'Lookingglass Alice' Returns July 2nd.

 
 
In celebration of its 20th Anniversary Season, Lookingglass Theatre Company's hit Lookingglass Alice tumbles its way down the rabbit hole for its third smash year at Chicago's historic Water Tower Water Works, 821 N. Michigan Ave. at Pearson, for a summer run starting July 2, 2008. 
 
Adapted by Ensemble Member and Artistic Director David Catlin from Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass", Lookingglass Alice is a muscular, acrobatic, and dizzyingly playful show for all ages. This Alice falls, floats, flies, defies gravity and the rules of logic during her wonderland journey through the looking glass to become a queen. With a juggling Mad Hatter, a precariously balancing Humpty Dumpty, and a bumbling Knight who invents his way into Alice's heart, Lookingglass Alice revisits the stories that inspired the founding of Lookingglass Theatre Company twenty years ago. Produced in association with The Actors Gymnasium.
 
"Lookingglass Alice is an amazing collaboration between inventive design, impossible physical performance and entirely unexpected storytelling. The show gets curiouser and curiouser each time we get to work on it," says Director David Catlin.
 
Lookingglass Alice incorporates the company's signature style of physical theater blended with circus arts to create a breathtaking and supernatural Wonderland. Cast members returning for the run include Artistic Associate Lauren Hirte as Alice, Ensemble Member Lawrence E. DiStasi as Lewis Carroll and other roles, Jesse Perez as the Red Queen and other roles, Artistic Associate Kevin Douglas as the White Rabbit and other roles, and Artistic Associate Anthony Fleming III as various characters, including the Cheshire Cat.
 
Assisting with the onstage magic is the original Lookingglass Alice design team, including Ensemble Member Mara Blumenfeld (costumes), Artistic Associate Alison Siple and Lijana Wallenda-Hernandez (associate costume designers), Artistic Associate Chris Binder (lights), Artistic Associate Sylvia Hernandez-DiStasi (choreography), Ensemble Member Dan Ostling (scenic), and Artistic Associate Andre Pluess and Ben Sussman (sound design and composition). The stage manager is Production Affiliate Patia Bartlett.
 
When it premiered in February 2005, Lookingglass Alice became an instant hit, played to sold out audiences and enjoyed two extensions. When the production returned home to Chicago in summer 2007 following a successful East Coast tour, it again played to sold-out houses and was twice extended.
 
A startling flash of white light kicks off the action, miraculously uniting the worlds of the famed Alice and author Lewis Carroll. Alice must make her way across an illuminated chessboard by outwitting the Red Queen, out-chatting the Mad Hatter, and out-maneuvering the bizarre, but friendly, Caterpillar (a stacked trio of acrobats). Whether she's floating high above a swelling sea of tears or deciphering the enigmatic advice of the Cheshire Cat, Alice's "curiouser and curiouser" encounters bring her one square closer to her dream of becoming a queen.
 
David Catlin (director/adaptor) currently serves as Lookingglass Theatre Company's Artistic Director. Over the years, he has served as Director of Artistic Development, Director of Education and Community Programs, Studio Teacher, and Managing Director.  Most recently, he co-directed Lookingglass' fourth production of 2006/07, Black Diamond: The Years the Locusts Have Eaten with Lookingglass' newest Ensemble Member J. Nicole Brooks. His other directing credits are Metamorphosis, Her Name was Danger, The Idiot, The Master and Margarita (co-directed with Heidi Stillman), West (Jeff Citation), and Treatment. Catlin also served as a writer/adaptor for Her Name was Danger, The Idiot (Jeff Award) and Lookingglass Hamlet. As an actor he was last seen onstage in Mary Zimmerman's Argonautika. A graduate of Northwestern University's School of Speech in 1988, Catlin was a founding member and served with David Kersnar as the company's first Co-Artistic Directors. 
 
Lookingglass Alice - Dates, Times and Ticket Information
Tickets are currently on sale. Previews of Lookingglass Alice are July 2-11, 2008, Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30 pm. Previews tickets are $30.  Press opening is Saturday, July 12, 2008 at 7:30 pm.  Performances continue through August 31: Wednesdays at 7:30 pm; Thursdays at 3:00 pm and 7:30 pm (except July 3, 10 & 31); Fridays at 7:30 pm (except July 4); Saturdays at 3:00 pm and 7:30 pm; and Sundays at 3:00 pm. Tickets are $30-$58. For tickets and information, call (312) 337-0665, or visit lookingglasstheatre.org.
 
Lookingglass Theatre Company is located in the heart of the Magnificent Mile shopping district inside Chicago's historic Water Tower Water Works, 821 N. Michigan Ave. at Pearson. Discounted parking is available for Lookingglass patrons at nearby Olympia Centre Garage (161 E. Chicago Ave.). Target Saturday Matinees offers a limited number of buy one, get one free tickets which are available to all 3 pm Saturday matinees. This program is made possible with the generous support of Target, working with Lookingglass to make the arts accessible to all. Subscribers may also purchase a limited number of $15 children's tickets. Tickets are subject to availability.