Wearing face pant and some rather outlandish costumes 12 children performed their own rendition of Alice in Wonderland at Habitat for the Arts, July 7.
The performance was the culmination of five days of theatre camp hosted by the local art group.
“It was about creating a show yourself and coming up with an idea and making a story around that idea,” said Elena Kellis, the camp director.
“The first day we were debating about a show on monsters or a show about Alice in Wonderland. We took a vote and hands down it was Alice in Wonderland.”
With that in mind the group set out to begin assigning characters, however it quickly became apparent that more than one person wanted to play Alice, the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire Cat.
To get around that problem the group decided to make two simultaneous worlds that interact with each other.
“They bit onto that and just ran with it, which is how we came up with Alice in Underland,” said Kellis.
She said the camp was a great opportunity for children in the community to express their creative side.
“There is a lot of emphasis on sports, but there are so many kids in this community that need an outlet like this. They need art classes, and theatre classes and music classes and there’s such a huge call for it, but there’s not much available,” said Kellis, who is in her third year studying theatre at the University of Victoria.
“Having your own space for the arts is a dream.”
Paul Clarke
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