The Lookingglass Theatre Company in Chicago is remounting Mary Zimmerman‘s production of The Steadfast Tin Soldier this holiday season, and the Tony-winning director and adapter herself talks to us about how the show came to life. Featuring seeking and finding, bittersweet qualities, being drawn to outsiders, staging an advent calendar, music hall influences, Masterpiece Theatre memories, colonizing the mind, actor contributions, a tribute to longtime collaborator Christopher Donahue, the value of taking a break, kitty sneezes, ending on a pun, toggling back and forth between literary and theatrical storytelling, and the value of beautiful legitimate sentiment. (Length 25:05) (Pictured: Alex Stein in the title role in the Lookingglass Theatre Company production of The Steadfast Tin Soldier, directed and adapted by Mary Zimmerman (left). Photos by Liz Lauren.)
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Jeanine Fearns
Matt Croke is a distant cousin of mine, tho’ we have never met. Our grandmothers were sisters in Chicago. I am very impressed by this book and with Matt. I wish you much good luck with your book, Matt, and would enjoy meeting you. Jeanine Zavrel Fearns, Fairfax, VA.