Collaboration key to success for Des Plaines multimedia company

Ask Emmy Award-winning producers Matt Hoffman and Scott Silberstein the secret to their success and they're apt to answer with one word: collaboration.

That philosophy, adopted from The Second City's "yes, and" improvisation ethos, animates their Des Plaines-based multimedia company whose policy has always been this: "The best idea wins."

The longtime friends embraced that approach when they founded HMS in 1988 and they continued to do so during the pandemic, when shuttered theaters sought the company's help in sharing productions online.

"There were six to eight weeks of abject terror," Silberstein said. "Then the arts did what they always do ... look at the situation, accept it and start building on it."

"After we caught our breath, we never stopped creating," he said of the company, which has filmed, edited and mixed broadcast and digital content for Broadway shows, tours, television networks, film studios and theaters, including Goodman, Guthrie, Lyric Opera, Chicago Shakespeare and Roundabout as well as other arts organizations.

"As soon as the pandemic hit and everything was canceled for the foreseeable future, we acknowledged clients would need affordable streaming capabilities," said Hoffman.

With a shutdown looming, Hoffman and his crew were dispatched to the Milwaukee Repertory Theater to film a revival of Danai Gurira's "Eclipsed," a play director Hoffman had never seen.

"They said: 'You have to do it in two days because Milwaukee is shutting down,' and that's exactly what we did," Hoffman said.

Other projects included collaborating with writer/producer Jason Brett on the "Sweet Home Chicago" COVID-19 Artist Relief Music Video fundraiser featuring current and former Chicago-area musicians, dancers, rappers and theater artists.

For Chicago Shakespeare Theater, HMS remixed archival videos for streaming. For Lyric Opera of Chicago, they filmed and edited 12 virtual concerts, including a celebration of music director and principal conductor Sir Andrew Davis streamed earlier this month. American Players Theater contracted the company to film and edit its entire 2021 season.

HMS livestreamed Music of the Baroque's entire season and filmed Writers Theatre's "The Last Match" for online streaming through May 30.

"Last Match" director Keira Fromm "had strong visual ideas for adapting this project," recalls Hoffman. "It's all about collaboration. The stage director has ideas and we have ideas. It's all about blending those together to get the right result."

Hoffman, a Glencoe native, and the Ohio-born Silberstein met as teens attending a Wisconsin summer camp where they discovered a shared love of music, theater and audio.

"HMS was born there out of our friendship," said Silberstein, a classically trained pianist. "We were best pals from the get-go."

The third member of the trio and the "M" in HMS is Jonathan Meyer, a Washington, D.C., attorney recently nominated by President Joe Biden to serve as general counsel for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

"We call him our silent partner," joked director Hoffman who, like Silberstein, pursued music during high school and college, writing songs and making what his business partner described as "the world's worst music videos."

Later, Silberstein's father suggested they contact a theater friend of his, award-winning composer John Kander, who created with lyricist Fred Ebb such musical theater standards as "Cabaret" and "Chicago." Kander - whom Silberstein calls a mentor, "arts shaman ... and the performing arts' best role model" - encouraged the budding producers, whose reverence is reflected in their 2015 film "First You Dream: The Music of Kander & Ebb."

The self-described arts advocates established their company here in part because of the region's thriving arts scene.

While Chicago is competitive, "it's also cooperative and collaborative," said Silberstein.

HMS strives to capture live performances in a way that reflects how they make audiences feel, said Hoffman.

"I think of (filmed versions) as less a capture and more of a response to the show," Silberstein adds. "The idea isn't to just have cameras in place so you don't miss anything, it's to have camera operators and a director who are interested in what's happening on stage."

Having pivoted successfully to digital platforms this past year, some arts organizations intend to maintain a presence online, according to Hoffman. To that end, some clients are considering hybrid seasons, which require more than equipment. They require "aesthetically sensitive" camera operators, he said.

Ultimately, Silberstein says, the success of any HMS project depends on teamwork, on trust and on being willing to "surrender to the best idea in the room."

In a word: collaboration.