Alice in Wonderland: Pacific Academy 2001

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Alice in Wonderland
Pacific Academy 2001
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The Vision
Wonderland as Playground
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Playground Bullying
Every character bullies Alice in some way
whether by acting superior (Caterpillar, Queen),
being unfair (Caucus Race, Tea Party), or
simply rebuking, teasing, or insulting Alice.
You dont know what youre talking about!
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The Characters
Each character was designedin terms of makeup,
hair, and costumeto give a only a vague
impression of what he or she was supposed to
represent, particularly in the case of animals.
There are no furry costumes or rabbit ears. Each
character was given an alter ego, a character
concept that went beyond the book. These
concepts generally corresponded to character
types found on the playground, or at least to
types children would be familiar with, perhaps
someone a child would aspire to become. The
costumes and makeup reflected these concepts on
top of the base animal (etc.) concepts taken from
the book.
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White RabbitThe Suck-Up
The White Rabbit was constructed as a teachers
pet persona. Hes dressed very smartly, and his
chief concern is pleasing the Queen of
Hearts. Notice how he gives an impression of
being a white rabbit only in the white makeup and
hair and the slight upsweep of the sides of the
hair.
Oh, my ears and whiskers! How late its
getting!
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Cheshire Cat The Magician
The Cheshire Cat is an aspiring magician. An
encounter between him and Alice bridges the gap
between each scene, and each time he tries to
impress Alice with a magic trickmost of the time
theyre terrible failures but, like a true cat,
the Cheshire Cat never ceases to be entirely
vain. His makeup gives him an unmistakable
catlike nose and perpetually grinning mouth.
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Birds of the Caucus Race

• Dodo Referee
• Lorry Movie Star
• Eaglet Farmers Daughter
• Blue Jay Superhero
• Duck Disco Duck
• Crow Pirate

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Dormouse The Cutie
With her bright pink hair, pink tutu, and red
rubber boots, the dormouse is that little girl
who everyone thinks is utterly adorable.
Whenever she squeaks something out in a crowd,
everyone choruses, Awwwww. And what makes her
a mouse? The freckles and long eyelashes painted
on her cheeks give the impression of whiskers.
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CaterpillarThe Beat Poet
The Caterpillar is a beatnik with a superiority
complex. Hes that kid who thinks hes smarter
than everyone and hogs the highest place in the
playground, arrogantly blowing bubbles (sorry, no
hookah). He intends to impress Alice with his
beat poetry performance, but only ends up
confusing and offending her. What makes him a
caterpillar? Somehow the green and purple
stripes seem to do it. You cant see it well,
but his hair is dyed bright green.
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Mad Hatter and March Hare The Sillies
You know those two girls who are so attached at
the hip that theyve formed their own world that
no one else can understand? They have endless
inside jokes, and even their own made-up games.
They always seem to understand one another, but
to everyone else theyre just bizarre. The Mad
Hatter and March Hare are painted with clownlike
makeup. The Hare sports big pigtails that could
stand in for ears, and the Hatter, of course,
wears her distinctive hat (and an extremely
tasteless and garish suit).
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The King and QueenThe Spoiled Children
The King and Queen of Hearts are selfish,
demanding, and constantly hurling infantile
insults at one another. The Queen sports a sassy
bustier, a queenly bustle, and a bright red
ribbon atop her head the King wears an Elvis wig
and star-shaped, rhinestone-studded sunglasses.
(In one scene hes spotted napping in red heart
pyjamas, cuddling with his stuffed white bunny)
Q Booger- Brain! K Nitwit! Q
Buffoon! K Prissy! Q Over-
Dresser! K Over- ACTOR!
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Added Characters

• Sometimes when youre casting a play, you end up
  with an actor you cant seem to find a place for,
  but that you know must be in there somewhere. In
  production, you might simply come up with an idea
  that will tie up certain loose ends, or add some
  depth. New characters emerge!
• Princess of Hearts
• Lemonade Girl
• Wild Card

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The Adaptation
The goal for this play was to provide a visually
stunning production littered with humour for
children and adults alike. The director wanted
NOTHING from Disney, although we used characters
from both Alice books that people would be most
familiar with (Humpty Dumpty Tweedle Dee/Dum
Flowers). Children loved the physical humour
(the Cheshire Cat tripping and falling Dee
Dums battle). Adults caught sly contemporary
references.
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Contemporary References

• Since Alice in Wonderland has many hidden and
  not-so-hidden contemporary cultural references,
  we replaced these with Canadian ones and added
  more besides.
• Louis Riel
• Jacques Cartier
• Jimmy Pattison The Province
• Bob Saye Sports Announcers

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De-Borification

• Lets not kid ourselvessome parts of Alice can
  get quite dull, particularly when youre not
  savvy to all its subtleties. How did we combat
  this?
• Poetry
• Music/Choreography
• Visuals (Slides)

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Self-Awareness/Self-Mockery

• One distinctive trait of our Alice production was
  that we refused to take ourselves seriously.
  Alice in Wonderland was an unusual nonsense
  bookthis was an unusual nonsense play.
• Audience Interaction
• Screw-Ups

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Simplifications Humour
There are certain events/aspects of Alice that
are problematic to portray onstage. We came up
with simple and often hilarious ways around these
problems.

• Dinah
• Rabbit Hole
• Jury
• Croquet Game

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QUESTIONS
Why is a raven like a writing desk?
Because Each begins with E.

• Do you think that the playground bullying concept
  is a fair interpretation of Alice in Wonderland,
  or is it too much of a stretch?
• You may have noticed that my character, Alice,
  didnt seem to show up much in my presentation.
  This was because, in my experience of playing
  her, I didnt really feel that Alice was an
  actual character. She was simply a generic
  child who reacted to everything around her. Does
  Alice read like this in the book?