Down the rabbit hole

How many times have you read "Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland?" Or read Lewis Carroll’s charming story to your children or your grandchildren?

Remember when Alice falls into the rabbit hole? “Either the hole was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen next?”

If you would like to think about what it would be like to think about making a daisy-chain or falling into a hole in the Earth, you can have that experience at Prescott Farm Environmental Education Center. In a collaboration with the Powerhouse Theatre Collective, join groups of children (that is children and those of us who feel like children) and follow a real character around the landscape of Prescott Farm.

Small groups will depart every 20 minutes with their own personal Alice character leading the way. Who are the characters in Alice?

There is the White Rabbit, highly energetic and often tardy. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, a team of comedians who like to recite poetry. The ruler, the Queen of Hearts, so domineering she overshadows the King of Hearts. There is a caterpillar, a Cheshire Cat and the Mad Hatter.

All the many characters in Wonderland were originally illustrated by a Victorian artist, John Tenniel (1820–1914).

What influenced Lewis Carroll, whose real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, to write the Alice story? It was his friendship with the Liddell family, and their children, a son, Harry, and three daughters, Alice and her sisters Edith and Lorina. He began taking the children on rowing trips and telling them stories. At their encouragement he wrote them down. Lewis Carroll had studied mathematics and loved solving and making and solving puzzles.

When we think about classic children’s literature it is the books that have to do with nature that come to mind: "The Wind in the Willows," "Charlotte’s Web," "Make Way for Ducklings" — the list goes on. It is in nature we can use our imaginations and engage in anthropomorphism, imagining the many creatures, lizards, frogs, caterpillars as humans in fanciful narratives.

There are a few lines from Alice in Wonderland we will always remember:

"Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

"It's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then."

"We're all mad here."

"Curiouser and curiouser!"

There are three dates, Sunday, Sept. 15, and Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 21-22, when you can spend an afternoon in Wonderland with Alice.

My suggestion is to think about the character you would like to be and how you can make a costume. I promise you “will not feel like the person you were yesterday.” I’m thinking about how I can dress like a rabbit and not just any rabbit, the White Rabbit.

For more information, visit powerhousenh.org/showstickets#alices. Looking forward to falling down the hole and into Wonderland.

Jabberwocky

By Lewis Carroll

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand.

Long time the manxome foe he sought—

So rested he by the Tumtum tree

And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,

The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,

Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,

And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through

The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!

He left it dead, and with its head

He went galumphing back.

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?

Come to my arms, my beamish boy!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”

He chortled in his joy.

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

Source: The Random House Book of Poetry for Children (1983)

•••

Elizabeth Howard is the host of the Short Fuse Podcast, found on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or through the Arts Fuse. Her career intersects journalism, marketing, and communications. "Ned O’Gorman: A Glance Back," a book she edited, was published in May 2016. She is the author of "A Day with Bonefish Joe," a children’s book, published by David R. Godine. You can send her a note at eh@elizabethhoward.com.