Alice in Wonderland was performed May 8-17 at the Stagehouse Theatre as the Grossmont Theatre Art Department’s last performance of the Spring semester.

A dazed Alice, played by student Heather Armstrong, wakes up to a fantasy world and finds herself responsible for some stolen homemade baked goods expected by the Queen of Hearts.  Alice must find the goods to ensure Mr. White keep his head!  A journey to find the stolen goods’ thief leads from one scene to another, as she strives to show off her knowledge from school, and is confronted by the whimsical characters that disregard her logic.

Alice learns to get on “Queenie’s” good side, as a comical scene shows her distracting the Queen of Hearts from opening the baked goods’ empty container and realizing they are missing.  Alice encounters allusion after allusion, as she tries to solve the characters’ impossible riddles.

The play held a steam punk theme, a theme of science-fiction featuring advanced machines based on steam power of the 19^th century.  The props included this style as they were cranked across the stage, and the fashion of the costumes had a post-Victorian and funky style.  Alice, feeling like the only normal one, begins to realize that this is a never ending conundrum, until the thief confesses and blurts out his crime.   Dramatic, colorful lighting conveyed the puzzled mood of Alice, as the Queen demanded he be beheaded and Alice drifted back to reality.  Reality? The wonderland characters would say, “What is life but a dream?”

On opening night, the Theatre Department held a special commemoration before the play for one of the founding fathers of the Stagehouse Theatre, Biff Baker. Baker was acknowledged for 20 years of work at Grossmont; his reward was given to his son Jesus Bnajas. David Weeks was also honored before his retirement after 34 years of work for the Theatre Arts Department.