Sure to shell out

Get your tickets now for ‘Alyse in Wonderland: Steampunk Style’

By Sabine Wilson

For the TODAY

Down the rabbit hole of warmhearted, wholesome entertainment you’ll go when you attend the next performance from the Lincoln City Playhouse youth theater company.

Combining elements of “Alice In Wonderland” and “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” writer Jo Strom Lane added a retro-futuristic spin to create “Alyse in Wonderland: Steampunk Style.”

The play will be performed on the Lincoln City Cultural Center auditorium stage from Friday, April 2 through Sunday, April 4.

Karen Bonelli Sanquist, executive artistic director and founder of the Lincoln City Playhouse, moved to the coast in 2017. After a few years, she decided to fill the demand for a full-time theater company specifically for children.

“I have always been involved in theater,” she said. “And I thought that there should be a theater company for kids. We started with ages eight through 18, but have had a 19 and 20-year old as well as five-year-olds. We decided to start in the summer of 2019, just teaching classes on costumes, makeup, improv and more.”

After their successful debut production of “Seussical Jr.” at the Beach Club in Lincoln City in 2019, the company was forced to put a halt to their plans for “Honk” and all other productions due to COVID-19.

“When we had the shutdown, it was sad for the kids,” Bonelli Sanquist said. “I would get messages from them asking, ‘When are we going to start?’”

But the bond amongst the kids, even during a shutdown, was strong.

“We would all get together on Facebook groups just to say ‘hi,’” Bonelli Sanquist said. “We even did a social distanced Halloween party. They are all so close.”

A year later, the kids are more than excited to return to their second home.

While the kids utilize their imagination and sharpen their skills to provide the community with endearing entertainment, it is their camaraderie with one another and their director that is most inspiring.

“A couple of the children have dyslexia,” Bonelli Sanquist said, adding that one of these children, Tessa, plays the lead character of Alyse and has to memorize roughly a whopping 170 lines.

“One way that she memorizes lines would be by watching the play over and over again or listening to the soundtrack,” Bonelli Sanquist said. “For this play we could not do that. So, for tricky word scenes like the Jabberwocky poem, I would google it and have her listen to it until she got the words right.”

When asked if Bonelli Sanquist felt this group was a family, she said, “It is a family. And that is what made me miss them so much. Theater creates the feeling that you belong.”

More than that, she has a strict ‘no child will be turned away’ policy.

“Any child is welcome here, it does not matter if you have a disability or what that disability is. I have worked with kids who have ADHD, kids with Asperger’s or are on the spectrum and dyslexic kids. I am willing to be patient and find out from the parents and kids what works best for them and how we can make them feel comfortable. If you feel like your disability is going to interfere, you should not feel that way; It is so important for the company that any child feels welcome.”

In addition to in-person performances in an auditorium with 75 socially-distanced seats, the playhouse is also offering a virtual show for those who don’t feel comfortable going out yet.

A talented seamstress, Bonelli Sanquist is making all of the masks and six costumes for the production on top of her duties as director, but it seems to be a small price to pay for her to be able to open the theater company again.

“The best part is seeing the kids interact with one another and how much fun they have together,” she said. “We are just excited to bring just a little bit of normalcy back to the kids and to the community.”

“Alyse in Wonderland: Steampunk Style” will take place at the Lincoln City Cultural Center at 7 pm on Friday, April 2, at 2 and 7 pm on Saturday, April 3, and at 2 pm on Sunday, April 4. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for kids are available at lincolncity-culturalcenter.org.

For livestream access, go to the Lincoln City Playhouse page on Facebook or email lincolncityplayhouse@gmail.com. For more information, call 503-913-6876.