The performances will begin at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Friday and Saturday, March 3-5, and at 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 6, all inside BC’s Harman Chapel Auditorium. Admission for each performance will be $10 for adults and $5 for students and senior citizens. Members of the BC family will be admitted for free.
Based on the 19th Century novels Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll, [email protected] is an award winning play by John Yukich, which examines what might happen if a 21st Century Alice collided with Carroll’s legendary Wonderland. This modern retelling of the classic children’s story features all of the characters from the original plot, including the Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit and the blood thirsty Queen of Hearts.
The story is laid out in traditional style, except that Alice is distinctly contemporary, complete with cell phone in hand. Full of references to text messaging and social media, the play imagines a present-day Alice encountering the Wonderland so many of us know and treasure. Yukich’s script for [email protected] earned him top honors in the 2014 Shubert Fendrich Memorial Playwriting Contest.
“It’s a great script,” said Charles Reese, professor of theatre and co-director of BC’s [email protected] with Rebecca McCoy Reese. “It’s fast paced, high energy, and just lots of fun. And, it has a great deal to say about the smartphone and social media world we live in. I think it was a great choice for our audiences and for the cast.”
The Reeses founded Bluefield Youth Theatre at Bluefield College in the fall of 2007 when dozens of local youth responded to a call for auditions for the production of Treasure Island, a performance that became one of BC Theatre’s largest and most popular ever. From that event, the vision was born to create a theatre company designed specifically for training and performance experience for the youth and children of the two Virginias.
Since that inaugural performance, Bluefield Youth Theatre has presented dozens of productions – from Christmas stories and Disney classics to Mark Twain adventures and chronicles of Narnia – featuring more than 100 local youth and for audiences of more than 10,000. Bluefield Youth Theatre, Sr. is the teen-aged arm of Bluefield Youth Theatre, featuring youth from the two Virginias ages 12-18. [email protected] will be the third production by the older group of actors and actresses.
Among those actors and actresses: Katy Priest, who plays Alice and Noah Jennings, who fills the role of White Rabbit. Also in the [email protected] cast are Bryan Fisher as the Mad Hatter; Alexandra Stout as the Cheshire Cat; Cassidy Davis as the March Hare; Ethan Stout as the perpetually dozy Dormouse; Jacob Stowers as Humpty Dumpty and the King of Hearts; Kathryn Yates as the blood thirsty Queen of Hearts; Kylie Bowers and Halea Fowler as Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee; Mary Jones as the Caterpillar; and Christian Yates as a very flirtation frog.
For more information about Bluefield College Youth Theatre’s production of [email protected], contact the BC Theatre Department by phone at 276-326-4244 or by e-mail at [email protected].