Alice in Wonderland Theater Script
''My name is Mouse. Just Mouse! Must you abuse my name as well as my tail??? ''
by Lewis Carroll, adapted for stage by Jeannette Jaquish
COST: $30 first performance, $15 addtl., or $90/year. Emailed. You print the scripts.
MUSIC CD: $23
PRO QUALITY POSTER ART: $20, or Free Poster Art included.
CAST: At least 23 with most doing multiple parts, or up to 40 playing 1 part.
TECH NOTES: Lots of set changes, lots of costumes and props. Fast set changes.
EFFECTS: Many inexpensive techniques described to make Alice grow and shrink.
Optional extra scenes: Tweedles & Walrus and Carpenter, Humpty & White Queen & her Retinue
Playwright Jeannette Jaquish will adapt the script to suit your cast, stage, length if possible.
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Music CD for this Alice script
Pro Quality Poster Art
Tech Drawing of Giant Alice in White Rabbit's House
Costume Rental / Contact Playwright
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Contact playwright Jeannette Jaquish
Columbus School for Girls performance of this script -->
"Alice in Wonderland is wildly popular because Carroll wrote a logical plot that is framed in nonsense and splattered with symbolism which becomes a celebration of language and childhood imagination. It reminds all of us to believe in the extraordinary as well as in our own dreams. The adaptation by Jaquish has stayed true to the characters, plot, mood, and intellectual humor of the book."
Photos of Adams College in Colorado's production of this script
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Alice grows until her head, arms and legs stick out
the chimney and windows of the White Rabbit's House in this photo
from the Firehouse Theater in Fort Wayne, Indiana. -->
QUOTES:
"I stink, therefore I am" -- Duchess
"Either you, or your head, must be off!" -- Queen
"The beach is here. Wish you were lovely." -- Mad Hatter's post card ~ * ~ This is the best stage adaptation of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland that you are going to find.
Main stage scenes alternate with shorter scenes in front of the closed curtain to allow set changes behind curtain.
Ingenious low tech special effects allow Alice to grow and shrink.
Alice is played by three actresses: small, medium and tall (we used age 7, 11 & 16 for example) with a size-changing experience between each. At a performance directed by the author, a young child in the audience upon seeing all three Alices onstage for the first time during bows, was overheard saying, "Look, Mom, there's three of them!"
Each actor can play multiple parts, except the Alices and the White Rabbit, making your cast size flexible. LINK: Other Theaters' Performances of this Alice script.
This script FOLLOWS LEWIS CARROLL'S STORY!
It is NOT a jam-packed song & dance extravaganza with every character from the whole play dancing to modern songs shoe-horned into the script. The only songs are those in the original, sung by the Mad Hatter, Duchess and Mock Turtle & Gryphon, and the music CD includes them plus mood music for scene changes. You may add more song and dance if you like.
STORY SUMMARY: When her sisters get to go to the fair with Prof. Charles Dodgson, Alice throws a tantrum at her strict tutor over memorizing the preachy poems children were required of as part of their moral upbringing in the 1800's when the story was written -- the same poems that Lewis Carroll lampoons later in the story.
She runs off and falls down the Rabbit Hole, grows and shrinks in the Hallway of Doors, falls in her own Pool of Tears, meets the ill-tempered Mouse, panicky wet creatures and the Pompous Dodo while the newly invented blind Mole and creepy Horsefly characters add humor.
She grows too big for the White Rabbit's House, kicks Bill the Lizard out the chimney, extracts some information from the aloof Caterpillar and recites "You are Old Father William" as it is acted out.
-- Optional scene: Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee / Walrus and the Carpenter.
At the Duchess's house she encounters pepper, flying kitchen objects and a flung crying baby whom she rescues only to have him turn into a little pig that runs through the audience.
She gets direction from the Cheshire Cat, matches wits with the wacky Mad Hatter snobby March Hare and a groggy Dormouse. She witnesses an absurd table dance and impertinent banter, and storms off insulted.
