Thirty-five students were involved in this production of Down the Rabbit Hole, Up A Tree. This was an original script written by the students and their teacher, Laura Mitchell.  We began with Lewis Carroll’s two short novels, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.  Then using Dawson as the backdrop, we explored the ways students find themselves in a completely new environment when they enter Dawson, and then when they graduate, they discover that they have yet another “wonderland” awaiting them.

The play itself was a type of processional theatre.  This means that rather than audience’s being stationary and watching the scenes change in front of them, they actually move from place to place in order to see the next scene.  The play was not linear, so the audience was even more involved in that they were actively piecing the story together.  Having the audience move provided a unique learning experience for the students, for they had the opportunity to perform their own part of the greater play three times each night, acting before different audiences and learning  from each experience.  They then had the chance for their performances to grow each time the scene was performed.