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McCarter Theatre: Lookingglass Alice
Introduction to Lookingglass Alice
A white rabbit with a pocket watch. A giant chessboard. A shattered
proscenium. Actors hanging from the ceiling.
“Curiouser and curioser…”
The Lookingglass Theatre Company transforms McCarter’s Matthews
Theatre configuration for their production of Lookingglass Alice. The
wordplay, magic, whimsy, poetry and topsy-turvy in Wonderland make
this an evening of unforgettable theater magic, capitalizing on
Lookingglass Theatre Company’s trademark circus performance style.
When artistic director Emily Mann saw the original production of Lookingglass Alice in Chicago, she was charmed
and captivated by its inventiveness and dazzling theatricality. She was also struck by its playfulness and wide
appeal—one of those rare events for an audience of all ages to enjoy together. While the production is unlike any
presented on McCarter stages before, it is created in the tradition of Mary Zimmerman’s The Odyssey (seen at
McCarter in 2000), and reaffirms our strong connection with the Lookingglass Theatre Company, who performed
Mary Zimmerman’s The Secret in the Wings here in 2005.
In this adaptation, we meet Charles Dodgson, the author later known as Lewis Carroll. Dodgson gently leads his
young friend Alice through the looking-glass, and after he slips away, she finds herself in a strange new world. As
Alice moves across the chess board she encounters: White Rabbit, Cheshire Cat, White Queen, Red Queen,
Caterpillar, Mad Hatter, Tweedledee and Tweedledum and Humpty Dumpty.
Director David Catlin says, “For me, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is Lewis Carroll’s loving good-bye to a young
friend who is growing up and moving on with her life. It is a journey through change and perspective and
proportion. It is about falling and reflecting and self-examination and a world about and beyond logic.”
McCarter is thrilled to share what Catlin calls “a kinetic moving sculpture” with its audience.
Character Profiles
Dodgson
Charles Dodgson, also known as Lewis Carroll, the famed British author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and
Through the Looking-Glass, which he wrote to delight and entertain the three Liddell children. He is especially fond
of Alice, his story’s young heroine. While Dodgson is shy, reserved and speaks with a stutter, his imagination and
literary genius create a theatrical wonderland, filled with impossible and fantastical characters (both human and
animal), arbitrary customs, absurd language and strange logic.
But two always can [believe impossible things]. I d-d-daresay you haven’t had much practice. When I was your
age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before
breakfast.
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McCarter Theatre: Lookingglass Alice
Alice
A curious girl, somewhere between the age of seven-and-a-half and young
womanhood. Headstrong and brave, her juvenile aspiration to become a queen leads
her through Wonderland, across the chessboard and into a better understanding of what
growing up truly means.
…but Queens are ever so full of poise and grace and, and…balance. And, I should so
like to be a queen.
John Tenniel for Lewis
Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland (Macmillan,
1866).
The White Rabbit
A high-strung, waistcoat-wearing minion of the Red Queen who, despite the fact that he
sports a pocket watch, is chronically late.
…Oh dear, within a hare’s breath—and my own dearest breath, too! A rabbit’s rasping rale. Oh, sweet rale! Oh,
sweet breath! Oh, cottony tail and fortunate foot! You shall miss those ears, my ears, those whiskers dear. […] My
head she’ll lop before the day is done!
The Cheshire Cat
A friendly sunglass-wearing feline with the magical ability to appear and disappear at
will. Although he claims to be mad, he may be the most reasonable being Alice
encounters during her adventure behind the looking-glass. He also tells her the “rules”
she must follow to become queen.
…I’m mad, you’re mad—we’re all mad here. […] A dog is sane and right as rain, yes?
Well, a dog growls when he’s angry and wags his tail when he’s happy, hmmmm? […]
Well, I wag my tail when I’m angry and growl when I’m happy.
John Tenniel for Lewis
Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland (Macmillan,
1866).
The White Queen
A kindly but dimwitted three-hundred or four-hundred year-old monarch of Wonderland,
who progressively (or regressively) gets younger and younger due to a life style of
“living backward.”
ALICE: Am I addressing the White Queen?
WHITE QUEEN: If you call that addressing, it isn’t my notion of the thing at all, I’m already completely clothed.
ALICE: Yes, you do seem well-attired—
WHITE QUEEN: A-tired? On the contrary, I feel full of Vim and Vinegar.
ALICE: You do seem much—
WHITE QUEEN: Younger? That’s the effect of living backwards.
The Red Queen
A domineering and rather unpleasant woman who appears to be the ultimate authority of Wonderland. Her
tyrannical fondness for rules and responsibility results in encounters that are bizarre, serious and frequently violent.
Upon entering the ballroom, as upon entering unto society, a young woman, of reason and comportment, shall so
endeavor to bear about her all manner of manner, and eschew those improprieties deemed low and vulgar, such as
and including specifically, unnecessary expressions of pleasure and whimsy. A young woman shall curb any
impulses which might result in idle laughter or such similar activities that might cause one to scoff at rules which
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McCarter Theatre: Lookingglass Alice
govern civilization and that have allowed for the betterment of mankind in its progress from Barbarism and Chaos.
