Perhaps the opium-smoking caterpillar helped to calm Alice, but in a fragile moment, she stood in one spot and sang a song with surprising delicacy considering her powerful voice.įrankenburg’s talent was matched by Kristen Noonan, who played both the Mouse and the Queen with elegance and humor. The welcome exception to her marathon was a scene with the caterpillar – again, nod to Spivia for a breathtaking costume. And if she wasn’t swinging on a tire swing at shocking heights, she was running around the stage in constant motion. This trust was vital as the play sometimes felt like a high-speed chase with dangerous obstacles requiring expert cooperation.Īlice, played by the confident Bailey Frankenburg, was present in nearly every scene. With all the flying about on impossibly high apparatuses, the frenetic running around the stage, the pyrotechnics and the high volume over-lapping of dialogue and action, the play needed Tate’s steady influence to keep it from swirling into more circus than the memorable and meaningful production that it became.īecause the cast, mainly core members of the Havoc Movement, worked with each other before, there was a visible trust among them. But as inventive and playful as the costumes were, the real triumph of the show belonged to director Jason Paul Tate.īorn in the Appalachians, and with experience in movement and physical theatre, Tate’s sensibilities helped tame some of the wildness, giving the play needed banks for its frothing river. And then there’s the hysterical collection of birds that caw, chirp and even dance.Ĭostume designer Cole Spivia showed off her ingenuity when she designed the birds’ wings out of items found in the hardware section of Lowe’s, including whiskbrooms and shiny silver rakes. Guinn along with his twin sister, Darby Guinn, adapted Alice in Wonderland into an Appalachian setting, taking liberties with the well-known story, keeping it familiar but not predictable.įor one thing, a wildly energetic possum puppet specially crafted by Sarah Beth Hester of the Atlanta Center of Puppetry Arts replaces the sleepy dormouse at the famed tea party. Would an audience sit shivering through an hour-and-a-half-long production? Spring on the Cherokee Reservation is mercurial. So Guinn, with his boundless energy and runaway imagination, envisioned a play that could debut in the spring. That hushed theatre bothered Jake Guinn of Havoc Movement. However, the inimitable theatre sat silent in the off season, hibernating all winter like a giant bear with no growl. Mountainside is a magnificent theatre, with just under 3,000 seats carved into a hill, all facing an expansive outdoor stage with a dirt floor. Cherokee – It’s no secret that the tribal reservation houses the Mountainside Theatre, where the nationally acclaimed Unto These Hills production is performed, one of the longest-running outdoor theatre productions in the entire nation.