A look a PRHS’s take on Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland
If you’re expecting an original, cryptic take on the play Alice in Wonderland, you’re in for a unique ride down Drama Teacher Marcy Goodnow’s rabbit hole. We have all seen or heard of Alice In Wonderland, but Goodnow’s entrancing take will likely surprise her audience.
The play will take place on December 5, 6, 12, and 13 at 7:30 p.m. and December 7, and 14 at 2:00 p.m. The production will be inside the Performing Arts Center (PAC). Tickets cost $12.00 for adults and $10.00 for students, children, and seniors.
After reading five different versions, Goodnow originated the perfect story according to the director. “I want my audience to look at someone and ask, who are they supposed to be.”
The story of one girl’s eccentric, time-escaping voyage through worlds began as a mild concept formed in novelist Lewis Carroll’s mind over one and a half centuries ago back in 1862. Eighty-Nine years pass before Disney drops the first of several Alice in Wonderland movies to follow. Tim Burton takes a swing when he produces the CGI-intoxicated suspense film in 2010. Goodnow and her team will be cutting their own path as they prepare for this Fall’s play.
As one can only assume there will be many more versions of Alice in Wonderland to come.Tim Burton is currently collaborating with director James Bobin to release the sequel “Alice Through The Looking Glass,” set to premiere on May 27, 2016.
With PRHS Drama’s long-running talent and creativity, Goodnow declared the play is fun and entertaining. “I want them to come in thinking they know what they’re going to get and leaving like wow what was that? That was cool!” she said.
Goodnow’s cast alternate between wacky teens and astonishing actors and actresses on stage, which proves just how gifted they are, she said. “My favorite part is when these wacky drama kids become the talented drama kids.”
The actors who make up the cast of the fall play have dedicated hundreds of hours of time, effort, and hidden emotion to portray the play in a way that is sure to please viewers.
According to Goodnow, the play is not set on a real time or location, adding a timelessness to the play. “I want them to think that it can take place in any time and anyplace.
“Goodnow does not repeat a play she has done in the past. As of now, drama students practice three to four hours of rehearsing a day,” according to Junior Graham Farrell.
Farrell, a drama student playing the part of the comical Tweedledum, stated that the play will be an amazing time. ” Tweedledum and Tweedledee won’t be your basic bow tied, chubby, yellow and red suited Disney version, but instead tall, skinny and enchantingly costumed. We’re trying to have a different spin. They’re just really funny characters,” Farrell stated.
Before this show was even thought of, young adults have been facing problems including confused sexuality, feeling lost or alone, feeling misunderstood, and more. This December, student actors will portray and address these issues.
The main character Alice, played by senior Isabella Marziello, portrays teens everywhere. They play taps into her feelings about being lost and her search through Wonderland for identity and relationships she can trust. Alice, as most teens, enjoys a guiding figure or coach in the Cheshire Cat.
The teen reality of gender identity is also dramatized in the play, portrayed in the possibly transgendered Tweedledee and Tweedledum and senior Alex Bigelow’s Dormouse.
Bigelow has been participating in drama for four years and plans to make a career out of acting. She first realized her love for acting five years ago when she saw the 2011 musical, Seussical.
“It’s always kind of been on the back of my mind,” said Bigelow.
Since then, she’s been in four plays and was on costume crew for the fifth. In the upcoming fall play, Alice In Wonderland, Bigelow will both act and work as a member of the costume crew. In addition to being a comical crowd-pleaser, Bigelow’s mousy character may be Androgyne, assigning no gender to the role.
“I think acting is a really good way to express yourself, because if you have emotions that you don’t necessarily want to show, you can show them through your character,” Julia Schulte said. She plays the neck-threatening Queen of Hearts, perhaps the most forceful performance in the cast.
The production that will likely change many audience members views of the world.
Writer Yeymi Bonilla is a freshmen Journalism student.
J1 students Morgan Rego, Natalya Bodgan, Aiden Kerr, and Ayleen Campoverde contributed to this story.
