School explores new take on old adventure

By Gigi Ekstrom

Seventh and eighth grade drama students at Lakehill Preparatory School presented Alice @ Wonderland by Jonathan Yukich on Nov. 30 in the Wyly Auditorium. 

What would happen if a 21st century Alice (Megan Blomquist) collided with Lewis Carroll’s legendary Wonderland? This modern retelling of the classic children’s story has all of the familiar characters, including the Mad Hatter (Kole Cannon), the White Rabbit (Donovan Covarrubias), and the Queen of Hearts (Mars Henderson). 

The story is laid out in traditional style, except that Alice is distinctly contemporary, complete with cell phone in hand. Alice is a texting, tweeting, and googling girl of the modern digital era, encountering the Wonderland so many treasure. 

“I am proud of our recent production of Alice @ Wonderland and of the entire cast of 25 seventh and eighth grade students,” director Mark Guerra said. “There were too many outstanding performances to single out only a few. I am also excited that our technical crew consisted solely of middle school students. Nick Blanchard, Noah Kohn, Daniel Knipp and Esther Neerman all played a backstage or technical role that made the work that the actors and I did possible. It is important to me that students at Lakehill know that there are opportunities to be involved in the performing arts that do not involve being onstage.”