Every Panto Season, People’s Light eagerly welcomes newcomers to this delicious form of communal celebration that has become a signature part of our Theatre for nearly two decades. Among the new-to-Panto artists involved in Alice In Wonderland are Jennifer Childs (playwright), Abdul Hamid Royal
(music director), Melanie Cotton (choreographer), Chris Haig (scenic designer), Rebecca Kanach (costume designer), Robert Kaplowitz (sound desginer), Sapphira Cristal (wig designer), Pi Queen (makeup designer), Altamiece Carolyn Cooper (performer), Patrick Halley (performer), Eric Jaffe (performer and drag/gender representation consultant), Angel Sigala (performer), Grace Ellis Solomon (performer), Alexis Tidwell (performer), Tiara Whaley (performer), and Danny Wilfred (performer). Wooo! That’s a lot of new folx joining forces with many returning Panto Vets including Kim Carson, Justin Jain, Eli Lynn, Susan McKey, Mary Elizabeth Scallen, Tom Teti, Kate Fossner, Alex Bechtel, Bill Fennelly, and Mike Inwood.

We relish this mix of old and new, of artists with a wide range of experiences and backgrounds. Although every People’s Light Panto possesses certain qualities and ingredients, the form is always in a state of evolution, responding to the creativity of the collaborators involved and the world we all share. Alice In Wonderland embodies this spirit of growth and discovery. Heart-rich and genderfull, we believe it to be our most inclusive, accessible, and sparkly Panto to date.

Since 2004, People’s Light has created and staged our own unique spin on the British pantomime as a way to bring together audiences of all backgrounds and ages during the holiday season. Our distinctive approach includes original music and is more family friendly than many of its antecedents in the United Kingdom, but our homegrown version shares many core ingredients: it is based on a  familiar tale, a mashup of comedic styles, interactive and improvisatory, non-denominational, joyfully disruptive in nature, and spiced with local references (and a Star Wars quote or two); there is raucous boo-ing, “messy
bits” and “silly songs,” and often a cascade of candy.

During those initial years, writer/composer team Kathryn Petersen and Michael Ogborn worked closely with an intrepid group of directors, choreographers, actors and musicians to establish the Panto as a holiday season tradition. In all these Pantos, longtime company member Mark Lazar portrayed The Dame. Although Mark appeared in numerous other People’s Light productions, his Dame alter ego made him a local celebrity. Now living with his family in Florida, Mark made far more than a mark on the Dame, the Panto, and on our theatre as a whole. As have company members Tom Teti and Susan McKey, who have also appeared in nearly every Panto we produced.

Within a few years, the People’s Light Panto became a huge success, surpassing the iconic Christmas Carol in annual sales and elevating the identity of People’s Light in our region. While no production at a non-profit theatre “makes money,” (ticket prices would need to at least double before that could begin to
happen) the Panto did inspire much acclaim, generate valuable revenue, and introduce thousands of new patrons to People’s Light, including countless young people. It also launched our program of Relaxed Performances that now extend to all productions in our season.

For a while we produced an original new panto every season, each possessing many similar elements, but routinely experimenting with new ideas. Eventually, we began to intermingle new pantos with revivals of past pantos, but even the remounts would include all kinds of new inventions.

As we headed into 2018, however, the blush on the rose had faded slightly. Ticket demand had begun to wane as we remounted our previously celebrated Aladdin. Unfortunately, we also made a series of poor assumptions and decisions around that production. They demonstrated various degrees of insensitivity regarding representations of race and gender. This caused harm inside and outside our organization. As a result, after Aladdin, we took a step back to reflect on whether our holiday tradition was as inclusive and accessible as we intend it to be, whether our audiences were growing tired of it all, and whether there were ways to improve the artistic and social quality of these productions without sacrificing the aspects of past iterations that possessed such disruptive delight.