Arts & Entertainment
Through the Looking Glass: Elkridge Students Perform Alice in Wonderland
Three students from Elkridge will be taking to the stage in Catonsville over the next two weekends to perform the classic tale from Lewis Carroll.
This weekend, three students from Elkridge schools will take a turn for the whimsical as performers in , produced by the Catonsville Dinner Theater and Catonsville Youth Theater.
Ben Pittman, an eighth grader at , will portray the Mad Hatter. He has been in 12 productions, including seven with the Catonsville Youth Theater. In the fall, he plans to attend the in Towson.
Kelley Harris, a fourth grader at , is playing Dodo, one of the birds in the play. While this is her first experience with the Catonsville youth troupe, she's no stranger to the stage; in 2009 Harris participated in the Junior Pre-Teen Miss Baltimore Pageant.
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Brooke McDonnell, a second grader at , will grace the stage as the Five of Hearts. “It's a lot of fun," McDonnell said. This is her first production—she's been busy cheerleading up a storm for the Elkridge Hurricanes.
"I'm happy I'm in it and learning a lot about being in a play,” McDonnell said.
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In all, the production has a strong cast of children and teens, said director Chuck Dick. Alice is played by Gigi Shelton, a home-schooled fourth grader whose repertoire includes 16 plays.
The entire cast has worked tirelessly to get the show ready for opening night on April 2, said Dick, who comes to Alice in Wonderland after many years acting, directing and teaching theater. He attended and taught at the University of Maryland and received a masters of fine arts degree from Catholic University.
“I love what I do," he said. "The skills are valuable, and [theater] shows a civilization's motivations and aspirations mirrored on the stage. I love teaching it, especially to kids, because they develop confidence at all levels.”
Although Alice in Wonderland is a classic tale that almost everyone knows, Dick said it can still be instructive. The show promises to be cute and true to the text, he added.
Tickets to will be available at the door for $10. The show will run two weekends, April 2 and 3 and April 8, 9 and 10. Friday and Saturday shows begin at 7 p.m. and Sunday shows start at 3 p.m.