Wonderland

From the Alice in Wonderland, Jr. playbill:

One of the few things that rivals my passion for the performing arts is my lifelong love of literature.  Although I will read just about anything, I have always been particularly drawn to books in the fantasy genre, losing myself for hours or days in the worlds created in an author's imagination.  As the conflicts reach their carefully designed resolutions, I can't help but feel a sense of loss.  Not one to reread books, I may  never meet those particular characters again.

Photo credit: Deanne Jones

That sense of loss becomes more acute when I consider the fantasylands created in the imagination of children.  One of my favorites is the fantasyland created by my middle child.  We lovingly call it "Alexland," an amazing place where leftover crumbs are brown sugar bugs.  "Alexland," we recently learned, is reached through a portal conveniently located in the sun.  Unlike the fantasy novels I love, "Alexland" and its innumerable counterparts have not been immortalized on paper, and each day that passes increases the likelihood that they will disappear forever.

Photo credit: Deanne Jones

With this innate passion for imagination, I approached Alice in Wonderland, Jr. as a chance to explore Lewis Carroll's original playground, looking for creative new ways to immortalize his already iconic characters.  In the original book, Carroll writes, "Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."  It is my desire that as you watch the scenes unfold before you that you'll be able to mentally return to that imagination of youth, the free spirit and whimsy that make the unbelievable become the reality and make Wonderland such an exciting place to discover.

Poet Oscar Wilde wrote, "I can believe anything provided it's incredible."  Well, I think incredible is 72 kids learning an entire show in three weeks.  Incredible is costuming each of those kids in 14 days.  Incredible is family members who are willing to come vacuum the rehearsal space at the end of a long day, just to help make the EYT program a success. So if it has been awhile since you exercised your imagination, get ready to believe in Wonderland, because EYT is nothing short of incredible! 

Andrea K. Fife
Director

And in case you don't get out to see the show, at least take the quiz: (it turns out it's a lot harder to write a vocabulary quiz than I would have expected).

Oh, and I have a spare comp ticket that I'd like to share with somebody dedicated enough to still be reading this post.  If you're interested in coming to see Alice in Wonderland, Jr. at the Empress and would benefit from a free ticket, comment with either:

• A description of your own childhood Wonderland  -- or --
• A vocab word that you missed

I will do a random drawing from the comments for the comp ticket (sorry EYT kids and families, I want to give this to an outsider).  Thanks for the support!!