This week the Theater Department staged the show “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” with a colorful cast of characters and performances from Wednesday morning through Sunday afternoon.

“The show went fantastic, especially when we experienced some problems which we were able to overcome to keep the show going,” MacKenzie Larson said. “As a senior, I can say that this was one of my favorite shows to have been a part of at Wayne State College. You never truly know how much of a family the cast is until something happens that forces us all together to make sure the community gets an awesome show each performance.”

The show consisted of the path that Alice, played by Dulce Torres, took after she fell down the rabbit hole to try to make it to the eighth square where she was to be named Queen Alice. Along the path she meets some zany characters including an angry old mouse, played by Zachery Halsey, a cook who is in love with her pepper, played by Amanda Hartman, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, played by Meg Osnes and Benjamin Bjorklund, and a Cheshire cat, played by Eric Dalaviras.

“I had such a great time being a part of this production. We worked so well together and killed it every time we performed,” Torres said. “We dove into a Wonderland where we were not sure we were going to come out alive, but we all stuck together and pushed through this mystical production. I didn’t think I could play such a role, and each and every one of these beautiful people believed in me when I didn’t think I could.”

In the end Alice is named Queen Alice and is then brought to a trial as a key witness in the case of the Knave of Hearts, played by Joseph Catlett, to find out if he really stole tarts from the Queen of Hearts, played by Abigail Ramold. The Knave was found innocent, but Alice almost had her head chopped off. Of course, she woke up from her dreams of Wonderland before the Queen of Hearts had the chance to do any harm.

The audience was left believing that Wonderland was nothing but a dream cooked up by the imaginative Alice, until the White Rabbit, played by Emma Osnes, hopped across the stage just before the curtains closed.

“This was my first Wayne State show, and it was one of the most fun moments I’ve had at WSC so far,” Meg Osnes said. “I’ve met so many great people and I can’t wait to do another show.”

The show was filled with odd jokes and laughter, both on the stage and off. The cast had a wonderful time putting this on and was glad that the audiences seemed to enjoy it.

“Doing this show was delightful from start to finish and reminded me just how fun theater can be. I hope to work with the entire cast again at some point,” said Bjorklund.

There were only a few times that the show had problems. On the Saturday night performance many of the actors were sick and were not able to go on, including Torres, the actor behind Alice. Torres was able to perform the opening scene before she blacked out and was not able to return to the stage. Luckily, the cast did not panic and was able to continue the performance. Angelica Villalobos, who originally played Alice’s sister, was able to step into the role of Alice.

Overall the cast had a great time and the show was a hit.

“The show had many extraordinary layers that separated it from other performances of Alice in Wonderland,” Hope Pedersen said. “The music, set and acting worked well together.”

The show was a lot of work fr everyone involved and the cast members worked with the crew to make sure that everything that needed to get done, was done.

“Everyone played a part in creating ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ from working on stage to building the show. We all became closer when we were putting in hours for the show. There is a lot of sacrifice in theater, but in the end we all put our hearts and souls into what turned out to be an amazing show,” said Aahron Young.

“This show brought me back to my roots and made me fall in love with theatre all over again. We spent many long hours figuring out how we wanted to covey the wacky world that is wonderland and it allowed all of us to access and elaborate on our creative sides as artists and actors,” Victoria McNamara said. “I, fortunately, had the opportunity to create the makeup for the show and working closely with our amazing costume designer, Anna Krueger, we were able to create this fantasy world that I think we all dreamed of as kids. It took us back to a time of innocence and pure joy that sometimes we as college students don’t get to do so often.”