Kara Pascucci, co-director of the Marathon Community Theater Children’s Summer Theater Program, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about Alice in Wonderland Jr.
The show will be this weekend.
Pascucci said, “We are very excited about it. The kids had a great dress rehearsal Wednesday night. So we’re excited. It’s going to be a great show.”
How many weeks has the work been in production?
Pascucci said, “It’s actually a very quick program if you think about it. It’s a six week program and we meet twice a week for two hours. So basically, we put on the full musical in 24 hours. Stephanie Zajac is my current co director. We’ve done three shows together. This is our third. The program started in, I don’t know if it was 2012 or 2013. It was started actually by someone who had run a children’s theatre out in Oregon, where she was from. So I worked a couple of years with her and then I kind of took over her position and I worked with a gentleman who, his name was Devin. He was a big person in the Marathon Community Theater and we did it for seven or eight years and then Steph, and I got together and took over.”
The cast of Alice in Wonderland is a little younger, but some of them have been on stage before.
Pascucci said, “We have definitely some kids that have been with us for many years. We have some newer kids who this is their first time on stage. Then we’ve got some kids that, the local elementary school families but like also usually does a show during the school year and so several of the kids that are in our cast were in that cast and decided that they really enjoyed it. So they decided to come out for summer theater.”
What is the story of the show?
Pascucci said, “There are a lot of the same characters that you know and are familiar with from the story. It’s a little toned down. It’s not quite as psychedelic, and a little more a little more PG, but it’s really fun. I mean, you’ve got Tweedledum and Tweedledee and the White Rabbit, and the caterpillar and of course, Alice and there’s kind of a fun twist on Alice and how we portray the way that she changes sizes throughout the show.”
Tonight is the first show at 7 p.m. and there will be another 7 p.m. showing on Saturday and a matinee on Sunday at 2.
How many children are in the children’s summer theater program this year?
Pascucci said, “This year, we have about 35 and 33 of them are on stage and then a couple are in our tech booth.”
Some alumni of the children’s theater have gone on to other acting endeavors.
Pascucci said, “We have two in particular that I’m thinking of that actually moved to New York City and went to the American Academy of Music and Drama. And I mean, neither one of them has had their Broadway debut, but they’re both acting consistently in commercials and regional theater touring theater. So that’s pretty cool. I could have told you that they were going to do well. They were awesome talented kids.”
Tickets can be purchased by calling 305-743-0994 or at the door.
Pascucci said, “As far as I know, Sunday has the most availability right now.”
The kids were given the ability to have some say in their characters.
Pascucci said, “Oh yeah. They’re kids. You’ve got to make it fun. You’ve got to make them part of the process. So most definitely, we tried to give them suggestions, give them different options for directions to take the character. But ultimately, I found when you leave it up to them, you get the best results. We would love to involve them more in the designing and the painting and the creation of the set. But with six weeks, you just you don’t have that luxury. So I would say we take responsibility for most of the set and stuff like that, but costumes, oh yeah. As soon as we give them their role, they’re like, Miss Kara, I have an idea for my costume. So within reason we tried to accommodate.”
Are there other opportunities throughout the school year that kids can take part with the Marathon Community Theater?
Pascucci said, “Marathon Community Theater has what’s called one weekend only, it’s our annual fundraiser and it’s kind of like a variety show. So different acts will be presented throughout the night. I usually do a couple of kids numbers in that. We’ll choose maybe a couple of songs to do from different shows and then I also usually do a couple of holiday numbers for our annual holiday show.”
For more information, click here: https://marathontheater.org/