As our version of Alice in Wonderland develops we will be giving you updates from our cast and crew. Jasmine Coles who is playing Alice wrote a blog about her discoveries while exploring the character:
I have lost count of the many "walls" I have hit while discovering Alice. I hit my very first "wall" when I was asked to read Alice during the auditions. I thought to myself, " I don't know what they want, I don't know how to be Alice and myself." I only knew Alice "the stereotype". However, stereotypes are blown up and generalized, yet contain truth. Understanding the root of the stereotypes and the judgment that comes with the stereotype helps me to recognize my own judgments. So as I rehearsed the reading before entering the audition room I promised myself that I would not attempt to figure out what kind of "Alice" they wanted to see, I was going to give them the Alice I had to offer, and although I did not know what that was, I trusted in my work (This was a big moment for me). I was a colorful experience to discover Alice slowly as I was auditioning, and once I was cast I began filling my head with movies and stories and again I was faced with Alice's stereotype. My first instinct is to detach myself from it because she is a white girl in a blue dress and I am a black girl who wears black clothes everyday for theater class lol. ( but that is my stereotype) So I have decided to start with my stereotype and her stereotype and slowly peel off the layers. And slowly I see, that she is me.
I have lost count of the many "walls" I have hit while discovering Alice. I hit my very first "wall" when I was asked to read Alice during the auditions. I thought to myself, " I don't know what they want, I don't know how to be Alice and myself." I only knew Alice "the stereotype". However, stereotypes are blown up and generalized, yet contain truth. Understanding the root of the stereotypes and the judgment that comes with the stereotype helps me to recognize my own judgments. So as I rehearsed the reading before entering the audition room I promised myself that I would not attempt to figure out what kind of "Alice" they wanted to see, I was going to give them the Alice I had to offer, and although I did not know what that was, I trusted in my work (This was a big moment for me). I was a colorful experience to discover Alice slowly as I was auditioning, and once I was cast I began filling my head with movies and stories and again I was faced with Alice's stereotype. My first instinct is to detach myself from it because she is a white girl in a blue dress and I am a black girl who wears black clothes everyday for theater class lol. ( but that is my stereotype) So I have decided to start with my stereotype and her stereotype and slowly peel off the layers. And slowly I see, that she is me.
