"Alice in Wonderland" Flash

In May 2004, the University of Canterbury Drama Society (DramaSoc) performed a quite unique rendition of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Adapted from the book and directed by Lisa Norriss (with creative input from others, including myself) Wonderland was created as it had never been seen before. The stage had a backdrop onto which computer-animated backgrounds were projected from behind, using a complicated and technologically staggering arrangement of bits of wood and stuff, and there was a mirror in there somewhere, too. There was also a "front-drop" at the front of the stage, which not only concealed scene-changed going on behind it, but also doubled as a projection screen for a second projector, high above the audience. This second projector was notorious for overheating and shutting itself off, but this fortunately happened at convenient times, such as during the interval, or when the front screen was not being used.

It was my priveliege to create the projected scenery for Wonderland, which I made using Macromedia Flash MX, and photographs taken in the botanical gardens (and off the internet).
This is where I am storing the Flash files that we used. Note that we didn't have preloaders on them, so don't click the links, just rightclick and "Save target as". And when it has downloaded, you may then view it. In some cases I have zipped the Flash files into one archive.

Alice in the Hallway - Alice has just entered Wonderland and finds the golden door. She also shrinks and grows. Although her giant tears were written out of the script, there was still a bit of swimming, as you will see. Also features a corny cameo of me as an elf or some other magical critter.
Alice-Hallway.zip

Alice at the House of Rabbit - The White Rabbit's House. This was the most nasty scene to have to synchronise with the onstage action, complicated further by it being the biggest file in the show and therefore running the slowest. But it was also a technomalogical breakthrough, having direct interaction between the real actors and Alice's Flash-animated doppelganger.
Alice-House1.zip - the smaller files
Alice-House2.swf (rightclick here) - the whopping 6 megabyte animation of Alice unlawfully entering the Rabbit's house. The clip of Alice entering was shot with a digital camera and imported into Flash, hence the huge filesize.

The Caterpillar's Domain - Alice meets the Caterpillar in his putrid, decaying swamp of decadence.
Alice-CaterpillarBog.swf - Rightclick here

Cheshire Cat - Alice's first encounter with the Cheshire Cat, with the Dutchess, the cook, and other mad folk.
Alice-Cat.zip

A Mad Tea Party - A highlight of the show, this partly improvised (against original plans) scene involved a lot of spilled tea, a few broken cups, and even some cream pies in the face. And tweacle. Tweacle, tweacle, tweacle!
Alice-Madhouse.swf - Rightclick here

Tea Party/Garden Transition - A smooooth transition made clunky by slow hardware. :D
Alice-MHGX.swf - Rightclick here

The Queen's Garden - This was tricky. We had to coordinate our Cheshire Cat appearances and disappearances with the actor's exits and entrances.
Alice-CatGarden.zip

The Gryphon's Domain - Projected onto the front screen as the Queen of Hearts took Alice to meet the Gryphon.
Alice-Gryphon.swf - Rightclick here

The Gryphon takes Alice to the Mock Turtle's Seaside Resort - The front screen goes up, and lo and behold, this projection is already on the backscreen, thanks to the magic of theatre (and backstage crew). Those little snailish-crablike critters sure are fun to watch.
Alice-Seashore.swf - Rightclick here

The Trial - Lisa decided that the Knave of Hearts' trial would be very tribal, with fire and outdoorsy surroundings amd such. I think somebody watches too much Survivor. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Anyway, I made this spooky cave setting for it!
Alice-Trial.swf - Rightclick here

DELETED SCENES!

Here's some stuff that didn't make it as far as the show:

Madness at the Duchess' House - Hypnotic, disturbing, and not really necessary after all.
Alice-Madness.swf - Rightclick here

I Was Bored - Whilst waiting for the dodgy projector to finish overheating and get its ass back online during a tech rehearsal, I made this animation and played it when the audience weren't there, just for a laugh among the cast and backstagers.
Alice-bored.swf - Rightclick here

All material here is copyright to Andrew Kepple, of Too Much Spare Time enterprises.