Drumline competition makes way for two understudies in Saturday’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’ performance
Senior Micah Harvey-King. Harvey-King takes on the role of the Griffin in Saturday’s “Alice in Wonderland” performance.
March 4, 2015
Approximately one day after the cast list was posted for this year’s spring play, “Alice in Wonderland,” a conflict arose. Because of a drumline competition, two of the actors casted weren’t able to make it to one of the performances, and two understudies had to be enlisted to take on the roles for the performance on Saturday March 5 at 1:30 p.m.
The two understudies, seniors Micah Harvey-King and Angel Castellanos, are using their limited time frame to perfect their performances in order to live up to expectations set by the original characters who were casted.
Micah Harvey-King will be taking the place of sophomore Emma Cooper as the Gryphon. Although Harvey-King has only seen Cooper rehearse one time, she says it has helped her come into the character she is expected to be for her performance this coming Saturday.
“The hardest part is that the Gryphon has a cockney accent,” Harvey-King said. “And everyone else in the play who has that accent, or any accent at all, had weeks to plan for it.They were able to pull up YouTube videos and they had weeks to practice it…So, Whitlock had to teach me (the accent) last minute.”
Not only is Harvey-King striving to emulate Cooper’s accent, but her movements as well. She says the Gryphon, being a bird, makes bird-like motions, for example pecking its “beak.”
Castellanos is having similar difficulties when trying to portray the Mad Hatter in the place of Jake Rose.
“It’s kind of difficult because Jake is super good at being the Mad Hatter,” Castellanos said. “So as the understudy, I don’t know what to do to be as good as him to make the Saturday show equal to all the other ones.”
The biggest concern Castellanos has is simply memorizing his lines, with less than a week to prepare, his lines are his main focus.
Other than memorizing his lines, Castellanos says he has a considerable amount of stress, which is difficult to deal with.
Even with the shortened time frame, Whitlock says she has confidence in her two understudies and their ability to excel when the curtain raises on show day.