In an easy special effect she finds the key, eats mushroom and shrinks, and finally can slip through the little door to the beautiful garden. She rescues the guards painting the roses red, and plays croquet with a flamingo.
Optional scene: Alice runs to warn the Duchess that the Executioner is coming and bumps into Humpty Dumpty who laughs so hard he falls off the wall, leading to a Gilbert and Sullivan style song-debate between the Red and White Queens and their retinues as Alice and Hedgehogs repair Humpty.
Alice escapes a mass beheading, hears the Mock Turtle's sobby sad story, stands up for the Knave at a sham trial and starts a revolution against tyranny!
Alice begins the play as an impulsive, self-pitying, stubborn young girl, but finishes it as a witty, brave, thoughtful young lady.
The playwright, Jeannette Jaquish, has selected the best scenes from the book, stayed true to their mood and intellectual humor, worked and reworked them so they are stageable, and added lots of witty humor, extra characters and moments to give every actor good lines and time in the spotlight.
NOTE: The full play is about 2 hours. The optional scenes add on at least 20 minutes, so you probably want to substitute rather than add.
CHARACTERS IN EACH SCENE
Scene 1: An Impulsive Act - p. 2
Medium Alice:
Alice's Tutor:
Lorina, Alice's big sister
Edith, Alice's little sister
White Rabbit:
Scene 2: Down the Rabbit Hole - p. 4
Little Alice
Medium Alice:
Big Alice:
White Rabbit:
Scene 3: The Pool of Tears - p.7
Little Alice:
The Mouse:
4 Swimming Creatures (puppets)
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Scene 4: A Caucus-Race & a Long Tale - p.9
Little Alice:
The Mouse:
4 Swimming Creatures (puppets):
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Dodo:
Horsefly:
Mole:
White Rabbit:
Scene 5: The White Rabbit’s House - p.13
Medium Alice:
Big Alice:
White Rabbit:
Bill the Lizard:
Spike:
Noodle :
Little Alice:
Scene 6: Advice From a Caterpillar - p.17
Little Alice:
Caterpillar:
Father William:
Father William’s Son:
OPTIONAL SCENE: Tweedles & Walrus and Carpenter
Any size Alice
Tweedle Dum
Tweedle Dee
Lots of Mopping Maids/Oysters
Scene 7: Duchess - Pig and Pepper - p.19
Big Alice:
The Duchess:
The Cook:
The Cheshire Cat:
The Little Pig:
Scene 8: A Mad Tea-Party - p.23
Little Alice:
The March Hare:
The Mad Hatter :
The Dormouse:
Scene 8.5: Shadow Scene: Door in Tree to Hall of Doors
Little Alice:
Techies to set up Shadow Scene
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Scene 9: The Queen's Croquet - p.28
Medium Alice:
Card Guard Two:
Card Guard Five:
Card Guard Seven:
Executioner:
White Rabbit:
Queen of Hearts:
The Knave of Hearts:
Hedgehogs:
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Lady Lavender:
Lord Milquetoast:
Cheshire Cat:
Duchess:
Additional Guests:
OPTIONAL SCENE: Humpty Dumpty & White Queen
Big Alice or Any size Alice
Humpty Dumpty
Red Queen
4 to as many as you want Guards and Aristocrats in her Retinue
Scene 10: The Mock Turtle - p.34
Big Alice:
The Griffin:
The Mock Turtle:
Scene 11: Who Stole the Tarts? - p.39
Medium Alice:
The Griffin:
Two:
Five:
Seven:
Executioner:
White Rabbit:
King of Hearts:
Queen of Hearts:
The Knave of Hearts:
12 Jury Creatures (6 have lines)
(Can be Hedgehogs and Wet Creature Puppet Actors): (Puppeteers can operate two puppets and even use their head as a third; in other words, 4 actors can play 12 Jury Creatures):
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Duchess:
Mad Hatter:
March Hare:
Dormouse:
Cook:
Lady Lavender:
Additional Optional Guests:
Scene 12 – Alice Goes Home - p.45
Medium Alice:
Tutor:
Excerpts from