Every year Rocky  does two school plays, one in the fall and one in the spring. This year’s fall play is Alice in Wonderland. The first showing was Friday, October 27, and I decided to go and see it.  

Alice in Wonderland is a play based on imagination. Kids find themselves using their imagination to create the whole story with a picture in their head. The play itself was very interactive with the audience from beginning to end. All the actors and actresses did really well expressing how they think their character would feel in certain situations. Some of the play was not so much talking, but using expressions and showing what was going on in the play instead of just telling it.

The director of this play was Rocky’s drama teacher, Elissa Thompson. Thompson did a magnificent job casting. I saw in each character on stage how the student’s own personality matched the character that they were playing. Every person brought out the character’s personality to how I would think the character would be like if they were real. She did a really good job matching everyone with a character who was like them.

The scene backgrounds that were on stage helped to tell the setting of the play and were very good. I thought the settings told a story themselves. They were not just telling the setting of the play but the stories of the characters that they coordinated with. For example, the White Rabbit’s hole: the background was painted brown to say that the setting was a hole deep in the ground, but one of the “walls” of the hole had a bunch of random things on it as well. It started to make you wonder, where did all of it come from? Does the White Rabbit collect random things? Are there other stories that go along with each thing that was on the walls? It is really interesting to see the backgrounds and see the stories that they told in addition to the characters and dialogue.

Certain characters really caught my eye throughout the play. One of these characters was the Cheshire Cat played by Taylor Garza. Every time Taylor was on stage, she played the Cheshire Cat as if he was in his own little world. No matter what the situation was on stage, she played the character in his own world. Some other characters who caught my eye were the Mad Hatter played by Jacson Swain, and the March Hare played by Mike Tucci. These two students really stuck out to me because their personalities really came out in these characters, especially played together. I absolutely loved the best friend bond between the both of them. I laughed every time they were on stage.

Alice in Wonderland was a fun and interesting play to watch. Though some parts of the play, I thought, dragged on occasionally. For example, the whole scene with the Walrus and the Carpenter, I did not understand all that much and thought it really dragged on. I also thought the play didn’t end very well. I was confused.

This version of Alice in Wonderland was very different than the version I grew up knowing. This version of the story did teach the audience a lesson though, and that was to always keep your temper and not get mad when something does not go your way. It was something that I went home thinking about.

Overall, I enjoyed the play, Alice in Wonderland. The student’s personalities matched well with the characters that they played, the backgrounds were amazing, and much more. Definitely worth the watch. Go see it, Rocky!

There are two more shows this weekend, both at 7:00 pm on Friday and Saturday. Tickets are $8 for students and $9 for adults. You can get tickets online at www.rmhs.booktix.com