I mentioned a few posts ago that I was set designing a production of Alice in Wonderland and that that process had thrown this whole operation off the tracks. Well, six weeks (seven?) later I am still behind, so I'm gonna chalk it up to a character flaw. I also promised photographs from the production - and I have a few - but I cannot yet deliver the full-out production photos as I am still waiting to receive them from a friend. More on those photos at the end.
Though I remember Alice from my childhood, it's not a movie that I'm incredibly familiar with nor - please don't throw stones! - frond of and that probably has a lot to do with the fact that it's not my mom's favorite movie. We owned a great many of what I now know as the "Disney Classics," but we didn't own them all, because my mom figured that she didn't want to be overexposed to the movies she didn't like. In fairness, my brothers and I were known to watch a few movies, namely Peter Pan and The Little Mermaid, on a daily basis for weeks at a time, so the logic was rather ingenious. Of course, her wisdom was limitless and, for a stretch, certain movies would go mysteriously "missing" until the craze had worn off. Moms are just smart like that.
I suppose a more legitimate reason for having not been a major Alice fan (in case I proved nothing to you with the above digression about my mother) is the narrative. It's all about story, again. Having experienced other tellings of Alice, I can honestly say that Disney's take is not my favorite. Please, don't get me started on Tim Burton's version! While the story is befuddling enough on its own, Disney is not able to make enough sense of it to create near as cohesive of a work as others have. This is where I mention that the version of the show I set designed, written by Eva Le Gallienne and Florida Friebus is my favorite adaptation out there. Also, FYI, I have never read the source material. It's worth mentioning that Disney attempts to do is make a singular film based on Alice in Wonderland, while pulling in elements from Through the Looking Glass, which kind of confuses things. And damn if that oyster scene doesn't still make my head spin. What is that about, really? In the end, the narrative of Disney's Alice in Wonderland harkens back to the company's earlier package films, which suffer from miniature arcs as opposed to an overaching story arc. Maybe if the idea of the Queen of Hearts was introduced sooner and she was a presence that was felt throughout the story my opinion would be higher, but it is what it is.
Similarly, Alice just isn't one of the more compelling heroines Disney has given us. That's not to say there's anything necessarily wrong with her, it's just that her driving force is boredom brought on by school lessons. With Cinderella we have a young woman hoping to avoid a terrible fate brought on by an evil stepmother, Aladdin is a poor beggar just trying to scrape by, and Belle is trapped by the circumstances of her small provincial (and gossipy) town. Maybe it's just apples and oranges. Maybe not. More than that her motivations are a bit strange. It has always felt odd to me that she followed the White Rabbit, who never showed her much interest or attention to begin with. And then she has a lot of emotional breakdowns! I don't doubt that my growing experience with kids has affected my negative reaction to her tears.
At the risk of becoming a whiner myself, it's time to discuss the good. I'm not the only one who loves the scene with the flowers, right? I think of all the strange encounters Alice has in this movie, this one stands above the rest. It's visually striking and it's musical. For me, it has the magic Disney touch, because it feels very unique. The moment when Alice is falling into Wonderland is pretty great, too. I also have to mention that while the Queen of Hearts is not nearly as prominent in the story as she could be, she will always be my standard of what that character should be and, I think, is hard to get right. So, props to Disney.
Those are my thoughts on the film (I guess there weren't a whole lot, or I wrote this blog too long after having watched the movie). Next week comes Peter Pan, who has been enjoying a resurgence in my mind as of late.
Finally, if you're curious to see how I envisioned Alice, here are a few snapshots of the process to tide you over!
The whole process of designing started in December, but it was not until late February that actual construction and painting began. Ideally, building should have started much sooner, but there were budget issues. What can I say? It's hard to design an inexpensive show! And we only had $800, which was crazy. One of the first things we painted were some pre-existing black rehearsal cubes. Three sides on each were painted as seen below, while the other three were made to look like dice. Seen in the picture is my friend, Nadav, who directed the show. Directors who help paint are my absolute favorite and Nadav's already pretty awesome to begin with.
Painting the stage, which was an insane task, started only six days before the show was set to open. Being that the set would have to be a unit set (meaning no major set changes), I decided to create a very elaborate floor design. Below, I am creating a charcoal outline on the stage based on an earlier sketch I had done.
Within the span of 24-hours the stage started to take shape, but it still had a long way to go! And that was before the periaktoi (seen beyond the stage) scraped large portions of the stage. Luckily, both issues were addressed... eventually!
The periaktoi were a huge undertaking. I had the crazy idea to paint a variety of different images on each of the six faces of the four periaktoi. For those of you doing the math, yes, that's 24 different faces to paint, each measuring 4'x6'. But I had a lot of help, because alums, actors, and production staff members alike chipped in. Below, my friend, Julia (left), and an actor from the show are helping to stencil the outline of an over-sized queen chess piece.
My friend, Cara, one of the aforementioned alums, came in to help me. Below, we celebrate the completion of what was to become the Queen of Hearts' rose trellis. It was an optical illusion at first, so we strategically placed some fake vines later. I have something of an obsession with plants on stage thanks to some work I did on a show called, Yerma.
In spite of innumerable setbacks and a generally insane set design, the show was ready to go on opening night. It only took an overnighter by my scenic charge, Zoe, and me. When we finally went home it was 9am... and snowing.
The best part was that when all was said and done, the show actually turned a profit. And sold out two of its three performances. Bam.
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