The Caterpillar
Wonderland’s one-hundred-and-thirty-two footed, childish and worm-like inquisitor who utters great wisdom in the
midst of confusing and repetitive questions.
…In fact playing takes practice. Those who haven’t practice-ed can’t play. They forgotten-ed…Can’t, shan’t and
won’t. Won’t and shan’t. Shall never and never will. Will you, won’t you? Won’t you, will you?
The White Knight
Though exceedingly clumsy and a bit daffy and sappy, this would-be champion who
fights imaginary beasts earnestly aspires to greatness. He encourages Alice on her
journey to the eighth square, and is, in turn, inspired by her queenliness.
John Tenniel for Lewis
Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland (Macmillan,
1866).
Nonsense! Alarum! Trumpets! Flourish and entrance of the pensive and yet heroic
hero-type and his rusty steed! DISMOUNT! STAY! The Jabberwock…Shing!
Tweedledum and Tweedledee
Twin brothers trapped in a perpetual state of preadolescent pettiness.
Tweedledum: No how!
Tweedledee: Contariwise!
The Mad Hatter
An impolite, possibly crazed, hat-maker who is trapped in a confusing and never-ending
tea party with his equally mad companions, the March Hare and the Dormouse.
The March Hare
The Mad Hatter’s best friend and sidekick who rivals his friend in the arts of
discourteousness and zaniness.
John Tenniel for Lewis
Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland (Macmillan,
1866).
Mad Hatter: No room.
Alice: But there’s plenty of room…
MAD HATTER: Have some wine?
ALICE: Thank you.
MAD HATTER and MARCH HARE: Bone Aperitif!
ALICE: I don’t see any wine?
MARCH HARE: There isn’t any.
ALICE: That’s very rude!
MAD HATTER and MARCH HARE: (mocking) THAT’S VERY RUDE!
The Dormouse
The lethargic, narcoleptic and much-abused member of the mad tea party.
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McCarter Theatre: Lookingglass Alice
DORMOUSE: You might just as well say that I breathe when I sleep is the same things as I sleep when I breathe.
HATTER: Yeah, it is the same thing with you, you somnambulant rodent!
Humpty Dumpty
The famous elliptical victim of gravity. He is suspicious and somewhat pompous, and considers himself an egg of
poetic prowess.
I can explain all of the poems that ever were written—and a good many that haven’t been written just yet.
Lewis Carroll - by Kyle Frisina
Lewis Carroll was born Charles Dodgson in 1832, the eldest son of eleven
children. His major mid-century biographer Derek Hudson has credited Carroll’s
family background with explaining much in Carroll’s character, including “his
sense of religion and tradition”—Carroll was ordained as a deacon, though never
a priest. Carroll’s passion for writing began in childhood, where he displayed a
diverse talent for language that would be sustained throughout his life’s work.
When he was twelve, one of his school masters wrote to Carroll’s father that he
was “marvelously ingenious in replacing the ordinary inflexions of nouns and
verbs…by more exact analogies, or convenient forms of his own devising.”
Carroll was also an accomplished mathematician and his enthusiasm for
numbers lies at the heart of the Alice books, which are threaded with
mathematical riddles, clues and games. He served as a mathematical lecturer
for over twenty-five years at his alma mater, Christ Church, Oxford, where he
met Dean Henry Liddell.
Lewis Carroll, holding his camera lens.
Astonishingly natural with children and at his happiest
in their company, Carroll had many young friends, but his bond with Henry Liddell’s
daughter Alice was his most treasured. On a July 4th rowing trip in 1862, he told Alice
and her sisters a story about a small girl who tumbled into a strange land. Alice begged
for more of the story with the heroine who shared her name, and Carroll complied. In
1864, Carroll completed the manuscript for Alice, then titled Alice’s Adventures UnderGround, and began revising the text for publication. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
(the old title was abandoned because publishers felt it sounded like a story about mining)
also incorporated many of Carroll’s earlier nonsense poems and writings, as well as
references to Victorian nursery rhymes, songs and sonnets. The book was illustrated to
great acclaim by John Tenniel, and published by Macmillan in 1866.
Lewis Carroll’s
discarded pen
names included
“Edgar U.C.
Westhill” and
“Edgar Cuthwellis.”
One of Carroll’s
favorite hobbies
was photography,
and he became
quite skilled at
portrait-making.
Shown here: Alice
Liddell, age six.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was a enormous success,
touted by critics who called it “a children’s feast and triumph of
nonsense” (The Pall Mall Gazette) and “a book to put on one’s
shelf as an antidote to a fit of the blues” (The London Reader).
