Each generation faces a challenge: How do we pass on important lessons, cultural traditions, and family history to our children? What happens when we start changing or forgetting these traditions? And why should kids even care whether they learn them or not?
These are questions explored by Alice, the young heroine in the Maryland Ensemble Theatre’s latest production, Moon Festival Alice. Produced by the MET’s Fun Company (whose shows are created for young audiences) in partnership with the Asian American Center of Frederick, Moon Festival Alice reimagines Alice in Wonderland. This adaptation’s Wonderland is “a magical world inspired by Asian folklore, festivals, and modern Asian American life” (as the summary describes). The result is a fast-paced, kid-friendly performance that weaves Asian music, dance, stories, and even recipes into a story the whole family can enjoy.
The story opens with Alice (Ember Pak) reluctantly helping her family prepare for a large Moon Festival celebration, filled with traditions whose origins she forgets and whose importance she questions. While hanging lanterns outside, she follows a strange white rabbit (Alex Ramos) into Moon World, a place where traditions go when they are forgotten.
The props (Lori Boyd) and stage design (Julie Herber and Joann Foltz) for Moon World are beautiful and cleverly designed to help transform the MET’s small space into a number of different locations within this wonderland. Gauzy white curtains, for example, shift from simple background adornments to flowing additions as dances mark scene changes, to objects Alice bounces off from one scene to the next, or to places for actors to hide and emerge.
Moon World’s plight soon reveals itself: Something is affecting its light, making everything dimmer and threatening its very existence. Once again, production design shines here. Lighting designer Cody James utilizes lights from paper lanterns, a wide array of colored spotlights, and strategic, precisely timed lighting and dimming to accentuate the action. Key musical transitions, often using Asian-inspired instrumental songs, and strategic background sounds (managed by sound designer Shayden Jamison) alternately heighten feelings of whimsy, confusion, and suspense, sometimes all at once — particularly helpful for younger audience members who might have a hard time catching the exact meaning of the dialogue, which at times was so fast-paced that it could be hard to understand.
As Alice and the Rabbit try to figure out what is happening in Moon World, Alice begins to understand why people value traditions and old stories. She also starts to recognize how old stories have become new again. In one notable scene, Alice encounters a fox with multiple tails (Helen Cheng-Mao), who explains how she appears in multiple folk stories and fairy tales, such as the kitsune (Japan), huli jing (China), or the gumiho (Korea). Alice recognizes the fox from a more modern context: the Pokémon character Ninetales.
It is clear that everyone involved in Moon Festival Alice had fun creating this experience. The story and the costumes (Julie Herber) took some of the most notable characters from Alice in Wonderland — the Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit, the Queen of Hearts, the Caterpillar (now a silkworm creating stories) — and transformed their costumes to reflect their reimagined Asian ties. The costume changes were impressive, particularly for Helen Cheng-Mao, Alexander Ose, and Hazel Pak, who open the show as Alice’s parents and sister, respectively, but rapidly change into multiple characters throughout the show (each with unique costumes), all while running around the stage and drawing the audience in with their energy.
The play’s emphasis on the value of stories and traditions for future generations is particularly poignant, given the MET Fun Company’s target audience of children and families. While the dialogue could be hard to understand at times because of how fast the characters were talking, the movement on the stage, the production cues, and the actors’ facial and body expressions still made it possible for audience members (young and old alike) to follow the story and cheer on Alice throughout her journey.
With the short run time (less than an hour) and the multiple arts-and-crafts activities available for kids before and after the show, Moon Festival Alice is a great option for anyone interested in taking their young children to a play for the first time. Perhaps by attending a show about honoring and enjoying family traditions, they may be inspired to start a new tradition of their own.
Running Time: Approximately one hour with no intermission.
Moon Festival Alice runs from Saturday, September 26, through Sunday, October 18, at the Maryland Ensemble Theatre, 31 West Patrick Street, Frederick, MD. Tickets ($10–$20) are available online, by phone at (301) 694-4744, or in person at the MET Box Office (Tues–Thurs: 12–6 p.m., Friday: 12–4 p.m., and one hour before showtime).
Moon Festival Alice
A Fun Company Original
Directed by Julie Herber
CAST
Helen Cheng-Mao
Alexander Ose
Ember Pak
Hazel Pak
Alex Ramos
Swings: Sophia Mordkosfsky & Angelica Ramos
PRODUCTION TEAM
Director/Deviser/Costume & Scenic Designer: Julie Herber
Original Music Composer: Angelica Ramos
Stage Manager: Madeline Mobley
Lighting Designer: Cody James
Sound Designer: Shayden Jamison
Scenic Designer/Artist: Joann Foltz
Props Designer: Lori Boyd
Fun Company Artistic Director: Julie Herber
Technical Director: Cody James
Production Manager: Matt Harris
