Lisbon High School Drama will present “Wonderland: Alice’s Rock and Roll Adventure” Thursday, Nov. 3, Saturday, Nov. 5 and Sunday, Nov. 6, at Lisbon Auditorium. Show times are 7 p.m. Thursday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are available in advance by purchasing at Lisbon district office or at the door.
This show is the first for Grant Freeman as director at Lisbon Schools.
“I’m really excited to be working with this group of students and this program,” Freeman said.
Freeman is well known in the Cedar Rapids arts corridor, helping to direct Mount Vernon’s speech team, assisting with Mount Vernon-Lisbon Community Theatre productions, running his own theatre company Open Arenas and previously working with students at Cedar Rapids Prairie.
Freeman selected this show because he was looking for something that helps students get engaged and have experience on the stage.
“It’s a show that while it has an ensemble cast, that cast is on stage throughout the entire show,” Freeman said. “It’s literally a rock opera, with singing and dancing.”
Freeman said the set design for this interpretation of Wonderland is simple, and one of the things he has been working with students is to have many of the decisions made in these performances being student led.
“Students have come up with our costume design, they’re coming up with our lighting design,” Freeman said. “Am I helping and guiding them on some of those elements? Yes. But they are the ones who are doing those elements of the show and have a stake in ownership of the show learning those elements.”
Freeman said that he doesn’t view many challenges with working with this particular production.
“This is high school theatre,” Freeman said. “This is where we can learn from the things we try on stage. There may be things that go wrong, but those aren’t challenges, those are learning opportunities.”
Freeman said, because this show is newer in nature, the challenge has been not having other shows to compare costume ideas or staging to, as there haven’t been as many performances of this show, which is a blessing and a curse.
“I really love the music in this show,” Freeman said. “That’s one of the things that drew me to it. That, and we have five song numbers we’re working on choreography for.
“I’m excited to be working with this group of students at this school. There are a lot of talented students at every school I’ve worked with, and my goal is to make another arts corridor along Hwy. 30 to remind people that talent exists here.”
Samarah Cooley, a senior, plays Alice.
“I’ve really enjoyed learning all the choreography involved in this show,” Cooley said.
Cooley said she auditioned for the show in her senior year to try something new.
“One of the biggest challenges has definitely been learning all of my lines, since I’m the lead of the show.”
John Broulik, senior, plays the Cheshire Cat.
“I’ve really loved Grant’s openness to us having our own expressions and choices in this musical,” Broulik said.
Faith Miller, junior, is a member of the ensemble and doing the make-up for the show.
“I’ve loved how Grant has been very engaging with us as students,” Miller said. “He’s really made working in theatre fun again.”
Miller explained she stepped into the role of make-up artist when the senior who previously held the position graduated last year.
“I got a face painting kit this summer, and have had the opportunity to use it for practice, so when it came to makeup design for this show, I volunteered,” Miller said.
Miller said one of her biggest challenges has to be the make-up for characters like the Red Queen.
“I can’t practice any of the make-up that has red dye in it, as I’m allergic to that particular dye,” Miller said.
“This show really is a change of pace to shows we’ve done in the past,” Broulik said.
“It’s a really great show,” Cooley said. “It’s funny and has something for all ages, and even if you’ve seen the Alice in Wonderland story before, there’s something different here.”
“It’s a really perfect family show,” Freeman said. “Every one of the actors has their ‘agent’ moment to highlight their characters, and the character arc for Alice is really fun and unique.”
Nicole Hasselbusch, Adalyn Ricke, Bennett Cart, Samarah Cooley and Nathan Ricke practice some of the songs in the musical at a practice.