Local community theatre produces flowing productions

For the Monroe County Civic Theatre turning complex pieces of literature into productions staged in unorthodox spaces is half the battle. Making it work smoothly is the other half. And most of the time it isn't done easily. \nThe upcoming performance of Alice's Adventures is Wonderland is no exception.\nThe play opens July 1 in a venue many would not expect to house a theatre performance, The Irish Lion, located at 212 W. Kirkwood Avenue.\nPlaywright Russell McGee adapted Lewis Carroll's story of a young girl bored at a picnic with her sister. Alice is the young girl's name, and she starts to follow a white rabbit, dressed in a waistcoat muttering "I'm late!" Alice follows down a rabbit-hole, floating down into a dream underworld of paradox called "Wonderland." \nContinuing her pursuit of the white rabbit, she has several well-known misadventures involving Mad Hatters and unruly royalty dressed in shades of red and white. Eventually, Alice wakes up underneath a tree and back with her sister. This is the narrative as told by Carroll, but it isn't necessarily going to be told the same way by McGee, who sometimes reworks the order of dialogue in the original to help keep his adaptation flowing. \nIn addition to moving dialogue in later chapters to earlier chapters, in "Alice," McGee omitted a scene from the book where a pigeon calls Alice a serpent because he thought it would be too difficult recreate the spectacle. \n"There was just no way that I could see pulling the poor actor's neck to make it long enough," he said.\nJessica Ciucci is triple-cast in "Alice" playing the Mouse, Caterpillar, and March Hare. Ciucci said the play is riddled with difficulties young actors have to face since the Carroll text and Walt Disney films have set precedents in the minds of potential audiences. \nBuilding a character means different accents, or adding quirks or gestures to characters can help bring Carroll's character's to life through McGee's adaptation. \n"As much as we would like to imitate voices given to us by Walt Disney, it is necessary that we begin at square one, reread pertinent chapters in Lewis Carroll's initial text, and begin building a character never before seen by Alice," Ciucci said.\nIt's Director Jim Hettmer's job to make work on stage the scenes McGee kept, while making the best of a venue like The Irish Lion. \n"We don't have a stage, a curtain, lighting, or an exotic set, but we and the audience can use our imagination in ways that would not be possible in a more formal setting," he said.\nAimee Taylor plays Alice in the MCCT's upcoming production and is used to more formal settings. \n"I am used to big stages, big sets, lighting, backstage and a lot going on," Taylor said. "[Here] the audience doesn't have these distractions so it is up to you as the performer to tell the story." \nThis is Taylor's first leading role, and she said she was nervous at first, but not any more, thanks to the support she's gotten from fellow performers and her director. \n "I am beginning to believe it now myself and with that every scene is getting better and better to, ultimately, create an awesome show," she said.