Director's Note
Thank you all for joining us as Whitney High School presents Alice in Wonderland! We are all very excited to have you journey with us on this mysterious and bewildering journey. For the last two months, students have been preparing to delight you with all of the characters, places, and oddities that Wonderland has to offer. The show is in three acts, with the first two acts inspired by Lewis Carroll’s The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland, and the third inspired by portions of Carroll’s later sequel, Into the Looking Glass. The three acts have been adapted by Brainerd Duffield through Samual French, whose version you will experience today.
This cast is bursting at the seams with talent. They have been the most positively malleable as any I’ve directed; applying notes and turning my obsessively detailed criticism into brilliance. They have allowed the process to be one of the more enjoyable directing opportunities I have ever had. I have been especially thrilled to see how each cast member has accepted, albeit, reluctantly at times, the often contradictory and figurative nature of Carroll’s prose. In a world where the more you know the less anything makes sense, and where literal truth is often squashed by popular perception, Alice struggles, as we do, with her frustration to understand, survive, and adapt. This cast seemed to quickly understand all of those oddities of the show, and then found ways to modernize them, bring them to life, and make them their own.
I would like to thank my parents. They get weirder and cooler at the same time. Their limitless support seems to stretch further and further with each passing year. Thank you to a variety of teachers who have either directly contributed or supported us indirectly. Thank you to Mrs. Hanks for once again, organizing our elementary day show. Thank you to Luna and Forest for not caring at all about the show or my work, although Forest will give me some directing ideas at times and both are helpful with character movement and energy. Mostly, their ignorance and insanity keeps me sane. Thank you to my wife, Mallory, who is my number one consultant, supporter, photogapher, and technical guru. We are a team on everything we do, and the theatre program and the show are enabled by her helpful wisdom, sustenance, love, and support. Hope you all enjoy the show!
Special Thanks To...
- Mrs. Ansley
- Roisin LeRoy
- Trisha LeRoy Smith
- Katie Poplawski
- Mrs. Hanks
- Mr. Hunter
- Luna and Forest
- Parents and families of the cast and crew
- Kevin and Rich
- Online & Campus Technical Theatre
- Graphics III/IV and Jillian Lipinid
- Whitney High Custodial Crew
- Amazon
- Home Depot
- Alpha Graphics
- Party City
- Joann
