Norwalk student actors will present “Alice in Wonderland” at 7 p.m. this Friday and Saturday, Dec. 1 and 2, in the Norwalk Performing Arts Center.
“‘Alice in Wonderland’ is really something that old generation, new generation – it’s a fun, quirky, crazy play – and you have creative freedom to do whatever you want,” said Cori Beauchamp, the director of the play.
The play is based off the book written by Lewis Carroll. Alice has a dream, where she goes to Wonderland and becomes the spontaneous and strong person she wants to be. Alice in the play will be performed by Julia Palen.
“The fun thing about ‘Alice and Wonderland’ and one of the cool reasons why I picked the version that I picked is that you can get so many students on stage,” Beauchamp said. “And so while Alice is the main character, the other characters that you see in the play kind of have equal stage time, which is not something that you see a lot.”
Noah Fox is a student who will be performing in the play of “Alice in Wonderland.” He said acting is one of his favorite things to do.
“It’s like playing pretend but on another level,” he said. “You get to pretend to be someone else.”
Fox will be playing the General and the Knave of Hearts.
“I get to play both sides of the law,” he said. “As the Knave, I act as the prisoner, because I get accused of stealing tarts from the Queen. And as the General, I am the head of the soldiers and stuff, so it’s really fun.”
Jack Shelledy will be playing the role of the Mad Hatter.
“The directors have given me a lot of freedom when it has come to this character so I get to make my own decisions and that leaves a lot of ideas both used and unused,” he said.
Shelledy said it’s a lot of fun to play different roles with different characteristics.
“Whenever I’m in a performance, it’s like I get to become this completely different person,” he said. “I get to go beyond my usual limits.”
Tickets cost $10 and can be purchased online only at vancoevents.com/us/CBXH for Friday or vancoevents.com/us/CBXI for Saturday.
“It’s good to support the theater program considering it feels like we’re not getting much attention or funds anymore.” Shelledy said.