Of course, the clearest indications of the book’s accomplishment
were its steady sales and the demand for translations into
languages ranging from French to German to Chinese. Shortly
after the publication of Alice in Wonderland, Carroll began writing a sequel, Through the Looking-Glass and What
Alice Found There. While not quite the commercial success of its predecessor, Through the Looking-Glass (1871)
was also very popular, and for many readers the two are inextricably linked. The poet W. H. Auden once
differentiated these works with this astute observation: “In Wonderland, Alice has to adjust herself to a life without
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McCarter Theatre: Lookingglass Alice
laws; in Looking-Glass Land, to one governed by laws to which she is unaccustomed.”
The Alice books are a testament to Carroll’s original mind exercised in the service of true children’s entertainment.
Treating the grave business of childhood with both dignity and child-focused humor, Carroll created children’s
books free of preaching or treacle, which attracted fans in adolescents and adults. Virginia Woolf went so far as to
say that “the two Alices are not books for children; they are the only books in which we become children.” In a
more expansive variation on this theme, the Victorian novelist Sir Walter Besant proclaimed on Carroll’s death that
Alice is “the only child’s book of nonsense which is never childish though it always appeals to a child; where there is
no writing down to the understanding of a child, though it can always be understood by a child. It is, in a word, a
book of that extremely rare kind which will belong to all the generations to come until the language becomes
obsolete.”
In Carroll’s later years, a story circulated that after enjoying Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Queen
Victoria—whose rule was so synonymous with the precious, mannered society of her day that this
culture came to be called “Victorian”—asked for a copy of Carroll’s next book. In his lifetime, Carroll
published a number of mathematical tracts, and he is reported to have sent Queen Victoria his
Condensation of Determinants. While this myth is completely false, Carroll so liked the story that he
took some time to dispel it!
Who’s Who in the Production
ACTING COMPANY
Larry DiStasi
Anthony Fleming III
Tony Hernandez
Lauren Hirte
ARTISTIC STAFF
Adapted and Directed by
David Catlin
Scenic Design
Dan Ostling
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Doug Hara
McCarter Theatre: Lookingglass Alice
Costume Design
Mara Blumenfeld
Lighting Design
Christine Binder
Sound Design and Composition
Andre Pluess and Ben Sussman
Circus Rigging Design
Scott Osgood
Circus Choreography
Sylvia Hernandez-DiStasi
Producing Director
Mara Isaacs
Director of Production
David York
Production Stage Manager
Sara Gmitter
Resident Stage Manager
Cheryl Mintz
Interview with David Catlin
- by Douglas Langworthy
McCarter audiences are already familiar with the Chicago-based Lookingglass Theatre,
whose production of The Secret in the Wings, directed by Mary Zimmerman, was staged
here. Lookingglass Alice, directed by David Catlin, promises another unique mix of the
emotionally gripping narrative, visually and aurally rich performance style and bold physicality
that has become the company’s trademark. The company is ensemble-driven, believing that
the whole of the company’s collective artistry is greater than the sum of its parts (just look at
the caterpillar in Alice). Their ensemble of 21 is comprised of a diverse group of playwrights,
actors, directors, musicians, choreographers and designers with training not only in theater
arts, but also dance, gymnastics, circus, film, video, musical composition and performance.
David Catlin
Lookingglass Theatre Company takes its name from a student production of Alice in
Wonderland directed by David Schwimmer at Northwestern University in 1987. This production traveled to the
Edinburgh festival, after which the theater company was formed. Since then Lookingglass has drawn on source
material from ancient Greece to present day Chicago, including Ovid, Dostoyevsky, Dickens, Proust and more. In
2000, Mayor Richard M. Daley selected Lookingglass to serve as one of Chicago’s leading artistic ambassadors by
allowing the company to build a new flexible black box theater in the city’s most historic landmark, the Water Tower
Water Works.
Can you tell me why you decided to create Lookingglass Alice?
We first did a student production of André Gregory and the Manhattan Project’s
adaptation of Alice in Wonderland back in 1987 and it was then that we fell in love with
the story. Their version of it was a very physical, almost acrobatic, Poor Theatre
aesthetic, very ensemble oriented. We ended up taking that production to the Fringe
Festival [in Edinburgh]. We were all about to graduate, and so we decided to form a
company because at that time in the late 80s, no one, in Chicago at least, was doing that
kind of physical, ensemble-oriented theater. Our first production was an adaptation that
company member David Kersnar did of Through the Looking-glass, though it had some
of the stories from Alice in Wonderland. So this work has been very important to us.
Fast forward about 15 years. We’re about to get our first space in the Water Tower
Water Works here in Chicago, an old historic building. It felt like a new chapter for us.
Lookingglass Alice. Photo by
Our artistic director at the time, Laura Eason, thought it would be great to return to a
Tony Hernandez.
story that had been seminal to the company. And though we couldn’t fit it into the first
season there, we finally found a way to do it.
