SEQUIM — Even Sequim’s snow won’t keep Alice from going “Through the Looking-Glass.”
The Sequim High School senior class play started this week and will continue at 7 tonight and Saturday night at the Sequim High School auditorium, 533 N. Sequim Ave.
Tickets are $12 for general admission and $10 for students with an ASB card at the door with cash only.
Proceeds benefit the Class of 2019’s senior ball and graduation.
Weather delays kept students from coming in to practice but even Alice herself — 14-year-old Kariya Johnson — said she feels optimistic about the show.
“We had to miss a whole week of rehearsal and that really put some stress on our schedule,” she said.
“Everyone is a little stressed but it’s ‘go time’ and I think it’s going to go well.”
“Through the Looking-Glass” brings Alice on a quest to become queen in a world where everything is reversed and filled with odd characters.
Director Ashley Kramer adapted Lewis Carroll’s book partly because it’s in the public domain and can earn more funds for the class of 2019’s graduation and senior ball, but mostly for its humor and large cast.
“I love that it’s absurd and silly,” Kramer said.
“It’s not so well-known and many versions borrow from it for ‘Alice in Wonderland.’ ”
Kramer said Alice’s path to becoming queen is in some ways representative of growing up.
Johnson said she read both of Carroll’s Alice books growing up and likes Kramer’s translation.
“I love how [Kramer] kept Alice’s humor and personality because she’s naïve but kind of sassy — just a little bit,” Johnson said.
Students bring an array of wild characters to life, such as the battling Lion and Unicorn (Lauren Titterness and Matthew Fowler), the Red and White Queens (Maggie van Dyken and Emily Bundy) and Humpty Dumpty (Payton Sturm).
“The cast really brings the characters to life in a really good way,” Johnson said. “They each have their own story within the whole big picture. It’s interesting to see how those characters interact.”
Familiar characters like Tweedledee and Tweedledum are played by Ian Parker and Sean Weber — long-time friends, seniors and first-time actors.
Parker said it was Weber’s idea to try out and the friends said they’ve gone to most of the senior plays before and wanted to support their senior class.
Ben Wright, a junior who plays the Red Knight, said he feels his first play is coming together really well.
Before he auditioned, he was under the impression it was based on Disney’s “Alice through the Looking Glass.”
“I really feel like I’m stepping out of my comfort zone,” Wright said. “It’s the first play I’ve done but it’s really feeling like it’s becoming a family here.”
“Through the Looking-Glass” features two songs and culminates in what many actors feel is their favorite scene at a banquet where most of the characters gather together.
The show’s cast and crew also features Damien Cundiff, Damon Little, Kenzie Camp, Madisyn Pulley, Angeli Chandler, Annika Christensen, Elaine Brown, Coral Disinski, Allison Van De Wege, Eislynn Flood, Karina Thiemke, Khelea Cloetens, Bella Lemos Platero, Raymond Lam, Arlene Law, Cadence Puhrmann, Liam Payne, Gabi Simonson, Lindsey Coffman, Alicia Pairadee, Charlie Briggs, Sofia Baruffi, Isabelle Hugoniot, Caleb DeMott, Braden Koch, Cas Morton, Elisa Hieber, Lily Richey, Susan Andersen, Wren Fierro-Burdick, Enya Griffin and Jonathan Heintz.
For more information, contact Sequim High School, 601 N. Sequim Ave., at 360-582-3600.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at mnash@sequimgazette.com.
