Children’s imagination is a place that freely produces imagery and adventures. Lewis Carroll understood this very well, and he used his literary talent in order to uncover and immortalize stories that resonate the most with a child’s imagination. That is exactly how, on 4th of July, 1862, the beginnings of “Alice in Wonderland” were born, captivating both children and adults alike ever since.
Unfortunately, some stories are impossible to stage unless a stageworthy solution is found for key features. For example, Alice's many changes in size throughout the book. Tamara Cheliubeeva (director) has long ago dreamed of staging this fairy-tale, but did not take the leap until she found a device that is worthy of the audience. In Palme Summer Camp 2024, during the course of our endless quest to entertain and develop children, such a staging solution was finally found: Alexandra Rudis led a master-class with the kids and created a small-scale set of performances of “Alice in Wonderland” using shadow puppetry! Seeing how the shadows easily change size on the screen, Tamara found inspiration and determined to make the production a reality.
Our script was written from scratch by Alexandra Rudis, of course using the text of the original book, with the additional aim to connect the plot with our traditional New Year’s Celebrations. After the performance, the fairy tale characters played with the children and helped Father Frost give the gift of Holiday magic to the kids. “Alice” has truly become a part of our children’s repertoire that we take pride in!
Cast:
Alice - Kamilla Kobzeva, Vasilisa Kudinova, Maria Leyzerova
Mother/Queen - Oksana Gedz, Kate Atadzhanova
Father/King - Yury Boldyrev, Maxim Duman
Sister/Wet Mouse - Eva Kobzeva, Polina Leyzerova
White Rabbit - Daniil Chigrov, Irene Cheliubeeva
Lizard Bill - Viktoriia Kriukova, Eva Leyzerova, Benjamin Schiller
Frogs - Dmitri Petrov, Timothy Kutin, Maxim Cheliubeev, Pavel Kovalyov, Lalliana Kobzeva, David Kiselev, Alexandra Sprung, Daniel Vozdvizhenskiy
Caterpillar - Maria Leyzerova, Alisa Grigoryeva, Kamilla Kobzeva
Flowers - Ainsley Sprung, Alexandra Sprung, Polina Kovalyov, Polina Koen, Aleksandra Rutherford, Zoya Rutherford, Alice Artemova, Yeva Frid, Alexia Glivenko, Zareena Rahiman, Sonia Sidorenko
Cheshire Cat - Dina Bounine, Liza Grigoryan
Mad Hatter/Uncle Lewis - Alexander Bobrov, Nikita Shevchuk
March Hare - Irene Cheliubeeva, Daniil Chigrov, Evangelina Kobzeva
Sleepy Mouse - Kristina Polyakov, Milana Verrilli-Ahachinski
Cards - Vasilisa Kudinova, Irene Cheliubeeva, Evangelina Kobzeva, Alexandra Sprung, Eva Leyzerova, Kamilla Kobzeva
Creators:
Playwright - Alexandra Rudis
Director - Tamara Cheliubeeva
Shadow Puppetry - Alexandra Rudis, Eugene Grabovy, Sonia Bounine, Marina Zakharova
Technical Director - Phillip Dykman
Sound - Alexandra Anoshina
Lights - Olga Sharevich
Set Design - Lilia Aniks
Set Technicians - Max Duman, Vladimir Aniks, Lilia Aniks, Tamara Cheliubeeva
Costumes - Larissa Bushmina
Makeup - Olga Sharevich, Elizaveta Grigoryan
Graphical Design - Olga Sharevich, Eugene Grabovy
