Alice in Wonderland

by Lewis Carroll adapted by Tim Conley directed by Tim Conley and Allen OReilly

Study Guide prepared by Allen OReilly and Katie McCrary Contributions by Jessica Giordano

Table of Contents

3 About the Play 4 Cast of Characters 4 Playwright 5 The Will Power Ensemble 6 Glossary 8 Scenic Design for Alice in Wonderland 8 Activities and Discussion 9 Activity Pages 14 Preparing Students for the Play

About the Play

Georgia Shakespeares Alice in Wonderland is an adaptation of Lewis Carrolls Alices Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There. While glancing through her book by a riverbank, Alice notices a White Rabbit with a waistcoat and a pocket watch run nearby. She follows him down his rabbit-hole and finds herself in Wonderland. Alice is pulled headlong through a series of puzzling and serendipitous encounters: talking caterpillars, madmen, grinning cats, and a queen whose sole delight is the execution of her subjects. Meanwhile she cannot remember who she is, where she is, and why she keeps changing size. It is a magical place full of wordplay, fantasy, and curiosity. At last, she awakes and realizes that her adventures have been merely the wanderings of her mind in a fantastical dream.

CAST OF CHARACTERS
Sarah M. JohnsonAlice Allison Leigh Corke...Narrator ...Cook ...March Hare Queen & King of Hearts ...Mock Turtle Brian HarrisonNarrator White Rabbit Caterpillar Duchess Dormouse Gardener Humpty Dumpty Craig ThompsonNarrator Cheshire Cat ...Mad Hatter ..Gardener ..Executioner ..Gryphon

About Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll was born Charles Dodgson in Warrington, Cheshire, England in 1832. He went to school at Oxford and became a mathematician and lecturer at Christ Church, where he spent the rest of his days. While there, he became good friends with the dean and his family, the Liddells. He grew into the habit of taking the children on rowing trips to nearby places, and it was on one such rowing trip that he first told the outline of the story of Alices adventures to the children. Young Alice Liddell was so taken by the story that she begged him to write it down. He did, and it soon became Alices Adventures in Wonderland, published under the name of Lewis Carroll, a pun on his Latinized name. His works soon became commercial and popular successes, but Dodgson continued to lecture at Christ Church until his death in 1898. Dodgson suffered from a stammer and from periodic epileptic fits throughout his life. Among other occupations, Dodgson enjoyed invention, wordplay, and storytelling. 4

Georgia Shakespeares

Will Power Ensemble

About the Performance

Glossary
Australia is the smallest continent! It is located between the Pacific and Indian
oceans, southeast of Asia. The country of Australia covers the entire continent.

Chrysalis: A chrysalis is the shell that develops

over a caterpillar after it sheds his skin. While the caterpillar is in this shell, it will transform into a butterfly! Chrysalis can also be used as the name of this stage of development for a caterpillar.

Civil: To be civil, is to be polite and courteous. Contradict: To contradict is to say that a statement is not true, or to deny. It can also mean to say the opposite of what has been said. Court: A court is a place where legal cases are decided, or where trials are held. It
can also refer to the people who make up a trial, like judges and jurors. A court can also be a ruler, such as a King or Queen, and all of their attendants.

Curious: Curious means, eager to know or something that is curious can be something that is
strange or odd.

Evidence is proof or anything that shows or makes clear. Inch: An inch is a kind of measurement. There are 12 inches in one foot. Jury: A jury is a group of people who are selected to hear
evidence in a case brought before a court of law, and pass judgement.

Justice is fairness or rightness. It can also be another

name for a judge.

Latitude and Longitude: Latitude is the distance north or south of the

equator. Longitude is the distance east or west on the earths surface. They are both measured in degrees.

Mad usually means very angry. It can also mean to be out of your mind, crazy or
insane.

Mile is 5,280 feet and is a unit for measuring length and distance.
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Moral:
Ocean.

To be moral is to be good in character or conduct and to follow standards of right and wrong.

New Zealand is an island country, near Australia, in the southern Pacific Nile River: The Nile is the longest river in the world, and is in Africa. Paris is the capital city of France. Poetry is a type of writing the expresses a writers
imagination, usually arranged in patterns of lines, rhymes or rhythm.

Riddle is a puzzling statement, question or problem. Rome is the capital of Italy. Rome can also refer to the ancient
city in the same place which was the capital of the ancient Roman Empire.

Savage: A savage can be a member of a primitive culture or it

can mean fierce, cruel, and ready to fight.

Sentence: A sentence is a word, or group of words, that make a statement. A

sentence can also mean a decision made by a judge on the punishment for a criminal.

Trial: A trial is the deciding of a case in court, or the process by which a case in court is decided. It can also mean a test, or a try.

Verdict: A verdict is the decision of a jury at the end of a trial. Verse can be another word for poetry, or lines of words with a regularly repeated
accent. It can also mean a single line of poetry, or a group of lines of poetry, like a verse of a song.

