MSN_060717

28 | June 7, 2017 | Malibu surfside news Life & Arts
malibusurfsidenews.com
‘Alice in Wonderland’ takes audiences on a journey
Young Actors
Project presents
beloved tale at
Malibu Playhouse
Barbara Burke
Freelance Reporter
“It’s opening night and
the actors are so ready for
an audience. We’re so glad
that audience is you,” said
Shoshana Kutner, executive
director of the Young
Actors Project, on the June
1 opening night of “Alice in
Wonderland” at the Malibu
Playhouse.
Family members, friends
and well-wishers in the audience
were enthralled from
the beginning of the performance.
The lights went down,
spirits went up, and some
fine, remarkably outstanding
young actors took the stage.
We all know the basic
plot, but what made this
rendition of the classic fairy
tale different was some
very impressive special effects
sending the cast – and
the excited, impressed and
amused audience - down
the rabbit hole, the excellent
costuming by Aurora Sanchez,
and incredible back
stage support by alumni of
the Young Actors Project.
Attention to such off-stage
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details, as well as to the acting,
is what has made Kutner
stand out in youth theater
in Southern California.
There was the traditional
mayhem and cacophony
throughout the tale, silly
nonsense and colloquy, and
experiential acting depicting
the confusion of living
with time going backwards
and without the ability to remember.
Stellar on-stage performances
were delivered by
Georgia Kennedy-Bailey,
as Alice; Dillon Eisman,
the Mad Hatter; Ashlyn
Kunerth, the Duchess; Ava
Bradley, the White Rabbit;
Zoe Kofsky, Humpty
Dumpty; Kamilla Peters,
as Edith; Layne Jacobson,
the cook and the Walrus;
Abigail Mills, Tiger-Lily and
the Queen of Hearts; Jersie
Byford, Red Queen; Lena
Hurtubise, White Queen;
Nicole Reynaga, King of
Hearts; and one of the best
renditions of the Tweedledee
and Tweedledum episode by
Bailee Calabria and Maayan
Milchan, respectively.
The story takes the audience
down the rabbit hole
to the nonsensical world
of mystery and magic. The
cards were alive and confused
and perplexed poor
Alice, the Queen has a petulant
propensity to order that
everyone’s head be chopped
off, the Duchess is confused
and a beautiful mess, the
Mad Hatter hosts a most peculiar
tea party, and there is
a trial of the knave, wrongly
accused, that is very far south
of including due process.
The caterpillar will not communicate,
the Cheshire Cat
grins beguilingly, confounding
and intriguing Alice, the
door mouse will not awake,
and no one knows how to
play croquet properly.
The first scene ended with
Alice, portrayed by Georgia Kennedy-Bailey, performs
in the Thursday, June 1 opening night performance
of Young Actors Project’s performance of “Alice in
Wonderland” at the Malibu Playhouse. Photos by Suzy
Demeter/22nd Century Media
Young Actors Project actors (left to right) Isabella
Quintanilla, as the March Hare; Georgia Kennedy-Bailey,
as Alice; and Dillon Eisman, as the Mad Hatter perform at
the Malibu Playhouse on June 1.
attendees oohing and aaahing
about the costumes and
acting, and anticipating a
wonderful Part II.
The actors did not disappoint.
The theater went on
a wonderful, child-like excursion
through the looking
glass.
Alice manages to negotiate
a reconciliation between
the White Knight and the
White Queen, and after a series
of mishaps and confusing
experiences, makes her
way through the garden path
and earns her way to being
a queen.
“Alice in Wonderland” is
a time-honored and revered
childhood tale by Lewis
Carroll (adapted by John
Litten) that always intrigues
and excites in the telling.
The Young Actors Project’s
rendition delighted.
After the curtain fell, one
of the cast members ably
summed up the mood of the
evening and how terrific all
aspects of the play were orchestrated.
“The Young Actors Project
is where magic happens,
like the magic that happened
in this show,” said Claire
Anneet, 16, who played the
Cheshire Cat.