A Director's Approach to a Production of Alice in Wonderland for Touring

This is a very interesting paper because it takes a totally different approach to Alice in Wonderland than other papers I have read. This one is a director's approach to producing a play based on the book. This involves knowing the book, really understanding the characters and their motivations, understanding where they were physically and what they encountered and to do this all without drifting very far from the actual book itself. That's got to be a rather difficult task.

The main points of the paper include:

The task is to use designs based on Tenniel's artwork, to have a large enough cast to do the show but not have more people than are actually needed, to find low-cost materials for scenery and clothing and to have enough but not too much scenery.

The director needs to understand what the author meant in his work.

The author of the paper talks about how Alice in Wonderland came to be.

She talks about how he came to be at Christ Church and also talks about his family and his sisters.

She discusses how Dodgson was interested in the theater and its various aspects.

The first acting version was written in 1880.

He first attended a performance in 1886.

The author goes into the history of other performances.

A director serves as an intermediary between the playwright and the actors.

Alice was a mix of Victorian behavior and the curiosity of a child.

She was influenced by Victorian concepts of politeness and conventional logic.

The play needed an actress with a 'youthful sense of movement' and a 'pleasing vocal quality.'

The actress would also need a certain amount of stamina and an ability to adapt quickly to 'new stage situations.'

The White Rabbit needed to look elderly and have 'nervous shilly-shalling.' His voice should quaver.

The mouse (in the Pool of Tears portion) needed to be humorless, inquisitive and nervous.

In the Caucus Race the eaglet should be played as a feminine, bird-like girl. The Dodo could have a stutter.

The caterpillar should be pompous, vain and have a negative attitude.

The voice of the Duchess should not be too feminine.

The actors in the tea party need to concentrate on the teamwork necessary to pull off the scene.

The Queen of Hearts should have a 'blind and aimless fury.'

The King of Hearts should be mild-tempered and ineffectual.

The Red Queen (if the play is using scenes from both books) should be somewhat like the Queen of Hearts.

The White Queen should be 'gentle, stupid, fat and pale.'

As for the Tweedles, the main thing from them should be the recitation of The Walrus and the Carpenter.

The author of the article also talks about how actors in the play could do two roles.

The first act ended at the end of the trial scene.

She talks about the physical aspects involved in a touring company.

There are a lot of illustrations of what the characters should look like.

There are also illustrations about stage scenery and how the stage should be arranged.

After that comes a script for the play.

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