses to be the theater’s most famous export, Lookingglass Alice is its signature production, returning to the theater six times after its premiere. Adapted and directed by Ensemble Member David Catlin, it is a circus-like retelling of the Alice in Wonderland tale.

Because of its audience interactive elements, its aerial work, and more, Alice was never going to be easy to film. The Steadfast Tin Soldier recording is simple, focusing solely on the stage. This recording needed to be much more complex.

HMS got the green light from PBS to film Lookingglass Alice about six weeks before it was scheduled to close in 2022. They needed to get a production plan in place quickly. There were inherent challenges to bringing this type of show to a broader audience. For example, in a move Patti LuPone would endorse, actors in the live production are not mic’d. For video, they needed to be. The team had to go through costume by costume, scene by scene and ensure a mic was placed correctly in each moment. The budget for the eight-camera shoot was around $350,000, of which half was funded by PBS and the other half came from HMS.

“As part of the budget, we bought out two houses so we could put the cameras wherever we needed them,” Silberstein explained. “We filled the house over two performances with just one half of the house, so most of the cameras could look at a full house. When you cut it together, you really have no idea that they were two different performances with two half-full houses. We did two eight-camera shoots that, cut together, look like a 16-camera shoot.”

Silberstein believes filming more shows is the future. HMS—which is also known for filming/editing b-roll—is hoping to get educational distribution for the piece, which means that the product would be available to students either directly through their school districts or through dedicated educational streamers. Theater companies are no longer able to do as much school outreach as they used to; video is a different, potentially more feasible way to get the arts to students. I will always support anything that seeds the love of theater in children; Lookingglass Alice could do that.

As for Lookingglass, while the company isn’t getting paid for the broadcast, it is expecting to benefit from the attention. The PBS broadcast of Lookingglass Alice will be accompanied by a short documentary about the company, including an interview with its most famous ensemble member, Lookingglass co-founder David Schwimmer. Spokesperson Aurélia Fisher Cohen—who said the company is nearing the end of its reevaluation process and looking to resume live stage work—said she already has received inquiries about future mountings of Lookingglass Alice.

“Alice is representative of not only Lookingglass work, but I think of Chicago ensemble work,” Fisher Cohen said. “It puts us back out there nationally, but also I think it puts theater back out there nationally in a time when theaters need more visibility.”

Industry Trends Weekly is a short column that runs in the weekly Industry Pro Newsletter. To read past columns and subscribe Click Here. If you have an idea for the column, you can reach the author at cara@broadwayworld.com.