The Shadow
Between March 1st and March 2nd, the Alleghany High School Choirs will be performing in their annual “Dinner Theatre” event. In recent years, they have dazzled audiences with their depictions of “The Little Mermaid” and “Beauty and the Beast.” This year, they bring the White Rabbit, Queen of Hearts, the Cheshire Cat, and Alice herself to the stage as they prepare to bring “Alice in Wonderland” to life through song and dance, with their own “twists and turns.”
Three performances are scheduled, beginning Friday, March 1st at 6 p.m, and will all be held at the FCC Family Life Center in Covington. The FCC Family Life Center is located at 231 E. Fudge Street. Additional performances will be their “Saturday Matinee” which will “feature a special tea party” on March 2nd. The first performance is scheduled for 1 p.m. and a second that evening at 6 p.m. Prices will be $45 a person, $80 for a couple, and $20 for kids meals for those who are 10 and under. The choirs promise that a “full three-course dinner will be prepared by the ‘Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA)’ and served by the cast.”
Tickets are already on sale for this event and “advanced reservations are required.” In years past, this event has been extremely successful, so it is imperative to secure your tickets. Upon performing “Beauty and the Beast” their first year over Valentine’s Day weekend, the choir sold out in 4 days, while they actually oversold 25 tickets for “The Little Mermaid” the year after.
To prepare for “Alice in Wonderland,” a student-led project, choir members were asked to watch both the movie and musical versions of “Alice” before beginning work on a script. “My favorite part has been writing the script and making the lines, making the characters, and discovering them all together while we make this from scratch,” said junior Ella Hicks, who will be playing Alice in the upcoming production.
The Dinner Theatre, expected to last approximately 2 hours, has been arranged as follows: Welcome/Drinks, Opener, Appetizer, Songs/Dialogue, Entree, Songs/Dialogue, and Dessert. Menu items include, but are not limited to, March Hare broccoli and cheese soup, White Rabbit veggie cup/dip, Cheshire chicken cordon bleu, Sister’s scalloped potatoes, Caterpillar green bean casserole, Tweedle’s twin tea cookies, Queen of Hearts mini cupcakes, Lizard’s Lemonade, etc.
Several students gave their thoughts on the upcoming event as well as shared their thoughts about their personal growth since being in the choir and performing in dinner theatres past until now. “Two years ago, if I had walked into a big crowd of people, I would not have been able to say anything. But, my only lines there were ‘Man overboard!’” Asher said of his previous performance. “Just having that part alone, it just changed the way I speak out in big crowds.”
Emmaline Walters was largely tasked with props, including the hat to be worn by the Mad Hatter. According to Walters, the most challenging part of the production was “getting my mom to drive me to Walmart so I could get the fabric to finish the Mad Hatter’s hat,” Walters said with a giggle. Walters made every aspect of the Mad Hatter’s hat herself.
Paisley Brooks also helped with set pieces and spoke of how she was able to improve herself in multiple aspects while helping to create “Alice in Wonderland.” “I advanced my painting skill in helping to create the set pieces along with crafting by helping to create more props and I’m glad for helping create, socializing better, and connecting better.”
For Grace Wiseman, she is mostly looking forward to seeing the final product come into fruition after months of hard work on the project. “I’m excited to actually put everything into it. We’ve been working on it for a while and there’s just a lot of things going into it and I’m just really excited to see it all together and I’m excited to see what everyone thinks about it.” Wiseman will be playing the White Rabbit in the production and says, “I like it [playing the White Rabbit] because I get to be sporadic, a little anxious, and honestly, probably a little too sassy.”
Kay Short, who plays one the Cheshire Cats, says she is most excited about the role because the Cheshire Cat has always been one of her favorite characters in “Alice in Wonderland” since she was very young. “The Cheshire Cat is such a cool little thing because he’s always doing his own thing. He’s malicious, but he’s also really insane, just crazy. I really wanted to bring that side of the character to life with my version of him and so, doing it with two other people, I feel like we all have our own different little versions.”
Last to speak, though certainly not least, was Riley Puffenbarger who shared his thoughts on how the choir improved throughout production, particularly since their last production when they performed “The Little Mermaid,” and how that performance differs from this year’s “Alice in Wonderland.” Puffenbarger will be playing the infamous Mad Hatter in the upcoming production. “First off, there’s obviously the themes… the dishes for what we’re serving at this dinner theatre, I think may be a little more vibrant than what we had last year. Not only that, but the amount of props that I’m seeing here this time, there’s a large amount of them. Along with that, just the cast… I’m seeing an overall positive difference between the first one and the second one.”
Be sure to reach out to choir director, Amanda Sprouse, for any additional information or to purchase tickets for this event. She can be reached at 540-968-0963 or via email at amanda.sprouse@ahps.k12.va.us. Additionally, tickets may be purchased from any AHS Choir family. Come on out and support our local choir in what is sure to be three fantastic performances this weekend!
