Actors use the set and props to bring the magic of Wonderland to life onstage. photo by Lacey Arritola
After months of preparation, actors and stage hands unite together to turn TJ’s fall production into something truly spectacular.
After the theatrical success of the 2022-23 school year – including the musical Little Shop of Horrors and the play Twelfth Night by Willam Shakespeare – the TJ Theatre cast and crew is back, this time with the 1921 version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The tale follows a young girl named Alice as she falls asleep and drifts into a dream where she explores the sublime, strange imaginations generated by her mind. Her curiosities have her embark on a peculiar adventure through the wonderland. She meets several unique characters during her wacky adventure, such as the Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts. Because this play was published in 1921, it is currently in the public domain, and creative liberties were taken in the TJ version of the script in order to help with its flow, while still keeping true to the source material. “Alice in Wonderland is a unique story. Not most stories work this way, where only one person is the center and then everybody comes in for their one big moment,” commented Andre Moss, the theatre instructor and director.
There is a lot of work that goes into the preparation in order for the performance to be the absolute best it can be. Whether it’s actors playing fun and interesting characters or crew members setting up light cues and spotlights, building the set, or preparing costumes, everyone has their part to play. The lead role of Alice has been granted to sophomore Evie Lillyblad. “I spend most of my nights with my mom saying the line before mine, so this way I’m able to make sure I have [my lines] memorized.” Of course memorization is a huge part of preparation for actors, but, as she explains later, it’s also important to be able to rely on your fellow actors during rehearsals. Lillyblad noticed, “We can say ‘What’s my line again?’ and just laugh about it.” Fellow actress and senior Magnolia Craig, who will be playing Tweeddledee, agrees: “a big part of prepping for it is just getting used to working with other actors and the crew. It’s not just the actors and a lot of people have that misconception. Nobody really thinks of the people behind the curtains.”
The costume and makeup division is a relatively small department compared to set building, for example. In order to get costumes ready for the actors, they have to make a list with all the actors and the costumes that they need. Once the list is finished, the department combs through the already existing costume closet at TJ. If there isn’t a costume that is suitable, they send a request to the DPS costume depot. If DPS doesn’t have a costume that is suitable, then it’s on students to create a costume from scratch. “I made Alice’s dress. It took 20 hours of straight sewing, and a week of prep,” explains senior Haven Coleman, the director of the costume and makeup department. In addition to the costumes, there will also be makeup and face paint heavily involved this year. Since most of the play takes place in Wonderland, this gives the crew the creative opportunity to go crazy with the face paint. Each show will feature a different version of the Mad Hatter’s makeup – which will also be done by Coleman – inspired by the designs of a standard deck of cards. Speaking of cards, the set features a large stylistic painting of the ‘Queen of Hearts’ playing card. It was painted by sophomore Celeste Escobar, who is also the director of painting the props and set.
Lights are another crucial piece of the play production puzzle. The job consists of looking over the script and identifying specific points in the story where the lighting might need a change. This can include scene or tone shifts as well as character entrances and exits. Only then can the testing of possible lighting changes and color alterations begin. “For one scene we go around 50 variations of lighting and colors before we decide on the cues [and lighting] that we are happy with.” explains senior Lacey Arritola. After finding the best combination, Arritola and programmer senior Sam McPherson start the process of programming it into the lightboard. Throughout the entire process there will be minor adjustments made in order to ensure that the lighting is the best it can be.
The entire process behind building the set, however, starts from the blueprint. The stage manager and senior Mattie Brightwell has ensured that this set creation is a collaborative effort with everyone in the crew, from set builders, to painters, to prop makers. “In past productions, we were just given plans and told to go build whatever was on the paper. Nobody really knew what went into planning a set or how to do it. I didn’t want to leave everyone in the dust for next year when they had to plan something out.” This year, Brightwell made sure to sit down with the entire crew and get everyone on the same page. Set building is a very time consuming process: not only do the builders need to measure the parts precisely, they need to make sure that everything is able to fit on stage and that things are to scale and proportion.
TJ Theatre will present Alice in Wonderland on November 9th, 10th, and 11th in the auditorium, and they hope to make it their best production yet. “It will be a truly immersive experience,” Moss declares. “I’m excited for the audience to see everyone’s hard work.”
