{"id":127979,"date":"2026-05-07T07:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T13:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-theater-troupe-to-stage-alice-in-wonderland-this-week\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T07:15:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T13:15:00","slug":"dolores-theater-troupe-to-stage-alice-in-wonderland-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-theater-troupe-to-stage-alice-in-wonderland-this-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolores Theater Troupe to stage ‘Alice in Wonderland’ this week"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dolores\u2019s
Dolores\u2019s theater program will present \u201cAlice in Wonderland\u201d on Thursday and Friday. From left to right: Ben Carpenter (March Hare), Amelia Pym (Mad Hatter), Julianna Vega (Alice) and Jadyn Gorsuch (Cheshire Cat). (Courtesy of Peter Swingle)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The Dolores Theater Troupe is presenting the stage version of \u201cAlice in Wonderland\u201d at the end of this week, featuring a cast of students ranging from elementary school to high school.<\/p>\n

The production, adapted by Anne Coulter Martens, opens at the main gym on the Dolores School District campus at 7 p.m. Thursday, with additional performances 2 and 7 p.m. Friday. Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for students and seniors.<\/p>\n

Students described the show as closely following the classic story while incorporating new characters. Rather than Alice (played by Julianna Vega) starting her journey by chasing the White Rabbit (Callie Vaughn) from her home, the story begins directly in Wonderland. The play includes roughly 50 participants, from actors, technical crew, extras and even elementary students who play roles such as flowers, heart children and soldiers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for me, playing Alice gives me such a great opportunity to work with so many different actors because she meets so many different characters,\u201d Vega told The Journal<\/em>. \u201cGetting a chance to work with the amazing people that we have in this cast has been really special for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben Carpenter, who plays the March Hare, noted that the program allows elementary school students to participate and added that his first play with the program was in fourth grade.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt introduces a whole new group of people to theater,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Vega spoke of the sentimentality of playing a lead role after initially playing a background character in elementary school.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was actually my first show,\u201d she said. \u201cMy first ever show was \u2018Alice in Wonderland\u2019 as one of the flowers, and now I\u2019m playing Alice in the same show. That wouldn\u2019t have happened if I wouldn\u2019t have joined back then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jadyn Gorsuch, who plays the Cheshire Cat, is also one of the costume designers for the show, mixing her love of interacting with other students in a theater setting with design.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s our last show. It\u2019s nice to have a part where I can interact with almost everyone in the cast, kind of for a final hurrah,\u201d Gorsuch said. \u201cThen I really like the costume designing part.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The
The Door is a pivotal set piece to the play, according to Dolores Theatre Troupe teacher Peter Swingle. It was painted by Adeline Dettloff. (Photo Courtesy of Peter Swingle)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Other popular characters audiences can expect to see on stage include Caterpillar (Sam Lindus), Queen of Hearts (Navaeh Settles), Mad Hatter (Amelia Pym), Tweedledee (Piper Green\/Addy Thompson) and Tweedledum (Nyah Gorsuch\/Levi Rantz). A host of new characters will also be featured.<\/p>\n

Carpenter, Vega and Gorsuch laughed while sharing their favorite parts of playing their characters, which included \u201cbeing passive aggressive toward Alice\u201d as the March Hare and being \u201ccryptic\u201d as the Cheshire Cat.<\/p>\n

The Cheshire Cat also breaks the fourth wall with the audience, drawing them into the story.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like nothing I say (as the Cheshire Cat) makes sense,\u201d Gorsuch said. \u201cOne of my favorite parts is I do a little side piece to the audience every now and again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vega shared the wonder and joy that is possessed by Alice, adding that she hopes the audience picks up on the message behind it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Alice is so fun to play because she has so much wonder about the world and she\u2019s so excited to meet new people and learn new things,\u201d Vega said. \u201cThere\u2019s just so much excitement and joy that I try to put into the character. I think there\u2019s so much value in appreciating the world around you and enjoying every minute of the journey you\u2019re on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The actors also highlighted the creative aspects of the costume and set design, which is mostly set in a forest, along with flowers, greenery and another distinct setting that takes place in the trial room between Alice and the Queen of Hearts.<\/p>\n

The troupe encouraged community members to attend the production, saying it is a \u201crefreshing\u201d take on a classic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that the community should come and see the play because it really is built off so much joy,\u201d Vega said. \u201cThere is so much heart in the story. That\u2019s why it\u2019s such a classic. It\u2019s been known for generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

bduran@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Dolores\u2019s
Dolores\u2019s theater program will present \u201cAlice in Wonderland\u201d on Thursday and Friday. The play poster was designed by Amelia Pym, who plays the Mad Hatter.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

and crew have been preparing since February<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":127980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6404,6423],"tags":[363,1060,44,38,103,28,60,29,6419],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-127979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-entertainment-2","category-arts-and-entertainment-2-education","tag-arts","tag-arts-entertainment","tag-dolores","tag-dolores-high-school","tag-dolores-schools-re-4a","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter","tag-tj-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127979"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=127979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}