Coffee County Central High School’s theatre department will put on an adaptation of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” on November 5 through 7 and 12 through 14. The times will be Friday at 7 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. 

Each fall, the students at CCCHS put on an annual play. This year’s selection was an adaptation of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” Two unique decisions with the show are that the entire show is double casted and the adaptation comes from co-director Wesley Rutledge. 

Co-director Jonathan Higdon tells us about the decision of choosing to adapt the show in-house: “It really comes down to money.  If you choose a licensed play, you have to pay for that license.  However, because the novels are public domain, we’re able to adapt them ourselves and save a few hundred dollars in the process… It also gives us creative freedom to put as much or as little as we want into the show.”

As previously mentioned, the other unique choice in this show was double casting the entire show. 

Higdon says, “We had so many people audition!  We could have made a lot of them extras and had almost a full deck of cards on stage, but Mr. Rutledge and I decided that it would be better to double cast the show and give more students more opportunities.  This also meant everyone gets at least one line in the show.” 

The two Alices are Lindsey Landrum and Alexa Morse. Each cast will get an entire weekend to perform. The “Wonderland” cast, with Alexa Morse, will perform the first weekend while the “Looking Glass” cast, with Lindsey Landrum, will perform the second. 

Higdon elaborates on the show by telling us why they thought it would be a good choice for CCCHS: “It’s always been one of the plays that is most highly requested among the students, but I’ve been putting it off for years due to the technical challenges.”

“We thought this might be a good year to do it, as we could save money on rights, hopefully build more student interest in the program by doing a “popular” show, and hopefully build audience interest as well. I mean, we could do Death of a Salesman and it would be great, but how many people would come to see it?”

Be sure to check out this fun show either weekend! You’re sure to have a blast with either cast. Once again, show dates are November 5 through 7 and 12 through 14. Friday shows are at 7 p.m., Saturday shows are at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., and Sunday shows are at 2 p.m.