I have the great joy to have a daughter, and I started to realize that she was growing up before my eyes (she was
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McCarter Theatre: Lookingglass Alice
only two at the time) as we started work on Alice. I was struck by how quickly she was growing up, how those two
years had just flown by. As a parent you think, “Oh, this is something you should be really happy about,” but at the
same time you mourn the loss of that little infant who relied so much on you for everything. Suddenly she was
finding independence, finding her voice, [taking] all of these little nascent steps in growing up. As I was thinking
about the Alice in Wonderland story, to me it’s very much a story about Reverend Dodgson (a.k.a. Lewis Carroll)
saying to the real Alice, Alice Liddell, “don’t be in such a hurry to grow up. Hang on to that part of your childhood
that allows you to believe in extraordinary and impossible things.” And as we work too hard in our lives, all of us, we
sometimes forget that silly little phrase, “doing an impossible thing.” I think part of this story is reminding us to relish
that childlike ability to invent impossible things.
How was the play developed?
We have a program at Lookingglass called Glassworks and that’s where we develop a
lot of our work. There’s no cookie cutter approach to developing something. Mary
Zimmerman, for example, works in a very different way from the way I work. We did a
bunch of physical workshops at The Actor’s Gymnasium, just experimenting with
different ways of creating a caterpillar, which would be comprised of three or four of
the guys. We knew that the Mad Hatter’s tea party would represent that moment in
your life where you are trapped at this endless grown-up party—you spent your whole
life looking forward to going to a grown-up party, and when you get there it’s just
endless. So we had these chairs that were sitting around at the Actor’s Gym, and we
just started coming up with physical vocabulary, gestures and ways of relating to the
chairs. These became the pieces that our choreographer, Sylvia Hernandez-DiStasi,
could put together in this chair dance that hopefully expresses boredom in an
Lookingglass Theatre in
interesting way. And it took each of the actors to come up with those particular
Chicago’s Water Tower Water
Works. Photo by Steve Hall at
elements. It’s important to me that it’s a very collaborative process. The show was built
Hedrich Blessing.
in our theater. We were able to rehearse in there earlier than normal. It’s very exciting
to be coming to Princeton to see how we can use the Matthews Theatre space, which is very different from ours.
How is the play structured? How did you decide which material to include?
One of the things I wanted to look at is the rush to grow up—that gave a structure to collect the stories. It’s about a
young girl who’s in a hurry to grow up, and so it made sense to think of a metaphor that he uses in Through the
Looking-glass, that of a chessboard and a pawn trying desperately to get across the board to become a queen. The
metaphor, of course, represents young Alice literally wanting to grow up and do all the things that grown-ups do. In
an early scene Alice meets the Caterpillar, who is just full of questions, and I also think of the Caterpillar as being all
legs, and toddlers seem to be at a stage of being all legs and being full of questions.
Lookingglass productions are so physical. Is it hard to find actors with the kinds of skills you need?
It’s not always easy to find somebody who can do all the physical stuff. We have tried to hold more open workshops
where we’ll see some people that we are interested in working with. The Actor’s Gymnasium is a place that was
founded by one of our company members and his wife. It was designed as a place that would simultaneously train
other people in these arts, but then also train us specifically for productions. The hope would be that as other
people are being trained, they’re developing skills that we can turn to if we need to widen our talent pool. Especially
as some of us original members are hitting the 40 mark.
Theater Artist Spotlight: Production Manager
McCarter Director of Production David York directs the Scenic, Prop, Costume and Stage Operations
departments in their creation of the physical elements for the Theater Series and A Christmas Carol. In
addition, David and the production staff see to the needs of more than 75 guest artists and companies
presented at McCarter each season. Here, he speaks with Literary Manager Carrie Hughes.
What does a production manager do?
My job is to coordinate all the people, the calendar and the spending in the production department. It comes
together in my office. I try to keep a group of thirty some odd people working in a coordinated way towards creating
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McCarter Theatre: Lookingglass Alice
the final product. The production department is split between a group of people in the shops building the production
(the scene shop, costume shop, prop shop and paint shop), and a group working onstage running the production
that we refer to as stage operations (lighting technicians, sound technicians, stage hands, flymen). Each of those
groups has a supervisor and those supervisors answer directly to me. There’s also the stage management
department, our connection to the rehearsal process. At McCarter my role is a little different than at a lot of other
theaters because of the extensive presenting side of what we do, so [I’m also responsible for] getting all 75 of those
events on and off the stage.
I think what’s interesting is that I answer in fairly equal parts to the artistic director and the managing director. I find
myself trying, I think more than anyone here, to balance the needs of the art and commerce from a financial
management point of view.
What are some of your most rewarding experiences as a production manager?
I think that certainly the most rewarding thing is when we do shows that we like and that the audience likes. There
are a lot of shows that are very successful with our audience that are not as fulfilling [for us] simply because there
was nothing special from a production point of view. There are certainly some that we get very excited about, but
for some reason or other don’t necessarily resonate with the audience. But when those two things come together—
those are the ones that are important.
The other thing is that over the years that I’ve been here, which is now getting to be a lot—twenty some odd years—
there is now a core of my staff that’s been working with me for most of those years. The working conditions and just
the work environment that I’ve been able to establish for people in our department, I think, is a very special one. We
provide a place where designers like to work and people like to return to, and that is always rewarding.