Witness: A witness is a person who has seen something happen, or it can simply
mean to see. In a courtroom setting, a witness is someone who takes an oath to tell the truth.

Scenic Design for Alice in Wonderland By Phillip Male

Preshow Activi ctivity

Word Puzzles. Did you know that Lewis Carroll was actually a mathematician?
He really enjoyed math problems. This love for math also caused him to enjoy word games. In his books, Lewis uses word play in his dialogue (dialogue: a conversation between two characters). Distribute some of our versions of word play worksheets to your students and let them discover the magic of playing with words!

Post Show Activity and Discussion

Create Wonderland. Ask students to close their eyes and think about all the different characters in they just saw in Alice in Wonderland. Have them start
to describe the characters to you. Now ask them to talk about Wonderland itself. What locations do they remember? How did they know that the characters were in these locations? What did the characters do in those locations during the performance? Talk about setting. (Setting: the surroundings or environment of anything; the locale or period in which the action of a novel, play, film, etc., takes place; the scenery and other properties used in a dramatic performance). Have students draw their setting for a scene in Alice in Wonderland. How was your setting for Alice in Wonderland similar to the play? How was it different?

Activity Sheets and Coloring Pages

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Help Alice find her way through Wonderland!

start finish

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Find the names of the CHARACTERS in Alice in Wonderland!

S O D C H S M A R C H H A R E

R T O M S T N Z K Z W U R O K

R O R G E R C R K Y H S G T S

K Q E A B A O N E C I L A R S

P V N R E E N F Y S T C M E E

V P O D N H Q R E Y E Q O T H

E C I E N F F J K R R B C T C

M M T N P O Q O I L A V K A U

H G U E C N H H G D B L T H D

V W C R X E S P V N B B U D A

L F E T E E H D Y U I E R A M

B T X M H U K S K R T K T M Y

M V E C L Q Z R P D G T L L A

Y T P M U D Y T P M U H E L S

C A T E R P I L L A R E T B F

ALICE CATERPILLAR CHESHIRE CAT COOK DUCHESS EXECUTIONER GARDENER GRYPHON HUMPTY DUMPTY KING OF HEARTS MAD HATTER MARCH HARE MOCK TURTLE QUEEN OF HEARTS WHITE RABBIT

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Unscramble each of the clue words. Take the letters that appear in boxes and unscramble them to put together a quote from Alice in Wonderland!

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PREPARING YOUR STUDENTS FOR GEORGIA SHAKESPEARES TOURING PERFORMANCE: This might be the first time that some of your students are attending a theatre performance. Here is some information about the production that will help you and your students prepare for your role as audience members. Students Relationship to the Performance - There is an implicit understanding between audience and performer to suspend disbelief. Here, both audience and performer pretend that the action is real and is happening for the first time. - The characters in the play will not look exactly like the drawings provided. They will wear an item or items that will help us know who the character is. - Some performers may play many characters. - Nontraditional casting is when actors play roles regardless of their gender and/or race. - Characters sometimes speak their thoughts aloud (soliloquy) so that the audience knows what the characters are thinking. The Touring Production There are many people who work together to bring this play to your school. The whole process takes about one year from deciding to produce the play to the plays opening performance. The creative team consists of the following people: - Playwright: a person who writes plays. A playwright writes lines (dialogue) for the actors. - Director: the person who interprets the play. S/He works with the designers to establish the concept of the play. After several meetings s/he will agree on the production elements to be used for the show including sets, costumes, props, lights and sounds. The director also chooses the actors to play the different parts in the show. Once rehearsals begin the director conveys his ideas to the actors by giving them directions on their character development and blocking their movements. Once the play opens for the public, the majority of the directors job is over. - Actors: actors pretend to be the characters in a play. Sometimes, a grown-up plays the part of a child. They might also play old people or animals. Sometimes, one actor plays many different characters. Watch the ways in which actors change their voices, movements or costumes to become different characters. - Set Designer: the person who designs the scenery. S/He creates the world that is seen when you enter the theater. S/He decides whether there will be real or pretend furniture (such as cubes or chairs). S/He also decides where all the different locations will be on stage. The designer drafts diagrams so the carpenter can build the set and then the designer will return to paint everything. - Costume Designer: the person who chooses what clothes the actors will wear. The costume designer decides how each actor should look to represent the character and time period. The designer will sometimes shop for clothing or may create some costumes from scratch. - Props Designer: the person who provides all of the objects used during the play. This person either buys or creates everything that the actors need to convey the story. - Sound Designer: the person that creates all of the sound effects and music for the play. The sound designer creates the noises that are heard when someone rings a doorbell, or a telephone rings, or sounds of Wonderland. - Lighting Designer: the person that provides the lighting for the play. The designer will decide what color the lights should be to complement the sets and costumes. 14