Students from the 2024 Stage of Discovery program perform in last summer's culminating show, Make Room for Me. Photo by Sorcha Augustine.

Next week, West Coast Black Theatre Troupe’s Stage of Discovery summer musical theater camp will come to an end. The camp, which enrolled 34 students aged 11-18 in a five week intensive course with lessons in dance, acting, singing, improvisation and creative writing, celebrated its 10th anniversary this summer and will culminate in an original two act musical Alice in Boogie Wonderland shown on July 12 and 13.

“We’re hopefully giving them the foundations so if they’re interested in a life in the performing arts, they’ll be able to take this information with them and strengthen their skills as they go,” says Jim Weaver, education director/artistic associate at WBTT. “My favorite part of camp is when you see the lightbulb go off in their eyes after weeks of lessons and they finally get it. It’s such a gratifying moment.”

Weaver, who wrote and will direct Alice in Boogie Wonderland, selected the musical with the intention of providing the students with something that would put all of their skills they’ve learned over the course of the camp to the test. “I wanted the kids to be challenged, but I also wanted them to have as much opportunity as possible to incorporate what they’re studying with singing, dancing and acting into the production,” says Weaver. “Alice in Wonderland has such defined, extreme characters that encourage the actors to step out of their comfort zones and explore what they’ve been studying about character development and physical presentation.”

Alice in Boogie Wonderland deviates from the original story both in the narrative structure—which Weaver wrote in so that the students can take part in a story with a beginning, middle and end—and in its musicality. In Weaver’s story, Wonderland is a fantasy world where music from all eras serves as the connective tissue, linking the characters together. Featured musical numbers include Roy Hamilton’s 1958 R&B hit Don’t Let Go, 1973’s Yesterday Once More by the Carpenters and Fantasy from Earth, Wind & Fire. “Part of the intention behind the song selection is to expose our students to other kinds of music that were around before they were born,” says Weaver. “It’s a continuation of them learning and being exposed to different things, but also incorporating a cross section of musical styles within the show itself.”

Alice in Boogie Wonderland, July 12 at 7:30pm, July 13 at 2pm, 1012 N. Orange Ave., Sarasota, 34236

Students from the 2024 Stage of Discovery program perform in last summer's culminating show, Make Room for Me. Photo by Sorcha Augustine.

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