'Alice in Wonderland' opens Wednesday
Cheryl Schweizer/Columbia Basin Herald Alice (Karlye Shank, left) is stuck at the worst tea party ever, thanks to the Mad Hatter (Kamden Kuykendall, center) and the Dormouse (Amanda Miller. The Moses Lake High School production of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ opens Wednesday.
Cheryl Schweizer/Columbia Basin Herald The March Hare (Lawrence Thompson, left) an the Dormouse (Amanda Miller) listen attentively during the trial of the Knave of Hearts. The Moses Lake High School production of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ opens Wednesday.
Cheryl Schweizer/Columbia Basin Herald The Queen of Hearts (Rachel Law) gets ready to play through during the croquet game in the Moses Lake High School production of ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ opening Wednesday. The knave of hearts (Chris Marroquin) may lose his head.
MOSES LAKE — The tale of the adventures of a girl in wonderland opens at the Moses Lake High School theater Wednesday. The MLHS production of “Alice in Wonderland” will run Wednesday through Saturday starting at 7 p.m. each night.
The play actually combines the story of “Alice in Wonderland and “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” said director Stevena House. Alice (Karlye Shank in the MLHS production) follows a talking White Rabbit (Olivia Marsh) and ends up falling into a surreal, magical kingdom populated by surreal creatures. She’s invited to tea by a crazy hat maker (Kamden Kuykendall), an equally crazy March Hare (Lawrence Thompson) and a very sleepy Dormouse (Amanda Miller).
Alice runs into a pack of live playing cards, with a very mean queen (Rachel Law), and walks through a mirror to meet a pair of surreal twins named Tweedledum and Tweedledee (Zachary Zeller and Wilem Kersey) as well as a white knight (Trevor Fuller), among other creatures.
With all the fantasy characters, the stage crew – which consisted mostly of students – faced a big task, House said. “It’s a very technical-intensive play. There’s a lot of stage magic that needs to happen.”
And they came through, under the direction of technical director D. Jay Kendall. “It’s completely student-run this time,” Kendall said. Parent volunteers built the elaborate rotating set, but the students did most of the painting, and they have done almost all the work on the costumes, props and lighting, Kendall said. “He tells the kids what they need to do and the kids figure it out,” House said.
The cast features some brand-new actors, including the understudy for the role of Alice, Virginia Kincaid, who’s a freshman. There are also some kids who are longtime drama club members, but whose role in the production has been behind the scenes. “They were always behind the curtain, and now they’re stepping out from behind the curtain,” House said.
Drama club advisor Sabrina Haesche is the assistant director.
Tickets are $10 general admission, $8 for senior citizens and children younger than age 6. High school students pay $8 with an ASB card. Tickets are available online at the On The Stage website; www.our.show/mlhsalice will take the user to the main page for the production.
Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.