Rehearsal for the play “Alice in Wonderland: The Manhattan Project” begins with barefoot actors and actresses sweeping the stage. Others load their backpacks and tennis shoes on to seats in the theater, and prepare themselves for the two hour rehearsal.
“Three minutes to warm ups!” Ms. Kelsey Scott, one of Legacy’s theater teachers announces.
Brooms are put away and all cast members scurry to the stage as warm ups begin. Today they start with tongue twisters and stretches.
“Over articulate your tongue twisters,” theater teacher, Mr. Jeremy Ferman yelled. “Saying things really quickly isn’t warming up.”
The cast sat on the stage doing various types of stretches to limber up or walked and danced around the stage, all the while reciting tongue twisters. Junior Tony Timberman stalked around the stage vigorously repeating “Irish wrist watch, Irish wrist watch.”
When warm ups were completed, the cast took a seat on the stage around Ms. Scott who sat in a rolling chair while Mr. Ferman stood beside her. Ms. Scott addressed some housekeeping issues first, then offered words of encouragement, before telling them to take their place for the opening scene.
During this second rehearsal, they practiced the intro and the first few scenes of the play, including Alice’s (junior Catie Williams) iconic fall down the rabbit hole.
Since “Alice in Wonderland: The Manhattan Project” is a movement based play the rabbit hole Alice fell down must be constructed by two actors’ bodies made into a circle. Movement based means instead of having a set with physical pieces, everything needed in the play is made out of the actors’ bodies. When Alice’s fall is over she finds herself in a hall of locked doors, the doors also being made from her fellow actors.
As Alice struggles to escape from the hall of locked doors she drinks a potion, that makes her shrink and eats a cake that makes her larger. While this happens, the cast around her work together, changing positions to make themselves bigger or smaller than Alice.
At this time a cast member catches the attention of Ms. Scott.
“There’s a nail sticking out of the floor over here,” a cast member said. Ms. Scott sends the stage manager junior Fiona Hoang in search of a hammer.
Alice becomes distraught by her constant change of size. Overcome by tears she floods the hall of locked doors, sweeping herself and a mouse up in a sea of tears. When the mouse and Alice escape to shore, Alice meets up with five other actors all enveloped in animal persona and dry off in a caucus race. After the caucus race Alice and the animals sat down again. It was the first time this scene was practiced by the cast and after Alice asked a question Hannah morel looked questioningly at Ms. Scott.
“I’m suppose to go tug on her dress?” Morel asked.
“No.” Ms. Scott said. “You can just go squawk in her face.”
Hoang appeared on stage with a hammer in hand. The actors continued rehearsing as the stage manager tried to pry the nail away.
When Alice tries to talk with her animal friends after the caucus race, she unintentionally insults all of them causing them to leave hurriedly one by one. The stage manager also leaves the stage holding the hammer but not the nail.
The actors break character for a moment as Ms. Scott teaches the actors how to form themselves into mushrooms for the next scene. When they are done Alice wanders into a field of mushrooms, where the caterpillar waits for her. Alice engages the caterpillar, played by Madelyn Morris, in conversation. In the background Mr. Ferman walks on stage with Hoang, and more tools to remove the nail. Hoang showed him the nail, and excuses herself from the stage.
“Who?” The caterpillar asked. “Are you?”
Alice and the caterpillar banter back and forth as Mr. Ferman takes a pair of plyers to the nail in the stage floor. A group of actors and actresses gather towards the back of the stage, unsure of what to do. Ms.Scott sees them, and uses her legs to roll herself in her chair across the stage to ward them, to give them instructions.
When Morris stumbles over a line, Hoang reads it back to her correctly. Morris and Williams repeat their lines and continue on. After Alice finishes her heated conversation with the caterpillar, the caterpillar melts down into the mushroom made of actors she had been sitting on. Mr. Ferman frees the nail from the stage floor, and he and the mushrooms leave.
The next scene requires more instruction from Ms. Scott before the actors can begin, she decided who will stand where and who else is needed in the scene. In this scene Alice happens upon a house where she meets a cook, a delighted Timberman making soup with too much pepper, and the Duchess with her baby. With much sneezing and crying, Alice flees from the house with the baby in her arms, only to discover it turned into a pig.
“And I just throw it?” Williams asked Ms. Scott.
“Yes” Ms. Scott said. “You’ll just pick someone in the audience and throw it to them.”
The cast ended their rehearsal for the day, sitting once again at Ms. Scott’s feet. She reminded them that rehearsals will only become hotter and harder. They would need to stay healthy with stretches and hydrated with water.
“I think it looks really good,” Ms. Scott said. “I’m really excited.”
Legacy High School’s 2014 fall production of “Alice in Wonderland- The Manhattan Project” will open October 16th and will play through October 19th!