STORY BY KAREN BOSSICK

PHOTOS BY CHRIS CARWITHEN/THE LIBERTY THEATRE COMPANY

Go down the rabbit hole with Alice into the wonderland of live radio. And take your pick of an English version or a Spanish version while you’re at it.

The Liberty Theatre Company will present “Alice in Wonderland: A Live Radio Play” Friday through Sunday, Dec. 6-8, at The Liberty Theatre in Hailey.

An English cast will perform the first three radio plays at 7 p.m. Friday and 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday. A Spanish-speaking cast will present the fourth for what is The Liberty Theatre Company’s first live Spanish performance at 2 p.m. Sunday.

“ ‘Alice in Wonderland’ is one of the world’s most enduring stories--such a whimsical, magical world,” said The Liberty Theatre Company Executive and Artistic Director Naomi McDougall Jones. “This particular version is joyful, playful madcap, dreamlike with sound effects radio listeners enjoyed in years past.”

The English-speaking casts will feature Andrew Alburger, David Janeski, Page Klune, Courtney Loving, Karen Nelsen and Aly Wepplo.

The Spanish-speaking cast will feature Edith Lopez-Millard, Pedro Manuel Miramontes Ortiz, Leonardo Padilla Sacha, Gaby Ruiz, Sergio Ruiz, Rosa Segura and Rosmery Serva.

Foley artist David Ian and sound engineer Collyn McCoy will lend their talent to both the English and Spanish productions, creating and mixing all the sound effects as the audience watches.

“I'm thrilled the Liberty Theatre Company is presenting ‘Alice in Wonderland’ in Spanish—it’s such an important step in making theater accessible to Spanish-speaking families like mine,” said Pedro Manuel Miramontes Ortíz. “Having grown up in a Spanish-speaking household, I wonder how different things might have been if more cultural events were available in our language. My Papá spoke fairly good English, but my Mamá's language barrier often meant limited access to these experiences—experiences that the whole family together might enjoy.”

McDougall Jones studied dozens of whimsical, wacky and enchanting versions of the timeless tale before spending a month and a half writing the original adaptation for Lewis Carroll’s beloved classic.

“Veronica Moonhill, who directed ‘Boeing Boeing’ and our ‘Hammond Castle’ radio play last year, wanted to do another radio play, and I wanted to do a kid’s show because we haven’t done a show aimed at kids yet,” said McDougall Jones.

“Veronica did her thesis in college on Lewis Carroll and had a long history with that play. And, when I was in kindergarten, my dad—a teacher at my school—wrote his own stage adaptation for the play that had 12 different students playing Alice, depending on how small or big she was. Our music teacher—Carol Babb--wrote some really wonderful songs for that production, so I’ve always had a dream of doing my own adaptation and including her songs. We’ll have three of her songs in the adaptation.”

While reading the original Lewis Carroll version, McDougall Jones was struck by how it is “weirdly devoid of anything like a journey of transformation, which is the pinpoint of most storytelling.”

“There’s usually a main character who goes on a journey of transformation that makes them different internally or externally than they were in the beginning. But Alice isn’t really affected very much in the original story, which presented a unique challenge in adapting it,” she said.

McDougall Jones watched various film adaptations of ‘Alice,’ and discovered that that gap in the original story gives screenwriters and playwrights room to make it about anything they want.

“Veronica and I had lots of conversations about what we wanted it to be about and what it meant to us. We landed on the idea of childhood being a connection to a wildness that hasn’t been domesticated yet. At the beginning of the story, you fear Alice could lose that because her sister is trying to make her into a proper lady. So, it’s about trying to retain that wildness and sense of wonder.”

McDougall Jones said she found some of the adaptations from the 1970s a little scary.

“Children’s programming was a little more frightening in the 1970s. It’s gotten a lot more sterilized since. But the characters in all the adaptations are so wonderful and unforgettable with the Queen of Hearts, Mad Hatter, White Rabbit and Cheshire Cat. And lots of adaptations, including the Disney version that most people know, took out the stranger parts of the original story. With this being an original adaptation, we bring in parts that aren’t usually included.”

McDougall Jones has been writing play scripts since she was an 18-year-old high school student when she wrote “The Walking Wounded” in response to 9/11. It won an award in the local playwriting competition judged by playwright Christopher Durang.

During college she wrote a play about eating disordered titled “37-24-37,” playing off what was considered perfect body proportions. That play debuted at the New York Fringe Festival.

Sun Valley audiences got to see one of her latest works, the ghostly “Hammond Castle,” when The Liberty Theatre Company presented it as a radio play last year.

Some of the Spanish-speaking performers in “Alice” have a little acting experience. Most do not, but some are teachers, which gives them experience presenting in front of an audience.

“It’s just so fun and cool and exciting to have rehearsals in both languages with two different casts. All the performers are really wonderful and funny and fantastic—we were blown away by them at the first rehearsal,” McDougall Jones said.

Leaders of the Hispanic community are getting the word out about the play, as are The Advocates, Hunger Coalition, Alliance of Idaho and The Senior Connection. The Liberty Theatre Company has posted fliers in Spanish and is promoting it on Spanish language radio.

“I feel honored to be part of a production that sparks imagination and brings such a timeless tale to life,” said Leonardo Padilla Sacha. “ ‘Alice in Wonderland’ is a journey into the whimsical and unexpected, a story that invites us all to embrace curiosity and wonder.”

“ ‘Alice in Wonderland’ is a special treat,” added actress Karen Nelsen. “It is like skipping rope in your favorite garden, only with words. It is curiosity and magic and wonder, with giggles thrown in for good measure.”

Alburger said it was interesting watching the foley artists at work during last year’s production of “Hammond Castle: “I believe audiences will enjoy watching them work alongside the actors to create a fully produced radio play.”

Tickets to the English performances are $30 general admission and $15 for students, available at https://www.libertytheatrecompany.org/ticketing.

Tickets to the Spanish performance are free but should be reserved in advance at https://www.libertytheatrecompany.org/ticketing. The Spanish performance will include post-show refreshments.

Questions? Call 208-582-8388.