While most major theater companies have closed due to COVID-19, that didn’t sit well with the Adams State University Theatre. The company is embracing the challenge and presenting “Wonderland: A Socially-Distanced Adventure with Alice” for students, faculty and the community to enjoy – safely. The production will run from noon to 5 p.m. Sept. 26 and 27, with an alternative date of Oct. 3.

George McConnell, Ph.D., assistant professor of theatre, and the production’s co-director Jenna Neilsen, professor of theatre, have created a unique take on Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland.”

“We are hoping that we have taken the necessary precautions to make people feel safe joining us for this event,” Neilsen says. “The experience will be performed outside. The audience and the performers will be masked. We will be adhering to all social distancing requirements.”

Audiences in groups of no more than eight people (children and adults) will follow an “Alice” guide to six different locations spread across campus, and be entertained by a series of two-person scenes inspired by Alice’s adventures in Wonderland.

“It won’t be a play-by-play of the novel,” Neilsen says. “It will provide an audience with all of the information they need to enjoy the event, and we will stage several of the most memorable moments (and characters) from the novel: There will be a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, a Caterpillar and a Cheshire Cat, to name a few.”

Some of the safety measures put in place are:

  • Audience and non-actor personnel are required to wear face masks
  • There will be no exchange of cash or physical credit cards as audiences will purchase

tickets over the phone ahead of time and this also will cut down on box office waiting

lines

  • Hand sanitizer available at every performance location and the waiting area
  • Temperatures of audience and performers/performance staff will be taken prior to
  • admittance
  • All performances will happen outdoors.
  • Eight audience members and two actors at a time will reach a maximum of 10 people gathered

in any one location

  • Actors will be a minimum of eight feet away from the audience at all times
  • The time spent in any one location will be less than 10 minutes, drastically limiting the

time of exposure to any possible contagion.

The proposed outdoor performance spaces are the patch of gravel, trees, and rocks between the theatre and art buildings; the north entrance to the art building; the outdoor, north side of the upper level (and spiral staircase) of the planetarium; the theatre building loading dock; the western side of the Maker’s Space building next to the theatre building; the grassy roundabout between the #5 building and Richardson; the stairwell on the west side of Richardson.

“We’ve tried to see the pandemic not as a roadblock to creativity but as another collaborator in the process,” says Neilsen. “We hope we have made a fun, exciting and safe event for everyone to share.”

For more information and ticket reservations contact the theatre box office at 719-587-8499.