From March 7-15, Marlborough Ensemble Theatre (MET) made history with its first musical production, “Alice by Heart.” The pop-rock musical follows a young girl, Alice, and her friend Alfred, as they travel through Wonderland, from Lewis Caroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” to escape the chaos of World War II.
MET is Marlborough’s audition-only theater elective, made up of 12 juniors and seniors. Typically, MET performs non-musical plays, with recent productions of “Radium Girls” and “Lord of the Flies.” However, this year, MET students made the unique decision to perform a musical.
“[The current seniors] have so many really passionate musical theatre performers, so we made a special exception since this particular group has such a bulk of talent in that area,” MET Director Kristi Schultz said.
Once it became clear that they would be doing a musical, Schultz divided the MET students into groups to pitch show ideas. Several limitations must be considered when choosing the MET show, such as the number of roles, content matter, relevance and ability to be executed in the smaller space of the Intimate Theatre, where MET performances are held.
As an ensemble-based class, MET must also choose a show with similarly sized roles and a greater amount of communal work.
“I think that there’s a tendency in theatre for people to want to outdo each other, and what MET really focuses in on is us coming together and finding a collective voice and a collective narrative,” MET student Mattie Epstein ’25 said.
One particular point of focus for MET is the relevance and messaging of the show, which led the members to compare the political subject matter of the show to today’s political climate.
“There’s so much uncertainty and fear about what’s going to happen in the world right now,” Schultz said.
Despite the show being chosen during the fall semester, some MET members also drew connections between the plot of “Alice by Heart” and the Los Angeles fires that took place this January.
“After the fires, the show got even more relevant, particularly with this idea of being in a shelter and being in this consistent state of having to watch,” Schultz said.
Other MET members related the themes of “Alice by Heart” to the fires.
“Especially with everything that happened in LA in January, [the show also focuses on] emphasizing your connections, emphasizing being strong and having to accept when things are really hard,” MET student Georgia Gray ’25 said.
In addition to the broader connections MET recognized within the show, members also connected with the theme of maturing, which is especially applicable as the majority of the cast is getting ready to graduate.
“[‘Alice by Heart’] is very topical for MET, because it’s all about accepting that you’re growing up and having to let go of those child-like things,” Gray said.
