Gloucester Alumni

By Douglas A. Moser , Staff writer
Gloucester Daily Times

The Gloucester High School drama club is warming up for its fall production, set to open tomorrow at 7 p.m. and run through the weekend.

Club members chose "Alice in Wonderland," Lewis Carroll's tale of a 7-year-old girl who leaves home to find herself in a strange land with stranger people.

Though many people are familiar with the tale through the animated Disney movie, released in 1951, some may be unfamiliar with Carroll's original book, "Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass."

Actors in the drama club, which is around 50 students, and the directors said the play is a little more mature than the Disney version, which made the story more cheerful.

"It was made to feel that Alice was having fun, like it's a dream," said sophomore Lucy Morgan, who plays Alice. "But I think it's a lot more overwhelming for her, and I think she gets scared. That doesn't come through in the movie."

One example, she said, is the Cheshire Cat, played by senior Jaret Sears. In the Disney version, he seems to be Alice's friend, toying with her, but guiding her through Wonderland. In the play, though, the cat teases and mocks Alice, following her around and misdirecting her.

Willie Norris, a junior, said the group first got together and brainstormed about the characters, how they interacted and how they related to Alice's life. The cast and crew took a 10-foot long sheet of paper and drew a dotted-line path of Alice as she wound her way through the play and added descriptions of the scene, feelings Alice would be having and the reason for the strange creatures she met.

"The characters in the show are very crazy and watching the students get better and better at being the character is interesting," said Felicia Grossi, a senior who is co-directing the play with fellow senior Lia Parisi. "But it's also watching them realize that the characters aren't just crazy, but meaningful to Alice and to life in general."

Both directors, chosen by a council of nine club members, said the actors have taken some of the characters in unexpected directions. Tweedledee and Tweedledum, brothers in Carroll's story, are a couple, with Tweedledum played by freshman Terri Moody.

Norris plays the Mock Turtle, who does not appear in the Disney movie, and he took some liberties creating a personality for the character.

"I came up with this bi-polar character because he bursts out crying in one scene and he sings a really cheerful song in another," Norris said.

Zach Hoffman added a twist to Humpty Dumpty based on how the junior viewed the character throughout his life.

"I always had the idea that Humpty Dumpty was drunk when I was a kid because I thought it was odd he was just on a wall and fell off," said Hoffman, who also plays the Mad Hatter and is the music director. "In the script he mumbles a lot and says a lot of really weird things."

Maura Webber, a junior who is one of the artistic directors who worked on the set and props, said creating flat props that would stand on their own and look relatively three dimensional was difficult, but they figured out how to create a fantasy land on a high school stage.

"We're using florescent lights to put the Cheshire Cat's smile on its tree," she said. The cat will not be in a tree, but he does lay on the mantle.

The two directors and Morgan said taking on the project was a large amount of responsibility, but they are a little surprised at what they learned.

"I've been in all aspects of a play except the director," Grossi said. "I learned the most about acting being a director because you have to explain acting to actors in other ways, and it makes you think differently about it."

And despite the different emotions, when compared to the cartoon movie, Parisi said she hopes it makes people laugh.

"It's actually a really funny show with a lot of word play," she said. "With the cartoon, people aren't thinking British humor, but that's what it is."

The club will perform the show tomorrow and Saturday at 7 p.m. in the high school auditorium Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children. The proceeds will go toward the spring musical production.

A Sunday matinee at 3 p.m. is admission by donation only.