AT the heart of the third Easingwold Little Fest this week will be Phil Grainger's spectacular new community production of Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland.
Local lad Phil will use the town as a backdrop for promenade performances from tonight until Sunday as part of York Theatre Royal’s On Our Turf project, funded by the Arts Council’s Strategic Touring Funds.
The Theatre Royal has teamed up with four Yorkshire market towns – Easingwold, Pocklington, Helmsley and Selby – to produce festivals, curate work and create community productions, and already Easingwold has enjoyed two LittleFest weekends over the past two Septembers.
The festival returns for three days from today with a programme of free music, theatre, poetry and performance events around the town, plus workshops and family activities.
The big development this year is the headline show, Grainger's large-scale production of Alice in Wonderland with performers, musicians and a production team adding up to more than 80 people taking part, including Ella Bond as Alice.
Phil Grainger directing Alice In Wonderland
"When I set out to recruit performers of all ages to be involved, Theatre Royal artistic director Damian Cruden said I ought to aim high and double the numbers of previous casts I've directed," says 26-year-old Phil, who pitched successfully for this commission on the back of ten years of performing, directing and producing and even running festivals too.
"We've more than doubled past numbers with more than 70 actors aged seven to more mature members, plus musicians, including 12 members of the Easingwold Town Band. Everyone is very enthusiastic and full of energy and rehearsals have gone really well."
The 2015 project had begun at the start of the year with an Easingwold steering group saying they wanted to stage a big production. "My theatre company, Gobbledigook, put in a pitch for a promenade show of our own, but the steering group decided they'd like to do a show with 'more of a pull'. They suggested Alice InWonderland," recalls Phil.
"It was a happy coincidence that this year was the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll's book, which is why many people are doing shows across the country. Anyway, the group put out a national call for a director, I put in an application as director of Gobbledigook and they said yes to me after holding interviews. They decided I was the man for the job."
The prolific Phil – singer, songwriter, actor, facilitator, director and now promoter of a series of candlelit concerts in York – has relished entering the world of Wonderland. "I'd never done anything quite this big before, but the steering group knew I'd built up so many contacts, even at the age of only 26, working with people in Easingwold since I started in amateur dramatics exactly ten years ago," he says.
"It felt like such a clear step forward for me as a creative artist and the next step forward for my Gobbledigook company too."
The steering group was drawn to Phil's suggestions of incorporating dance and music in the production, to complement the script that he has put together with Gobbledigook writer David Jarman after they read the book "a hundred times".
They settled on a performance that would promenade around various Easingwold sites in the first half and move into a tent in Easingwold Memorial Park in the second.
Phil Grainger directing a rehearsal for Alice In Wonderland
Louise Burns, Holly Bream and Paul Wright have devised the show's design, producer Sandie Tanner-Smith has designed the costumes and Lisa Marie Baker and Catherine Cowman, from the York band Vesper Walk, have contributed to the show's diverse music. "When I saw them play, I thought of Alice In Wonderland straightaway," says Phil, who also will use Tom Waits's gravel-voiced recordings elsewhere, played through a gramophone.
Adam Snowden and Edward Dick, alumni from Easingwold School, will be in the tech team, having worked on community shows in York such as 2013's Blood + Chocolate and this summer's In Fog And Falling Snow at the National Railways Museum's Signal Box Theatre.
The cast has been working on the show since the summer holidays, initially undertaking movement and voice workshops to prepare for performing outdoors and in a tent, and this has been followed by a month of rehearsals, four or five days a week. Now Alice In Wonderland is ready to play its part in the 2015 Easingwold LittleFest, for which more programme details can be found at easingwoldlittlefest.com
Businesses such as E Kendall & Sons and GH Smith & Sons are supporting the show. "We simply couldn’t put on this scale of production without the generosity of local people giving their time, sponsorship and skills," says Phil.
"We're bringing together individuals and organisations who haven’t previously worked together and the team spirit is inspiring for everyone involved. This is a community production in the truest sense and a show of this scale is a one-off for Easingwold."
The audience capacity for each performance will be 100 and shows will take place at 6pm today and 2pm and 6pm on Saturday and Sunday. Box office: 01904 623568 or online at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk
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