Behind the scenes of Alice in Wonderland

Behind the scenes of Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland opens at 7 p.m. Friday in the CM auditorium. People are often unaware of how much work goes on backstage to present a drama. Eaglet reporters Olivia Garcia and Delilah Allen work on the crew. Here are their stories.

Garcia on the sound crew:
The fall play is coming up and we are so excited to present Alice and Wonderland. Even though the play itself is only a couple hours it takes a lot longer than that to put together. One of the several crucial parts is sound crew. We are responsible for the music, sound effects, instruments, and microphone quality you hear. Even though it doesn’t seem like much you better believe it takes a lot to do and we are happy to help enhance the magical world of wonderland .

Allen on hair and makeup:
On the makeup and hair side of things, we’ve been hard at work trying to get these looks to perfection! From painting people green, to adding whiskers on faces the hair/makeup crew has put lots of effort into this Alice In Wonderland play. Thanks to our crew lead, Joie Sappington, she’s helped make all these people turn into the characters they play! From afar, everybody on stage looked amazing and were so excited for the audience to see the play and see the characters come to life!

Phillips on the light crew:
Though the fall play came out as an outstanding performance, there is a lot of time and hard work that goes into the play, weeks before it’s officially performed. Being a part of the lights crew this year for Alice in Wonderland, CMHS fall play, has definitely shown me that. It has also shown the cast and crew, the multiple late nights at school during tech week along with dress rehearsal week.
This year, at the beginning of Alice in Wonderland, we were told we had nearly 7 weeks until the first official performance compared to the additional few weeks last year’s play, Radium Girls, had. The cast only had about 7 weeks to rehearse their lines and acts. While hair, make, and costumes crews had to have the outfits ready before the 7 weeks that were given, so the costumes would be ready for the performances, the same time was given to the stage and props crew, who were building and constructing the larger props, such as the Doormouse’s teapot and Duchess’s house.
The lights and sound crew were given a week that was essentially for them to get their cues down, and their light and mic settings set.
This year’s crew leads and director, Mrs. Neilson, have been very accepting to the newcomers who have never been introduced to the art of theater, until this year. The crew leads have been very nice when instructing all of the newcomers how to do certain tasks like, the sound board, building props, doing the light settings and spotlights, to the hair, make up, and costumes.
When being on a cast or crew for the fall musical or spring play, it can get stressful. It can be difficult to balance out time with rehearsals, doing school work and other extra curriculars. Though, in the end, seeing the audiences love the performances is a positively overwhelming feeling. Just to know that people love the play that you helped and were a part of, can uplift your entire week up.