Wesleyan’s Players Shine in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

With a cast of 35 students, along with stage managers and production crew, Middle School theatre director at , Sara Mormon, had her hands full, and from talking to her I think she was pleased with the endeavor. 

Mormon was amazed and pleased that the students “ worked very well together. They worked seamlessly as a family.” she explained. it was a big family too, with a large committee of parents beginning to work on costumes as early as June. The results of their hard work were outstanding.

The costuming and make-up was flawless and warranted comparison to professional productions. It was easy to get a look at the intricacies of it all, in the small theatre in the round space where it was performed. 

The small theatre setting gave everyone a close look at his or her favorite actors as they performed and they all did a good job. As director Mormon commented, “Theatre in the round takes a lot of courage.”, since you’re very close to and surrounded by your audience. All 35 of the actors seemed up to the task. Special kudos to Will Parrish playing the Frog Footman and to the three queens, Ashley Godwin, Lauren Bell and Madison Parks.

Mormon was glad to be presenting this play, adapted by Tim Kelly from Lewis Carroll’s famous story, because it’s familiar to everyone. It also teaches a valuable life lesson to the students. Conformity to our sometimes crazy world is something that we’d often prefer to avoid, or at least know that we should. As Alice experiences so many oddities going on around her she finally realizes that she shouldn’t let them draw her in; just the lesson that Mormon stressed based on the Bible verse from the book of Romans 12:2, telling us not to conform to the world.

For some of the actors this will be their last year in the middle school drama program. Ali Stall who played Alice said, “I always wanted a main role and thought that 8th grade would be a good year for that. This has been a good experience because it helps me learn to manage my time between learning my lines, school and friends.” 

John Allen, an 8th grader playing the White Rabbit, was happy to be in this show. “I'm glad to be in this show because it's so crazy. It's great to watch my friends act like someone they don't get to be in school. There are lots of people that wish they could be in this play, and I'm grateful to be in it.”

Good job to one and all on an outstanding show.