Contortionist caterpillars and twirling tweedles: Don’t miss Community
College of Aurora’s “Lookingglass Alice”
Contact:
Liz VanLandingham, 303-360-4744 or 303-854-7873
Liz.Vanlandingham@CCAurora.edu OR
Sarah Grace Pretzer, 303-360-4728
Sarah.Pretzer@CCAurora.edu
Liz.Vanlandingham@CCAurora.edu OR
Sarah Grace Pretzer, 303-360-4728
Sarah.Pretzer@CCAurora.edu
Three-year, sold-out theatrical hit in Chicago to premiere in Colorado
For immediate release: October 21, 2009
Alice, played by Jerusha Dowda of Aurora, is playing with her cat Dinah (Bitsy Gibbons of Aurora) and dreaming of what it would be like to be a queen. Dowda is one of 20 students appearing in the Community College of Aurora’s fall production of “Lookingglass Alice.”
Reviewers have called the original show “a witty, acrobatic treat” where “wondrous worlds collide.”
According to CCA Theater Director Stacey D’Angelo, the CCA staging will be unique. “This is a show intended for the entire family, and it features our incredibly talented CCA student body as a contortionist caterpillar, tap-dancing tweedles, tumbling hedgehogs, and more,” she says. “We are taking a physical approach to the production, with lots of movement, acrobatics, and gymnastics.” She notes that the cast comprises 20 CCA students, as well as technical students working on the set design and lights.
Evan Kirk, a CCA adjunct music faculty member, has composed original music for the production.
D’Angelo notes that the college will offer trick or treating after both shows on Halloween (Oct. 31). “We would like children to come to the performance in their costumes,” she explains. “They will get a special Lookingglass Alice map to follow to find the treats around campus and will have a chance to meet the different characters of the show along the way.”
Show times are 7 p.m. each night from Oct. 29-31 and Nov. 5-7; 2 p.m. on Oct. 31, Nov. 1, 7, and 8; and 12 p.m. on Nov. 6. Performances are in the Larry D. Carter Theatre, Fine Arts Building, CentreTech campus. Tickets are available for presale at 303-340-7529 or at the door. General admission is $10; children 12 and under, $5.
“Lookingglass Alice” was originally produced by the Lookingglass Theatre Company in association with The Actors Gymnasium in 2005. D’Angelo, who is directing the performance, notes that Alice has been a sold-out production in Chicago for the past three years. “I worked this summer to connect with the theatre company to get rights to do the show, and they were generous to share the production with me,” she says. “We are the first to premiere it in Colorado.”
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