MET series puts a new twist on classic Alice in Wonderland
Release Date: 3/4/2008. Expired: 5/23/2008
The White Rabbit raps, flowers dance the Can Can and the Queen of Hearts wants everybody’s head in a world that gets “curiouser and curiouser,” as Alice says in the Mind Enriching Theatre series production of Alice in Wonderland now showing at The Renaissance Center.
The MET series presents the Prince Street Players’ version of Alice in Wonderland for field trips Tuesdays through Fridays until May 23. The play of rhyme and prose is written by Jim Eiler and based on the novels The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll, the pseudonym of Charles Dodgson (1832-98), an English mathematician, ordained deacon and pioneering portrait photographer.
Carroll’s unflappable young heroine takes a tumble down an enchanted rabbit hole to an off-kilter world of mock turtles, dancing flora, punctual rabbits and mad tea parties, where playing cards hold court and nothing is as it seems. Whimsy and wordplay are the order of the day in this imaginative adaptation of a favorite of generations of children, adults and psychoanalysts.
Directed by Amy Scott, assistant artistic director at The Renaissance Center, the MET series production of Alice in Wonderland puts an energetic spin on the traditional story that has been told time and again through animated and live action movies.
Alice (Holland Taylor) follows a rapping White Rabbit (Rory Dunn) -- complete with a large alarm clock around his neck, a la Flavor Flav – down an enchanted hole represented by a chorus of stomping dancers.
She encounters a strange world of magical characters including the grinning Cheshire Cat (Tawny Frey), the Mad Hatter (Bret Churchill), the Caterpillar (B.J. Rowell), the March Hare (Erin Dickerson), the Dormouse (Catherine Hammer), the Walrus (B.J. Rowell) and the Carpenter (Matt Romine), the Mock Turtle (Bret Churchill), twins Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum (Tawny Frey and Emma Jordan, respectively) and others before a dramatic confrontation over a game of croquet with the Queen of Hearts (Tracy Nichols).
The cast also includes Rachel Gunn, Tory Gunn and Zane Jordan. Musical direction is by Nathan W. Brown and the choreographer is Bryan J. Wlas.
The MET series production of Alice in Wonderland also comes with a study guide that includes activities for the classroom before and after seeing the production. The study guide is available for download on The Renaissance Center’s Web site at www.rcenter.org.
Alice in Wonderland is $4 per student and can be scheduled Tuesdays-Fridays through May 23 for school groups of 25 or more. Groups smaller than 25 students can join an already scheduled performance. The general public can purchase tickets to any scheduled performance for $4 as long as space is available.
To schedule a field trip for a performance of Alice in Wonderland, contact Laura Jackson at (615) 740-5533, (888) 700-2300 or laura.jackson@rcenter.org. To purchase tickets for a scheduled performance, call (615) 740-5601.
The Renaissance Center is a fine arts education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.
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