The long awaited “Alice in Wonderland” play, staged on Oct. 30-Nov. 1, invited students, teachers, and parents to a whimsical adventure to Wonderland. For an hour, the audience accompanied Alice struggles to save the lives of her friends and herself from the Queen of Hearts.
The adapted version of “Alice in Wonderland” that SIS performed started with Alice falling into a video game that she was playing. Throughout the play, she struggles to find and retrieve the queen’s sugar tart before the short tempered queen sentences everyone to death. The Queen of Heart’s iconic line of “off with its head,” added a comic element to the play.
Directed by Iain Cowieson, SIS drama teacher, students paved their way to success. Alice was double casted by Hannah Park (10) and Haven Cha (11), each playing the role during the former and the latter acts respectively. The main conflict of the play starts with the panic of the White Rabbit, played by Sarah Kim (11), after the Queen of Hearts’s handmade sugar tart get stolen. She asks Alice to search for the sugar tart to avoid the anger of the queen.
Alice first visits the Duchess, played by Minseo Kim (12), to ask for the whereabouts of sugar tarts. Unfortunately, the Duchess is also unaware of where the sugar tart went. This was the same for the Mad Hatter, played by Jason Shin (12). Characters that Alice meets seem to be unaware of the missing sugar tart.
In the end, every character gathers at the court for the queen’s missing sugar tart. After the queen interrogates each character, it is revealed that none of the suspects were guilty. In turn, the Knave of Hearts, played by Chloe Kim (9), confesses that she was the one who stole and ate the tart, with the Knave of Hearts stomach ache becoming the evidence of her stealing them.
The Queen of Hearts, furious about the situation, ordered the death of the Knave of Hearts. Amidst this threat, Alice screams “you guys are all just pixels,” which makes the other characters panic and question their existence. The next moment, Alice was back in her room and the only proof of her adventure in Wonderland was the queen’s sugar tart in her pocket.
“The ending scene of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ is my personal favorite and I think it would be the same for many,” Minseo said. “The very ending when all the characters start to say ‘Pixels? Are you a pixel?’ adds to the humor and irony.”
Despite the successful outcome of the play, the cast recalled some risky but comical moments behind the scenes: for instance, on the first day of the performance, Sarah Kim (11) had a malfunctioning microphone, almost leading to a mistake on stage.
“There were funny moments where I couldn’t fully change during the play and my microphone dropped,” Hannah said. “Yet, by playing Alice, I not only improved my acting skills but also worked on teamworks and performed the play with numerous other people.”
As much as the cast enjoyed preparing for the performance, the audience also was awed by the well coordinated play. At the end of the show, family and friends of the cast gathered on the stage to congratulate them for a successful performance. The heartwarming scene showed the wholesome atmosphere amongst this year’s cast.
There also were new elements such as the incorporation of high school clubs: SIS media club were in charge of creating all the design and backgrounds of “Alice in Wonderland.”
“The use of Media Club, who did all the digital design aspects, was very new this year,” Mr. Cowieson said. “I was very pleased about those [digital designs] but also the hard work of the cast which made the play so much better.”
The high school production started with new challenges for the cast and the backstage staff who strived to create a perfect show. The successful performance of this year’s “Alice in Wonderland” left many audience members with joy and excitement for next year.
