With the recently released rights to the musical “Alice by Heart”, Fossil Ridge High School seized the opportunity and submitted the show to nationals with no expectations of what to come.
Taking place in Indiana, the International Thespian Festival (ITF) will host, for the first time, Fossil Ridge with the production of “Alice by Heart” in June. Fossil is the first school in over a decade to have this honor in Colorado. Not to mention, is one nine schools selected nationwide, along with one of the few public schools.
“I have chills, I’m so excited… [but] I don’t think it’s going to feel real until we’re on the plane,” Parker Cropp, cast as the Queen of Hearts, remarks after hearing the news.
The opportunities that come with this once in a lifetime experience are huge. ITF offers feedback on the show as well as clinics students may attend to learn more on certain aspects of the world of theater. Furthermore, nationwide recognition for Fossil’s theater program.
“I’m excited for them because they get to be little celebrities,” Mikayla Asmus, the musical’s director, comments on her excitement to see her students thrive at ITF.
The two lead protagonists of the show, Cooper Hand, playing the White Rabbit, and Hannah Schnorr, playing Alice, attended nationals last year; the wonderful shows set both of their expectations quite differently.
“A lot of us weren’t expecting it, [but] I saw all the shows last year at Nationals and they were really, really good. A lot of them I was thinking we could do that, we could be that level of greatness,” Hand shares his optimism.
“I don’t know; self-reflection last year, I was [thinking] we could never be that. But now we are, which is so cool,” Schnorr held the same expectations as many others involved in the production.
Yet, this wonderful news does not come without its challenges.
John Garner, the Technical Theater Director, is the brains behind moving the set and lighting to ITF. “The idea of creating a light, collapsible set began as a hypothetical learning experience for the team. They created the set on pallet racks and other light materials they could find and easily dismantle to fit on a truck. This learning experience quickly turned into a reality as they now are having to move the set to Indiana,” Garner explains.
However, “Alice by Heart” has been put on the back burner while they put on “Into the Woods” at the beginning of April. Following “Into the Woods”, the troupe has under a month to completely relearn “Alice by Heart” before putting on two fundraising shows on May 10th and 11th.
It would be quite an understatement to say that the troupe is thrilled to be a part of this opportunity to take “Alice by Heart” national.
