I know I haven't been on to post lately but July just seemed to fly by and now it's already August...I have decided to postpone the project, probably till next summer. After all, my venue (aka parent's backyard) isn't going anywhere and it just didn't work out with my non-theatre work schedule.

Characters:

• Charles Dodgson: lecturer in mathematics at Christ Church College, Oxford. Avid amateur photographer, with a focus on portraits. Loved language and words. Fairly quiet man, raised in a large family, with a number of siblings whom he would write little books and magazines for, and make up puzzles for them to solve. Did not travel much, never married. Had relationships with children, often little girls, but there is no evidence that he was a pedophile. He also had relationships with people his own age, both men and woman, and sometimes with married woman.
• Alice Liddell: somewhat of an old soul, dark hair, bright eyes, an imagination that never stops. Youngest Loves to be outside, loves stories. Shy around people she does not know. Passionate about life, doesn't like rules/strictures, or boring stories (which is why she likes Mr. Dodgson, he tells good ones!). To her: "Wonderland is so much better than here!" (Almost Wonderland, Scene 4).
• Dean Liddell: family man, Dean of Christ Church College, Oxford. Loves his wife and children. Victorian gentleman, protector. Does not want to lose Alice.
• Lorina Liddell: Eldest, apple of her mother's eye. Victorian through and through, especially more as she grows up. Nickname: Ina. Once maybe believed in Wonderland. She also plays the Mad Hatter, why is a raven like a writing desk, in Scene 3.)
• Edith Liddell: Middle child, caught betwen Lorina and Alice in more than one way. Caught between following rules and being proper and joining Alice in her world, which truly does seem a lot more fun. She also plays the March Hare in Scene 3).
• White Rabbit, is what he sounds like. Lives in the Deanery Garden.
• Cheshire Cat..."I've seen a cat without a grin, but never a grin without a cat." (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland).

"Almost Wonderland" is a play...

So now that I have that worked out let's move on, shall we? I feel like, and I know I should be, coming at the play from a different perspective. It's had two productions, the first of which I co-directed, which were Youth Infringement 2002 and Canterbury Arts Fest 2003. Gone through a succession of drafts, I've lost track, but at it's very core has never changed. Even when I essentially rewrote it once with the help of my lovely and talented writer mentor Lesley Buxton, going into auditions for Youth Infringment, it still had its centre and I believe soul, Alice Liddell and Charles Dodgson and their relationship.

I have in mind all these incredible images and pictures of how I want it to be, how I want to use the backyard, the play itself in this environmental space.

Themes:

• escape
• dreams
• wonder
• stories
• love (different forms, focus on father/daughter)
• family
• exposure (especially camera sense)
• topsy-turvy
• loss
• growing up

Mysterious, genius, a tad eccentric

I consider this a journal, a record, a meeting place...but sometimes trying to sound all creative and artistic is hard work let me tell you. Although I want to in some bizarre way because somehow my mind is making me believe that I have to be and in some way justifying that. I have to be mysterious and a genius and maybe a little eccentric. Because after all, I am an artist.

That's also a hard thing to say: I am an artist! What a loaded statement, and that produces a myraid of different responses. Everything from: okay, that's great, always good having a hobby but what's your day job? to that's wonderful, where I can see some of your work? You have to brave to be able to say that, to believe entirely in yourself and what you do, to trust that deep within to the very core of your soul and your entire being that you are what you say you are. And that's damn difficult. Sometimes I worry that I'm not that brave, and sometimes I feel like giving up, and sometimes well...I am that brave, and I have that much courage.

Alot to think about but who wants life to be boring?

Mary

I NEED ACTORS! (and that is all, for now at least, what I am focusing on.)

Introduction

I have just recently graduated from Concordia University in Montreal, where I studied in their theatre department (a place which I will dearly miss, a place in which I grew up in many ways, a place filled with some of the most wonderful and creative people anywhere). On June 20 I recieved my BFA in Playwriting and ta, da: became a university graduate. Although I studied Montreal, a city which has become a second home, I was born and raised in Ottawa. That's right, Canada's capital and contrary to popular belief- a city with a vibrant and growing arts scene. I'm also an alumni of Canterbury high school, which I attended for their own of a kind literary arts program, named number one arts highschool in Canada by Macleans. I have returned here to work, at a berry farm, where I sell baskets to people who want to pick their own strawberries (a phenonmen that I've only ever seen in Ottawa). It's easy, I get to spend the summer outside, and it allows me to earn some money while looking for work in theatre or in the case of The Wonderland Project create theatre of my own.

I am a playwright (hence the degree), a director, a stage manager and even an occasional actor. "Almost Wonderland" has had a long journey of creation, development, production. I originally wrote it in grade 11 at Canterbury for an independent study, it moved on to win a Carleton University Creative Writing Award for drama (incidentally the same year Canterbury's literary arts students claimed all the cash prizes), has been produced at the 2002 Youth Infringment Festival at Ottawa's Arts Court and the 2003 Canterbury Arts Fest. It was the play that I submitted as my portfolio for playwriting at Concordia, and has undergone a number of drafts. Running under 45 minutes, it's a piece that I'm dreaming of taking on a Fringe tour. At it's heart it's about the relationship between Charles Dodgson, who wrote under the pen name Lewis Carroll, and Alice Liddell, the young girl who inspired both Alice books. It's the difference between the Victorian world and Wonderland, the latter of which is just beyond the keyhole. Besides Alice and Dodgson the cast list includes Alice's father, the Dean of Christ Church College at Oxford (where Dodgson is a lecturer in mathematics), Alice's sisters Lorina & Edith, the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter & March Hare (which are played by the sisters). Canadian poet Stephanie Bolster, whose Governor General's awarding winning book "White Stone/The Alice Poems" partly inspired the play calls "Almost Wonderland": "both enchanting and disturbing, as it should be".

My dad's home in Ottawa, just recently moved to, has a big gorgoeus backyard, about 10 minutes downtown by bus, in the heart of the city with a perfect yard for theatre. Perfect for my "Almost Wonderland." Complete with it's own rabbits. Hence the birth of the Wonderland project. I intend to find a cast, and rehearse around my schedule at the berry farm and people's summer plans for a performance run outside at some point in September; whenever the the Indian summer falls. It's the perfect backyard, and the images I'm getting are threatening to overflow my mind. The performance will be free, but donations are welcome, hats will be passed afterwards. Stay tuned to http://www.wonderlandproject.blogspot.com/ for more to come!

Mary Davidson