KAINALIU — Aloha Theatre has put its own spin on the classic story of Alice in Wonderland.
Premiering this weekend, “Wonderland” is a new play written by Susie Burke for Aloha Theatre that stars the theater’s talented group of youth actors.
“It has elements of both the Alice books, ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ and ‘Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There,’ and Susie’s put it together in a unique way,” director Jerry Tracy said. “She has taken Alice’s desire to be a queen and made her play a journey story of Alice becoming a queen and then unbecoming a queen.”
Burke has written several plays for Aloha Theatre, including Shakespeare adaptions such as “A Kidsummer Night’s Dream,” which premiered in 2016.
“And about 10 years ago, my sister on the mainland, Denise, she sent me as a gift ‘The Complete Works of Lewis Carroll,’ and it’s one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever seen,” Tracy said. “It got me reinvigorated about how silly and wonderful Lewis Carroll is, and I shared that with Susie and we cooked up the plan for her to write a new adaptation.”
Similar to “A Kidsummer Night’s Dream” from two years ago, this Aloha Theatre production features a cast of children and teens. Tracy called the previous children’s adaption “a learning experience,” which caused him to be more selective in the audition process and to cast people of all ages, including adults.
John Holliday, a producer and sponsor of the play who also plays the role of the Duchess, said the most difficult part of working on a play with children is how much energy his castmates have in rehearsals.
“It’s exhausting. They have so much energy … I get tired just watching them,” Holliday said. “But they’re so wonderful. They learn their lines almost immediately. Lotus, who is playing the part of Alice, knows my lines. And I’m not kidding, I bet she knows pretty much everyone’s lines. But they all know their lines so well. Rarely do they mess up.”
Eleven-year-old Lotus Buss plays the main role of Alice. Buss said the most difficult part of being the lead for “Wonderland” is having to be in every scene of the play and never leaving the stage.
“I like that in this play, Alice is trying to find herself. Where’s she stuck in this world where she thinks she can’t go back,” Buss said. “And she’s confused and she’s mad at everyone, but she’s also happy. It’s just her adventure on trying to understand these things and trying to find herself.”
“I’m excited for my friends to come see it, and everyone just to enjoy the play and have a little laugh,” Buss said.
With a younger cast, “Wonderland” is a more lighthearted version of Alice than its recent big screen adaptions.
“Jerry had a pretty good idea that he wanted it to be very light, fun, colorful and bright, completely opposite from the Alice movie with Johnny Depp,” Holliday said. “There’s none of the darkness at all. It’s all fun. He has a lot of sight gags, sounds, lots of drumrolls when there is a joke and the music is pretty funny, so it’s pretty light.”
The set, designed by Gerald Lucena and built originally for “Beauty and the Beast” earlier this year, plays off the script with colorful paper flowers and trees made by Lucena and the cast to bring the world of “Wonderland” to life. The children were also able to have a hand in making their costumes with costume designer Carol Conner.
“They are all very familiar characters,” Conner said. “Being able to take some liberties as a costumer so that they’re not literal, but that you bring your own creativity to it and bring your own touch, that’s always a challenge.”
It’s that familiarity that Tracy hopes brings an audience in to see the new play.
“That helps us with this one, that people know about Alice. But it’s always a challenge to direct a play that no one has heard of. We just did that with our last production, ‘Pruning the Family Tree.’ It was an uphill battle to promote it because people hadn’t heard of it. But, the payoff in directing a new play or an original play is that there is no preconceived ideas of how it should be, so you get to create your own ideas.
“And for a play that’s been done a million times, but people still love, there’s a lot of templates to look at, watch and refer to, so many in fact, that it becomes a challenge to try to not follow them and be your own muse and interpret the piece.”
Tracy called the overall process of bringing “Wonderland” to the stage “a completely positive experience.”
“I think starting off with a dear friend creating a project, and attracting first a crew that is really into it, and then attracting a cast that is full of positive energy, it’s been a perfect storm of good vibrations,” Tracy said. “It’s probably the most positive theatrical experience I’ve had in years, if not ever.”
“Wonderland” premieres this weekend at Aloha Theatre and runs through July 1. Friday and Saturday shows begin at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday shows begin at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $5-$15. For more information, visit apachawaii.org or call 322-9924.