What are the biggest challenges of being a production manager?
The single biggest challenge in theater is the fact that opening nights are opening nights. It does not mean, oh,
we’ll just open this tomorrow. So the challenge is committing to a scope of work and then having to accomplish it
within a predetermined length of time. There’s never enough money. I think that designers are usually asked to
dream without a lot of attention paid to the practicality of construction or the affordability, and balancing the time
and resource realities with the artistic pursuit is an ongoing challenge. That doesn’t change from year to year, and it
never gets any easier.
Can you describe how the set/design concept of Lookingglass Alice changed from the Chicago production
to the McCarter production?
Lookingglass Theatre in Chicago is much smaller, about a quarter of the seats as the Matthews stage, and it was
set up with two sections of seating looking toward each other with a long narrow playing area in between. This is
almost exactly the opposite of the standard configuration of the Matthews stage. The design process for McCarter
started out with [the designers and director] attempting to replicate that configuration here, and the first version of
the set boiled down to setting the Lookingglass version on our stage, splitting the proscenium and putting some
seats on stage too. We—[Artistic Director] Emily Mann, [Producting Director] Mara Isaacs, and myself— argued
that we really wanted them to make it more organic to our theater and not try to replicate the Lookingglass version.
We felt it would be more successful if the same impetus, which was to make it part of the whole of the theater, not
just the stage, was what they did here. So they made revisions which sort of did that, brought it much further out in
to the house, put more people on stage, and I think it will feel more like it was designed for this theater than that it
was moved from another.
How did you and the McCarter production staff collaborate with the Chicago design team to make that
transition?
I think that designers and directors, when they work with a production team, tend in some ways to be timid and try
to anticipate your concerns or complaints or how hard it might be to accomplish what they want. We felt that the
first version that the designers submitted tried to account for all of our fears and anticipate all of those things. I think
why [set designer] Dan Ostling and some other designers have always liked us is that we don’t tend to respond in
that way. He really appreciated that and reiterated many times over how exciting it was to have producers that
actually pushed them to stretch and to do what they wanted to do and really, I think that’s what we try to encourage
people to do all the time. It’s just that with this one it’s a little bit different. It is hard building the set out into the
house, where the theater isn’t designed to have scenery.
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McCarter Theatre: Lookingglass Alice
What are the most challenging technical elements in Alice?
There are the “tricks” of the performances themselves, and the rigging involved with that, but those have been
largely worked out for the performances [in Chicago] and they will be re-created here. The hardest thing for us is
that the playing space is completely in front of the stage and particularly up above the [playing space]—there’s very
little there to begin with, so our challenge is creating a structure for all of the rigging and lighting and sound
equipment up in the air under the ceiling in the auditorium. That is the biggest stretch.
What advice would you give to a young person interested in a career in theater production?
Work backstage whenever you can. I got my start after suffering acute stage fright in 6th grade in a variety show at
school and started working backstage after that so that I didn’t have to be a performer. Even though I thought I
would follow a different career path, I kept returning in some way to theater and clearly I’ve remained ever since. If
you enjoy it as a hobby, I think it’s a viable career. I said before, there are thirty some odd people in this
department alone who make a living doing it, and it’s a place where you get to combine creative energies and
practical know-how in a job, which is kind of rare these days.
Educator’s Intro:
Educator’s Intro:
Welcome to the McCarter Resource Guide: Educator Edition! McCarter’s education and literary staff have created
this guide to complement the theater-going experience with a wide array of classroom activities and resources.
Whether this is your first trip to McCarter or you are a regular at our student matinee series, we hope the
information and exercises in this guide will be useful tools as you both prepare your students for a trip to the theater
and enhance their experience upon your return.
We are thrilled to be able to offer Lookingglass Alice, an ideal introduction to theater for students of any age. This
production contains opportunities for enrichment in literature, history, theater, music and dance (there’s probably
even some fun math in there!). Elementary students can learn the etiquette of theatergoing and be introduced to a
classic story. Middle schoolers may be introduced to the techniques of ensemble work and physical theater. High
school students will be exposed to a wide array of literary and theatrical devices and techniques. While engaging
with universal theme of growing up, they will also learn details about Victorian life and culture.
Like Carroll’s novels, Lookingglass’s adaptation can be appreciated on many levels. Absurdism, satire, whimsy,
and metatheatricality (theater about theater) all make appearances, as do physical theatrical techniques like circus
and acrobatics. Indeed, there are so many ideas and techniques at work that we encourage you to introduce your
students to some of these concepts ahead of time, to help focus their viewing of the play.
Our student audiences are often our favorite audiences at McCarter, and we encourage you and your students to
join us for a discussion with members of the cast after the performance. Our visiting artists are always impressed
with the preparation and thoughtfulness of McCarter’s young audiences, and the post-performance discussion
offers a unique opportunity for students to engage directly with professional theater practitioners. We look forward
to seeing all of you at the theater!
