Alice’s adventures: ‘Wonderland’ production brings big changes to CKMS

Published 8:48 am Tuesday, May 29, 2012

In show business, there are always disappointments, but those small tragedies sometimes work out for the best, as they did for Mackenzie Smith.

The sixth grader at Chief Kanim Middle School was nervous about trying out for the school’s spring show, so she set her sights on a small role.

“I actually auditioned to be Tweedle Dum, with my friend, or the White Rabbit,” she said.

Instead, the poised yet chatty newcomer struck director Justin Johanson as more Alice-like than her two choices, and after a round of call-backs, she was named to the title role. (Her friend was cast as a flower.)

Johanson, a CKMS graduate himself, said he tried to match students’ personalities with their parts, “so they don’t have the challenge of having to act so unlike themselves…. In a way, I typecasted them, but they pretty much cast themselves.”

First, though, Johanson decided to break some long-held traditions with this show. It’s not a Disney production, nor is it a musical, something that was a big surprise to many of the parents involved with the annual production.

“I don’t think they’ve ever not done a musical,” Johanson said, and he admitted that the idea took some getting used to. However, his own experience as an actor and producer was entirely in “straight shows,” he said. Some of his changes, from his whimsical source material to the free acting classes he’s been offering every Friday after rehearsal, have helped ease the loss of the musical.

“They’re getting a lot of training,” he said. “I’m really trying to give them as much direction as I can.”

His cast of 50-some students will need that training, too, because everyone who auditioned got a part in the show.

His brother, Ben, who is co-directing the show with him, added “We wanted everyone to be, not just a background character. We made sure everyone had their own line.”

If the script didn’t include a line for a character, the brothers delved into the original books (Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass) to find an exact quote to add to the script.

Justin guesses that he’s the youngest director the show has ever had, and the first male, besides.

There might also be a “last” that comes out of this show. As producer Sarah Barnes watches, artist Dan Colvin works with two students to add touches of red to the black and white fantasy scene of gnarled trees, clever creatures and an impossible palace that he created for the show, on a backdrop that may never be used again.

“We’ll need to find a new backdrop after this,” she said. “I can’t paint over that!”

Colvin, a professional artist, is here on a volunteer basis, and as the proud father of Amber, a sixth-grader, who plays one of the flowers. He volunteered, he said, “Mainly because she was in the play. I wanted to work with her.”

As he and a team of six or seven students and his younger daughter Lily, worked to transfer his original design to a grid on the backdrop, Amber and her fellow flowers worked on their attitudes.

“The director is trying to get them to be mean, because there’s a scene where Alice gets accosted by these mean-girl flowers,” Colvin said, “but they don’t want to be mean… which is kind of sweet.”

Sweet, and true to the director’s vision for the show, which, he says, in the end is a showcase for the students.

“They really do have their own thumbprints and their own takes on every characters,” Johanson said. “The audience is coming to see them, not the characters.”

He tells his actors “the audience responds more when you bring yourself out… and with a play like this, you also have the element of character, all those goofy characters. You just have to find your own inner goofiness and bring that out.”

Alice in Wonderland runs Thursday, May 31, and Friday and Saturday, June 1 and 2. Show times are at 7 p.m. each day, with a 2 p.m. matinee on Saturday, as well. Tickets are $8 for evening shows, $5 for the matinee. Pre-order tickets by Tuesday, May 29. For more information, visit www.svsd410.org/schools/chiefkanim_ms/Alice_General_Public_Presales_Form.pdf, or contact Lori Hollasch, at lori@hollasch.net or (425) 880-4768.

Alice in Wonderland Cast List

Alice- Mackenzie Smith

White rabbit- Samantha Holmes

Mouse- Ashtyn Zelek

Mock Turtle- Riley Ovall

Lory- Chloe Cosgrove

Dodo- Clara Wallace

Hedgehog- Angel See

Squirrel #1- EmmaLee Hunt

Squirrel #2- Emma Williamson

Owl- Chayan Loreto

Ostrich- Sydney Huft

Bird- Anna Rule

Red Queen- Claire Olde Loohuis

Two of Spades- Mary Kate Crittenden

Five of Spades- Kyah Olson

Seven of Spades- Maddy Hiddell

Queen of Hearts- McKenna Esteb

Knave of Hearts- Quinn Geiseke

Card Soldiers – Samantha Dockery, Katelyn Hill, Celeste Rodriguez and Vanessa Vance

Caterpillar- Alex Salinas

Fish footman- Sydney Thompson

Frog footman- Sydney Hidell

Duchess- Sydney Klupar

Cook- Kendall Schmitt

Cheshire Cat- Hannah Granby

Tweedledee- Macy Baltasar

Tweedledum- Lexi Wetherbee

Mad Hatter- Bella Richter de Medeiros

March Hare- Kyle Haynie

Dormouse- Anna Gomersall

Roses- Brynne Hollasch, Jordan Coleman, Makena Brand and Taylor Hollenbeck

Daisies- Bianca Herres, Cherise Hoaglan, Amber Colvin and Elizabeth Everett

Hydrangeas- Kendra Gardner, Kara Klock and Aurora Baker

White Queen- Bella Erikson

Knight- Dixie Dittbrenner

Humpty Dumpty- Ella Rackers

King of Hearts- Hannah Curd

Lorena (sister #1)- Emma Mischke

Edith (sister #2)- McKenna Shaddox