Alice by Heart
By Duncan Sheik, Steven Sater, & Jessie Nelson
Centre College - 2024 Directed by Daniel Bird Tobin Music Directed by Rob Seebacher Our core artifacts for this show were pictures of the London Underground tube system during the Blitz along with some eerily similar hallways in our own theatre.
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About the Show
Alice by Heart is a gorgeous musical retelling of Alice in Wonderland. A collaboration between Jessie Nelson (who wrote the book for Waitress) and Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater (who co-wrote Spring Awakening), it embraces all the creativity and imagination of its source material to tell a heart-wrenching story of loss, grief, and strength. While fighting to save her friend Alfred, Alice meets the Cheshire Cat, Jabberwocky, and all the classic characters we know and love.
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Production Photos
Photos courtesy of Brian Oates
Director's Note
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, “and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice “without pictures or conversations?” -- Lewis Carroll - Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland |
Unlike the Alice we meet at the start of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, I quite enjoy a book with no pictures or conversations. Yet still, as a theatre-maker, I must also confess a special delight in experiencing images and words come to life on stage. In this musical, Wonderland’s hurrying rabbits, crying turtles, talking cards, and dancing lobsters leap off the page with depth and exuberance. I am excited for you to meet them through the eyes of our Alice and her best friend Alfred as they encounter the impossibilities of Alice’s Adventures and our own.
“There’s no use trying. One can’t believe impossible things.”
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“I daresay you haven’t had much practice. When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
-- Through the Looking Glass |
Sometimes as we grow up and face the realities of the world, we forget the power of aspiring to the impossible. We forget the power of play. We forget the power of imagining a better world. That is not to say that we should ignore or disregard the bad things. But we should remember to dream. Remember to hope.
In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die:
Ever drifting down the stream -
Lingering in the golden gleam –
Life, what is it but a dream?
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die:
Ever drifting down the stream -
Lingering in the golden gleam –
Life, what is it but a dream?
Thank you for your attendance, your support, and all of your amazing Alice-ness.
--Daniel
--Daniel