Youth series to perform 'ALiCE'

Performances Performances will take place at Shenandoah University's Glaize Studio Theatre on Oct. 23 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.; Oct. 24 at 3 p.m.; Oct. 30 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.; and Oct. 31 at 3 p.m. Ticket prices are $10 for adults, students and children and $9 for seniors. Group discounts are available for groups of 20 or more. Contact the box office at 665-4569 or visit www.ConservatoryPerforms.org for more information or to buy tickets. Recommend This Print This Get E-mail News Alerts Buy Photos/Page Reprints * Breaking News If local news is breaking and you know about it: * Call Us: 800-296-5137 * E-mail Us * Upload Your Photos

Conservatory's production suitable for children, adults

By Alex Bridges-abridges@nvdaily.com

WINCHESTER -- What lies beyond the rabbit hole in "Wonderland"?
Go ask Alice.

The Youth Performance series of Shenandoah Conservatory Performances opens its season this month with "ALiCE," written by Jerome McDonough. The play adapts Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass."

Suitable for all ages, "ALiCE" takes the audience through "Wonderland" where they meet familiar characters such as the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts, the Cheshire Cat, the March Hare, the caterpillar and others.

"We follow that journey as she started, then as she came back and ended up with some of the characters," said Wade Fransen, the play's director and faculty member of the conservatory. "So a lot of the more known characters are in the play."

The major theme of identity runs throughout "ALiCE," according to Fransen, as Alice tries to find out about herself, just as characters question her.

"Sometimes it's kind of helpful to keep in mind as you're watching this kind of play, it's very dreamlike, and a lot of things don't seem to make sense as it goes from one thing to the next, but that's because we're looking through Alice's eyes, and she does not understand some of the things that are happening," Fransen said. "To the characters, they do understand. They have their own rules and own world."

The first of Carroll's two stories portrays Alice as unsure of her surroundings and the characters she meets. In the second, Alice appears more assertive and realizes the world has rules she must follow, Fransen explained.

"In the play it is a fairly quick transition because it is not a very long play," he said. "As far as a theater-for-youth production, it is kinda fun to see some of those characters we do like."

The ensemble cast of 15 actors keeps the action going, Fransen said.

"I guess, style-wise, what we're doing is we use an ensemble on the stage that move a lot of the things around and change characters, play a lot of different characters, so that it moves really quickly," he said.

Alice's stories have been made into movies for TV and the big screen, most recently Tim Burton's theatrical version which focused more on her return to Wonderland.

Fransen noted some movies combine elements from both stories, adding that each has memorable characters. But Fransen and others who put on stage productions of the play avoid comparing it with film versions.

"Again it's such a different animal, coming from a play to a movie, there's so much they can do visually," Fransen said. "Ours is much more in imagination, the characters that are created, with the actors themselves and you kind of have to do it all right there."

Fransen said "ALiCE" likely would appeal to children in middle grades of elementary school and younger but also could find an audience with adults.

"The college kids like it, too," Fransen said. "It has the very recognizable characters people remember. ... The overall theme is still dealing with who you are, which is the repeated question throughout the novels and in the story as people ask her who she is."