Pre-Show Preparation, Questions for Discussion, and Activities
Note to Educators: Use the following assignments, questions, and activities to introduce your students to
Lookingglass Alice and its origins, context, and themes, as well as to engage their imaginations and creativity
before they see the production. Although questions are designed for secondary school students, educators are
encouraged to adapt them for elementary and middle school pupils.
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McCarter Theatre: Lookingglass Alice
Activities and Questions Which Focus on Reading, Reasoning, and Research
1. Have your students read passages from the literary works that inspired Lookingglass Alice: Lewis Carroll’s
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.
●
●
●
Ask them to discuss the central themes of both works, that is, the challenges of growing up,
learning to understand and thrive in the adult world and its sometimes nonsensical rules, and
the power and place of imagination and play in an individual’s everyday life; and ask them to
identify moments in the texts where these themes are explored. Can they identify any other
themes?
Discuss other works of literature or plays your students have read or studied with similar themes.
Ask your students if they have come upon challenges in their own growing-up process that have
seemed confusing, if they have encountered rules from the adult world that have seemed
nonsensical, or if they’ve experienced a time when their or another person’s imagination and
healthy sense of play have provided them with strength, excitement, joy, or comfort.
2. Have your students research the life of Lewis Carroll (born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), the origins of his
Alice books, and their Victorian context. Avenues for research beyond biographies and texts and essays by
Victorian experts might include late 19th century newspapers and children’s literature, and Victorian era
diaries and etiquette manuals; there are also a number of excellent web sites on Victorian etiquette available
via the internet. Topics for study may include the lives of and attitudes toward children in the Victorian era,
Victorian etiquette, children’s literature of the period, etc.
a. “All manner of manner…” Throughout the Alice books, Carroll alludes to both social and moral lessons or
rules that all British schoolchildren were expected to memorize (e.g., “Learn to speak in a gentle tone of
voice.”). Have your students identify as many of these allusions as possible and discuss the similarities or
differences to the lessons and rules they are expected to learn and obey today.
b. Host a Victorian tea party. Assign your students roles to play that explore conventional Victorian status,
social, and familial roles. For example, you might set the te
a party in the home of a middle-class physician and his wife and their children of various ages. Perhaps the
family invites some special guests to join them for tea including a maiden aunt, father’s public school-chum
now a military man, etc. And don’t forget that middle-class families of the era typically employed servants,
such as a housemaid, a parlor maid, cook, and governess.
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Explore with your students the strictness of Victorian gender roles and compare and contrast nineteenthcentury standards of gendered behavior with today’s standards. (Some students might like to investigate a
character of the opposite gender.)
Have them create a rich fictional background for their character/persona with a based upon their research
and understanding of the period and of the rules of etiquette for the time.
Prompt your students to ask of their characters, why are they at the tea party and what they want in the
course of the event; for example, perhaps one of the attendees has an important announcement to make or
another is hoping to get a glance or have a kind word with one of the others with whom they are enamored or
interested.
Imaginative, Compositional and Artistic Activities
1. Imagining a New Land of Wonder. Lewis Carroll imagined the fantastical story of Alice in Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass for the entertainment and approval of Alice
Liddell and her two sisters, and both books are filled with fictional and nonsensical characters which Carroll
based upon his own friends, acquaintances, and significant/famous people of his time. Have your students
write a fantastical short story for the entertainment and approval of a specific person in their familial or social
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sphere which features characters based upon their friends, acquaintances, and significant/famous people of
the present day.
2. Project: Communication Collage. Theatrical visual designers, such as those who create a play
production’s scenery, costumes, makeup, and lights must find ways to communicate their preliminary design
ideas to the director with whom they collaborate. One form of visual communication is collage, in which
cutout images and text, material/fabric, and other small things are glued to a piece of paper to symbolize the
world of the play, its inhabitants, and its themes. Have your students make a design collage for their own
personal production of Alice’s adventures.
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They will need an 8½” x 11” sheet of paper (either colored paper or paper that can be
painted), magazines with visual images/photographs, scissors, additional color paper for
cutouts, colored pencils or paint for a background, and glue.
They should think about how they might use color, images, and text to symbolize the
mood of the play and what happens in it.
Educators might also opt for their students to create electronic collages by utilizing
PowerPoint technology and images gleaned from the internet.
Students should be given time to show their finished collages to the class and to explain
how the objects and images in their collages express and symbolize the place,
characters, mood, events and themes of the play.
3. Adventures in Collaboration: Scripting More of the Looking-Glass. The script of Lookingglass Alice is
the collaborative effort of The Lookingglass Theatre ensemble whose members explored and adapted Lewis
Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass for the stage. Divide your students into collaborative groups and assign
various chapters from Through the Lookingglass for them to create as scenes in class. Students might like
to improvise (or act the scene out in an impromptu fashion paraphrasing the text or using their own words
and ideas) or draw dialogue directly from the Carroll’s text. For homework, have them script the scenes they
created in class, and in the following class meeting have them stage and perform them for their classmates.
