Twenty-four junior high school drama students are embarking on an adventure to another land in a sequel to the beloved tale Alice in Wonderland.
Okotoks Junior High School’s spring production Alice Through the Looking Glass tells the story of Alice on yet another voyage with a new set of unusual characters.
Performances take place at the school March 29 at 7 p.m. and March 30 at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Charmaine Ferguson, drama teacher and co-director, said Alice Through the Looking Glass is a coming of age story that follows a young girl exploring a new world, set up much like a chess board.
“She moves from the pawn to the queen and meets different characters along the way that vary in personality,” said Ferguson. “None of them take Alice seriously and they treat her like a child, even though she is the most mature person in Looking Glass Land. She gets very frustrated with that.”
Ferguson not only selected the play because it’s a classic, but also due to its large cast.
“It’s a good chance for a lot of different kids to have their own character because there are so many different characters,” she said. “Everyone has at least a few lines.”
The students began rehearsing in October and were faced with the tough task of developing characters that are only on stage for five to 10 minutes, said Ferguson.
“I’ve seen them take very small characters and give them a full personality,” she said.
Among them is Alex Corry, a Grade 9 student who plays the land’s ruler – the Red Queen.
“She thinks she knows everything,” Corry said of her character. “Everyone is afraid of her.”
Corry developed the queen with help from an assignment given to all actors – creating a character profile that describes their life outside of the play.
Corry created a character with few similarities to herself.
“My personality is not like that at all,” she said. “I had to make myself louder.”
Grade 7 student Eden Hick was cast as Tweedledum – Tweedledee’s counterpart.
Hick describes her character as loud, goofy and immature, adding she used her eight-year-old sister as inspiration.
“I had to learn to be more exaggerated,” she said. “It made me a lot louder in class.”
Garyn Zerk’s character, Humpty Dumpty, is quite the opposite.
Sitting atop his wall, Dumpty is a stuck-up know-it-all who is also condescending.
Zerk said Humpty Dumpty is quite different from last year’s role, where he played an elderly man in a wheelchair.
Zerk said he had volunteered to play the elderly man while working for the play’s crew when an actor dropped out last minute.
Returning to the cast this year was an easy decision for Zerk in his last year of junior high.
“Everyone was saying, ‘You did a really good job last year, you have to come back,’” he said. “I practice a lot at home. I’m learning to articulate. I’m from Wales so we really speak a lot faster than anyone else.”
Tickets to see Alice Through the Looking Glass cost $10 for adults, $5 for children and $25 for families.
They can be purchased at the office at Okotoks Junior High School during school hours or at the door.
Dessert will be available for purchase during intermission.
