'No Place Like Tome': Audio Theater takes Alice on a visit to other books

In the Northwest Arkansas Audio Theater production this afternoon, Alice steps out of Wonderland, bypasses the Looking Glass and "gets to visit other people's stories," says playwright Eden Miller, "because Lewis Carroll has collected what he considers the best of other authors for her into one anthology titled 'Alice's Library'." That means, says Miller, Alice has "tales to read when Lewis Carroll cannot be around to make them up for her on the spot."

"What Alice Knows in a Book, or, No Place Like Tome" -- shortened for convenience to "Alice: No Place Like Tome" -- was conceived by Miller during the pandemic that restricted gatherings of the NWAAT. It was not the rabbit hole that company members intended to go down.

"When performing my adaptation of 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' turned out to be impossible in the spring of 2020 under covid conditions, we turned to reading aloud on Zoom, including works-in-progress and public domain scripts -- Shakespeare, Shaw, et al," says Miller. "The 'Alice' cast and others became an informal ensemble which enjoyed having a performance outlet, even at a distance.

"'Tome' started with a 'what if?': What if Alice visited other stories? Which stories? How would she react?"

Having adapted both "Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" into large-cast musicals, Miller instead created "Tome" to be performed by as few as eight people, with most actors taking multiple roles, and very little singing, she says. She was also inspired by her own experiences as a child with dyslexia and "the wonder of being able to choose and absorb stories for myself once l could read."

[LISTEN HERE AT: https://vimeo.com/580817105]

The specific stories Alice visits in the NWAAT show are "The Emperor's New Clothes" by Hans Christian Andersen, "How the Camel Got His Hump" from the "Just So Stories" by Rudyard Kipling, "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" by Beatrix Potter, "Peter and Wendy" by James M. Barrie, and "The Patchwork Girl of Oz" by L. Frank Baum.

"The criteria for choosing these particular authors and stories were contemporaries of Lewis Carroll, stories in the public domain [and] well-known tales of enduring popularity," says Miller. "At that, keeping the list of stories for Alice to visit to five wasn't easy; there are many more which could be used -- and may be, someday. These five seemed to have thematic and mood kinship with Carroll's world and Alice's character, while presenting opportunities to look at them from a slightly different perspective: how being involved in a story changes the story itself."

Miller says "Tome" also fulfills the NWAAT goal of encouraging playwrights.

"While we are happy to pay royalties where they are due for copyrighted scripts, we want to encourage original work and workable audio theater adaptations of stories in the public domain, such as Jacob Christiansen's adaptation of 'The Comedy of Errors,'" she says. But "bringing a script off the page into performance is [still] a team effort. Physically, audio theater is easier to present than 'regular' theater; we can perform anywhere we can plug in the sound equipment, relying on the imaginations of our audiences to fill in most of the scenery and action. We still need actors, musicians, sound effects artists, sound system masters, graphic designers and the occasional prop or costume piece to fill out the story.

"[And] presenting this as written would not be possible without the musical expertise of Laurie Anderson."

Miller hopes one message rings out loud and clear from the production.

"I'm going to quote myself here, speaking to the audience in the persona of Lewis Carroll: 'Adventures are waiting for you, too, in these books that Alice tasted today, and ever so many others! Your local public library can help you find them; and don't forget to tell your own stories, everybody has something to share!"