Boston Community Collaborative is so pleased with its recent Mainstage production, Alice’s Wonderland. This show was co-produced by BCC and the Nazzaro Center. Alice’s Wonderland showed June 2 and June 3 at a spectacularly repurposed space in an impressive financial district office building on Franklin Street. This was an immersive, family friendly show that featured a cast of 9 actresses ages 9-13, and 4 professional Boston area adult actors.
Alice’s Wonderland, an adaptation of Alice in Wonderland was written, directed, and choreographed by BCC’s lead drama and dance instructor, Ingrid Oslund. Ingrid brings extraordinary talent, enthusiasm, experience, and knowledge to her shows. Incorporating kids with adult actors is something that she often does – In Alice, it brilliantly challenged and enhanced the experience of all the actors, therefore the experience of the audience.
Ingrid’s adaptation of the story took place in two worlds, Dinah’s school for Troubled Children, and Wonderland Galleries, an abandoned art museum. Our cast and crew were able to actually create Alice’s Wonderland specific art by painting the walls of the space. The space, slated for a complete gut renovation provided this rare and really cool opportunity. There was even a wall on which audience members could write/paint/chalk well wishes for the cast and crew before or after the show. Original art by area artists Xenia Kamalova, Erica Wisor, Paige Hart, Joey Delponte, and several of the young actresses was featured in the space, and the play.
From Ingrid’s Director’s Notes in the program: “The story of Alice in Wonderland has always intrigued and inspired me. Adapted time and time again, one young girl’s journey through a nonsensical world has opened minds and explored the depths of our imagination. The interpretations of this Victorian era morality tale have varied. This journey in particular focuses on our young heroine becoming the creator of her own world. In a cast filled with such powerful characters, all but one being women, the play is not only about Alice’s struggle to find herself, but the support systems and challenges created by the people around her. The play is psychological, whimsical, and an examination of girl power. The immersive staging serves to put you in the position of Alice. You have the opportunity to experience a world where you never know where anything is coming from, where the unexpected happens and where everything you see is unfamiliar. Working on this show and challenging these performers of all ages has been such a rewarding experience. The integrations of different styles, the shape of the script and the context of this story has been taken on by these performers and made completely their own.”
Auditions were held for this play in February and rehearsals have been ongoing since. This amazing opportunity for these young actors was free. This differs from our regularly run weekly drama classes that we offer at the SJS afterschool program, in the North End Community at the Improv Asylum’s studio space and at the Josiah Quincy Elementary School. Our classes produce plays about every 10 weeks – participants pay for our classes, and parts/stage time are relatively equal as we adjust these plays to accommodate all who are enrolled. Our staged theatre productions are much more involved, more detailed, more serious. Parts are cast by audition and are not equal. Our staged theatre production costs are funded thru ticket sales, and sponsorship. We are so very grateful for the generosity and kindness extended to us by the Nazzaro Center and the staff for providing inexpensive space for our extensive rehearsal schedule. To date, Boston Community Collaborative has sponsored our theatre productions (East High Tales, Spring 2016, A Night of Classical Anarchy, Summer 2016, Women Writer’s Suicide Club, Winter 2016, and Alice’s Wonderland, June 2017). If interested in sponsorship of one of our future productions, please contact becca0923@yahoo.com.
BCC was incorporated in 2013 and strives to create community by connecting people and resources.
BCC offers courses in Drama, Dance, Fitness and Engineering for Kids during the St John School afterschool program, courses in Drama in the North End, and at the Josiah Quincy afterschool program. BCC holds a Movers and Shakers class for babies and toddlers at the West End Community Center. BCC hosts a number of community events: Movie Nights in the Gassy during the summer, an annual Halloween Party for adults, and an annual Springtime Egg Hunt in Christopher Columbus Park. For more information, contact becca0923@yahoo.com.
Upcoming Events:
• June 13, 5:30, Josiah Quincy School – “Campfire Tales”. Our presentation for the end of our next session at the Josiah Quincy School.
• July 5-9, Dover NH at the Seacoast Fringe Festival. “Woman Writer’s Suicide Club”. Our adult main stage production from this year has been accepted into this regional theater festival. Ages 18 and up.
• Wednesday nights all summer long. North End Movie Nights in the Gassy
• August, 2017, Two – week long summer intensive theatre offerings for kids, “Hairspray”. A musical theatre intensive based on the music and book of the Broadway hit “Hairspray”, and “Of Monsters and Men: Shakespeare’sVillians” A Shakespeare Intensive. Details of these 2 weeks being formalized now.
- Fall, 2017, Classes resume.
- October 28, 2017, Adult Halloween FUNraiser.
- October 31, 2017, Post Trick or Treat Dance party for kids and their caregiver.
- Spring 2018, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” – Next year’s youth/adult collaboration. Auditions, February 2nd and 3rd.