Follow up this activity by having them discuss the joys and challenges of ensemble work and adaptation.
Post-Show Questions for Discussion and Activities
Note to Educators: Use the following assignments, questions, and activities to have students evaluate their
experience of the performance of Lookingglass Alice, as well as to encourage their own imaginative and artistic
projects through further exploration of the play and its unique production style. Although questions and activities
are designed for secondary school students, educators are encouraged to adapt them for elementary and middle
school pupils.
Questions and Activities Which Focus on Production Analysis, Aesthetic Assessment, and Critique
1. Following their attendance at the performance of Lookingglass Alice, ask your students to reflect on the
questions below. (You might choose to have them answer each individually or you could divide students into
groups for round-table discussions. Have them consider each question, record their answers, and then
share their responses with the rest of the class.
Questions to Ask Your Students About the Play in Production
a. What was your overall reaction to Lookingglass Alice? Were you surprised by the production?
Intrigued? Delighted? Challenged? Confused? Explain your reactions.
b. Did experiencing the play heighten your awareness or understanding of the play’s themes? (e.
g., the challenges of growing up, learning to understand the adult world and its sometimes
nonsensical rules, and the importance of imagination, play, and belief in impossible things) What
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themes were made even more apparent in performance? Explain your responses.
c. Do you think that the pace and tempo of the production was effective and appropriate? Explain
your opinion.
Questions to Ask Your Students About the Characters
a. Did you personally identify with any of the characters in the play? Who? Why?
b. What qualities were revealed by the action and speech of the characters? Explain your ideas.
c. Did any characters develop or undergo a transformation during the course of the play? Who?
How? Why?
d. In what ways did the characters reveal the themes of the play? Explain your responses.
Questions to Ask Your Students About the Style and Design of the Production
a. Was there a moment in the play that was so compelling or intriguing that it remains with you in
your mind’s eye? Can you write a vivid description of that moment? As you write your
description, pretend that you are writing about the moment for someone who was unable to
experience the performance.
b. Did the highly theatrical and physical style and design elements of the production—for example,
the unconventional staging, visual and sound effects, the bold physicality and acrobatics of the
actors, and musical score—enhance the performance? Explain your reaction.
c. Did the style and design elements work together to create a unified production? Were there any
elements that distracted from the action of the play? Which? Why?
d. Did the style and design reflect the themes of the play? How?
e. What mood or atmosphere did the lighting design establish or achieve? Explain your
experience.
f. How did the sound design enhance your overall experience? Explain your response.
g. Did the color and design of the costumes and makeup serve to illuminate the characters,
themes, and style of the play? How?
2. Wearing the Hat of the Critic. Have your students take on the role of theater critic by having them write a
review of Lookingglass Alice. A theater critic or reviewer is essentially a "professional audience member,"
whose job is to report the news, in detail, of a play's production and performance through active and
descriptive language for a target audience of readers (e.g., their peers, their community, or those interested
in the Arts). Critics/reviewers also analyze the theatrical event to provide clearer understanding of the artistic
ambitions and intentions of a play and its production; reviewers often ask themselves, "What is the playwright
and this production attempting to do?" And, finally, the critic offers a personal opinion as to whether the
artistic intentions of a production were achieved and effective. Things to consider before writing:
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Theater critics/reviewers always back up their opinions with reasons, evidence, and details.
Particulars of a production that can be discussed in a theatrical review are the play text or script (and its
themes, plot, characters, etc.), scenic elements, costumes, lighting, sound, music, acting, and direction (i.e.,
how all of these elements are put together).
Educators may want to provide their students with sample theater reviews from a variety of newspapers.
Imaginative and Artistic Activities
1. The Mad Hatter and March Hare in Math Class?! In Lookingglass Alice, Alice ventures through the
looking-glass and encounters a variety of "curiouser and curiouser" characters from Wonderland; she is the
outsider attempting to find her way in their peculiar and oftentimes nonsensical environment. Have your
students choose characters from Wonderland on whom you will turn the situational tables by transporting
them through the looking-glass to our mundane
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Each student should take on the role of their character of choice and develop him or her physically,
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emotionally, and intellectually. The portrayal of her or his character can be based upon the
Lookingglass Theatre ensemble member's portrayal of the character or she or he may envision the
character in a new physical, emotional, and intellectual way.
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Regardless of what path toward characterization a student takes, they should be encouraged to play
their character to its physically dynamic fullest.
Then, either in one large group or in smaller groupings, establish an ordinary scenario in which the
characters can interact improvisationally. For example, set the Wonderland characters in an English,
math, or history class on the day of a big test and let them find their way through or out of it. Or set
them in a public library with a research task and see how they operate within the normal established
rules of that environment.
Perhaps some students could play "normal" characters (e.g., a teacher, principal, librarian, library
patron, etc.) or themselves in a scenario opposite the Wonderland characters.
It might be fun for students to brainstorm other scenarios for improvisational interactions.
