By: Sydney Kane

Sentry Staff Reporter

No matter what version you see, Alice in Wonderland is always a weird and confusing yet captivating and meaningful story. When you add the “Cadby twist,” you see the same story but in a whole new light.

The theatre department has worked for weeks to present a fascinating and new view of this classic adventure. The show premiered on Thursday, March 6 and ran through Saturday March 8, but planning started months beforehand. The first half of the play is the story of the book “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and is mainly about Alice’s encounters with all the strange people and creatures that are around every turn. The second half is “Through the Looking Glass” and is entirely set on a giant chess board that spreads across and above the whole stage. During this, Alice moves across the board to be crowned queen and has to confront various people and obstacles.

Theatre arts teacher Carol Cadby explained that her interpretation of the story only differs slightly from the original. She added multiple Alices, including Jacqui Anders, Margaret Koskinen, Emma Hobday, Sarah Fahrenkrug, Elina Kent and Samantha Rollins, to emphasize her broken and complicated state, and added moments of darkness and various sound effects to intrigue the audience and move them through time. Also, Alice wakes up as a teenager instead of a kid so she can better find a way to deal with her adventures.

“[In the beginning,] I was most looking forward to creating the dream world,” Cadby said.

Senior Samantha Rollin explained that she really enjoyed being a part of the cast, and she loved playing teenage Alice among other roles.

“I think everything turned out really well because when we started we were really confused about Cadby’s concepts, like usual, but it all came together, like usual,” she said.

Despite many difficulties, the theatre department pulled through. Rehearsal time was seriously cut due to snow days and a fire which occurred during one Saturday rehearsal. There were also problems with the props, but the cast and crew dealt with all the crises and managed to pull through almost flawlessly. Hours upon hours were dedicated to the show by all cast and crew, and it is an understatement to say that an enormous amount of thought and effort went into this production.

Co-stage manager and senior Evan Horowitz emphasized that much effort went into every aspect of the show.

“The actors, the tech, the directing, the original ideas, [everyone] worked really hard. I think it turned out fantastically. It was quite a show,” he said.

Second stage manager and sophomore Reiss Gidner explained that the whole cast and crew worked extremely hard to pull everything together.

“I think the play turned out really well. At the beginning it was very chaotic because Alice in Wonderland is a very chaotic show, but with a lot of work we were able to pull it together and make it make sense, so I was really excited for people to see it,” said Gidner.

For everyone who saw it or was part of it, they interpret it a little differently. Cadby thinks of it as “the illustration of a child’s dreams and the growing up of a child.” Rollin describes it as “changing chaos to reality and dreams.” Horowitz thought it could be described as “a little jarring and fast, but entertaining all the way.” Gidner said it was a “spectacle that is a little backwards and upside down, but definitely wonderful.” No matter how you put it, Alice in Wonderland is a timeless story, and no matter how you present it, it will almost always be great.

Although at times the audience was left a bit confused, anyone would fight that that is the point. Wonderland is a perplexing place, and Cadby did a wonderful job of portraying even the most confusing of concepts. Unsurprisingly, the show was just as amazing as it was hyped-up to be, if not even better.

Featured Image by Libby Boda