2. Adventures in Collaboration: Adapting a Children’s Classic. In the spirit of the Lookingglass Theatre's
adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass into Lookingglass Alice, have your students split up
into collaborative teams to adapt an illustrated children's book. Educators may provide a book of their own
choosing or perhaps students can pick a favorite book from their childhood to divvy up (into scenes) and
dramatically explore.
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Encourage your students to take both a highly theatrical and highly physical approach to their
adaptations. In other words, encourage them to think of how they might employ scenic elements,
lights, sound, music, and physical theater techniques à la Lookingglass Theatre (see #3 below) to
enliven their scene and its characters.
Have them script the scenes they are given to adapt.
In the following one or two class meetings, Educators might have each ensemble stage their
respective scenes and have them perform the play for themselves and perhaps a selected audience
(perhaps a group of elementary school students).
Follow up any activity by having each ensemble discuss the joys and challenges of collaborative
adaptation.
3. Let’s Get Physical, Theater People! Have your students explore the joys of physical theater in the manner
of the Lookingglass Theatre ensemble and other companies known for their highly physical and visual
performances, such as Cirque du Soleil and the San Francisco Mime Troupe. The term physical theater
describes any mode of performance which is highly visual and utilizes primarily physical means to tell a story
and engage and entertain the audience. It includes a wide variety of styles, approaches, and aesthetics,
including dance, movement, mime, circus, clowning, acrobatics, vaudeville, mask-work, and puppetry.
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Divide your students into mini-ensembles and have them research the physical styles and approaches
listed above.
Then choose a short dramatic text [perhaps you could employ a script generated from one of the
previous assignments/activities in this resource guide, such as any scenes devised from alternative
chapters in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass (see Pre-Show Questions and Activities;
Imaginative, Compositional, and Artistic Activities, #3) or from the adaptations of other illustrated
children's books (see activity above, #2)] to which they can apply their knowledge and understanding
of physical theater techniques.
Each ensemble should decide collaboratively how to cast and block (i.e., plan the actors' movements)
their short plays/scenes.
Allow students at least one night to find and bring in rudimentary props, costumes, and music from
home.
Have each ensemble perform their short plays/scenes for one another in class.
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Following each ensemble's performance, have the collaborative teams discuss their creative process
and solicit from the audience what they found to be visually compelling and effective.
Core Curriculum Standards
According to the NJ Department of Education, “experience with and knowledge of the arts is a vital
part of a complete education.” Our production of Lookingglass Alice and the activities outlined in this
guide are designed to enrich your students’ education by addressing the following specific Core
Curriculum Standards for Visual and Performing Arts:
1.1
All students will acquire knowledge and skills that increase
aesthetic awareness in dance, music, theater and visual arts.
All students will refine perceptual, intellectual, physical and
1.2 technical skills through creating dance, music, theater and/or
visual arts.
1.4
All students will demonstrate knowledge of the process of
critique.
All students will identify the various historical, social and cultural
influences and traditions which have generated artistic
1.5
accomplishments throughout the ages and which continue to
shape contemporary arts.
1.6
All students will develop design skills for planning the form and
function of space, structures, objects, sounds and events.
Viewing Lookingglass Alice and then participating in the pre- and post-show discussions suggested in
this resource guide will also address the following Core Curriculum Standards in Language Arts
Literacy:
3.3
All students will speak in clear, concise, organized language that
varies in content and form for different audiences and purposes.
3.4
All students will listen actively to information from a variety of
sources in a variety of situations.
3.5
All students will access, view, evaluate and respond to print, nonprint and electronic texts and resources.
In addition, the production of Lookingglass Alice, as well as the resource guide activities, will help to
fulfill the following Social Studies Core Curriculum Standards:
All students will utilize historical thinking, problem solving and
6.1 research skills to maximize their understanding of civics, history,
geography and economics.
All students will apply knowledge of spatial relationships and
6.6 other geographic skills to understand human behavior in relation
to the physical and cultural environment.
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Additional Resources
Brooker, Will. Alice’s Adventures. London: The
Continuum International Publishing Group Inc,
2004.
Carroll, Lewis. Annotated Alice. Annotated by
Martin Gardner. New York: Bramhall House,
1960.
Carroll, Lewis. Looking-Glass Letters. London:
Collins & Brown Limited, 1991.
Hudson, Derek. Lewis Carroll. London:
Constable and Company, 1954.
John Tenniel for Lewis
Caroll, Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland
(Macmillan 1866).
Lennon, Florence Becker. The Life of Lewis
Carroll (Victoria Through the Looking Glass).
Toronto: General Publishing Company, Ltd.,
1972.
Lovett, Charles C. Alice on Stage. Westport:
Meckler, 1999.
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McCarter Theatre: Lookingglass Alice
Phillips, Robert, ed. Aspects of Alice. New
York: The Vanguard Press, 1971.
Stoffel, Stephanie Lovett. Lewis Carroll in
Wonderland. New York: Henry N. Abrams, Inc.,
1997.
A McCarter Theatre production | January 9 - January 28, 2007
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| Venue : Matthews Theatre