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The Blog of the LCSNA

Who are you? Roger Daltrey to voice the Caterpillar in “Once Upon a Time” Wonderland special

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Roger Daltrey, the Caterpillar
Roger Daltrey, the Caterpillar
Roger Daltrey, the Caterpillar
Roger Daltrey, the Caterpillar

Roger Daltrey, former lead singer of The Who, is to lend his voice to the Caterpillar in a Wonderland-themed episode of the ABC show Once Upon a Time. The executive producers of the show apparently said that The Who’s rock opera “Tommy” was “a huge inspiration for the show,” so, who could be better, really?

“Once Upon a Time” is a fantasy drama set in Storybrooke, Maine, a fictional town populated by fairy tale characters who have been exiled to the real world. The episode, entitled “Hat Trick,” will air on Sunday, March 25th on ABC. Other guest stars will include Sebastian Stan as the Hatter, who you may (or may not) remember as the bad guy in the movie Hot Tub Time Machine. In the episode, producer Edward Kitsis promises, “we find out how the Mad Hatter became mad.”

Sebastien Stan as the Mad Hatter in "Once Upon a Time"
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Little Master Carroll – Colorful new edition of Alice for babies and toddlers

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If you like your Alice in Wonderland editions bright, light on words, and difficult to destroy when thrown around the nursery, then check out Jennifer Adams’ new board book. The Utahan author has previously presented versions of other baby favorites like Pride & Prejudice, Romeo & Juliet, and Jane Eyre in her Babylit series, described as  “a fashionable way to introduce your toddler to the world of classic literature.” The art by Alison Oliver is very bubbly and stylish, each page illustrating text such as “orange cat,” “blue caterpillar,” or “red hearts.” Alice in Wonderland: A Colors Primer (Little Master Carroll: Babylit) is published by Gibbs Smith and sells for $9.99.

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Spring Meeting April 2012 Program Announced!

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Full details for this year’s LCSNA Spring Meeting are now available online. Join us in Cambridge, Massachuettes for a weekend of Carrollian scholarship, conviviality, and a little magic.

The main meeting will be on Saturday, April 28 at Harvard University’s Houghton Library. Speakers include Selwyn Goodacre on the 150th anniversary of the boat ride during which Lewis Carroll told the Adventures to Alice Liddell and her sisters, with a review of the various editions of Alice’s Adventures under Ground. Following on this theme, Matt Demakos will discuss the evolution from Underground to the Wonderland. Mark Richards will enlighten us on the finer points of Carroll’s mathematically poetic work A Tangled Tale, and Alan Tannenbaum will tell us about A. B. Frost, the illustrator of A Tangled Tale and Rhyme? and Reason?. Linda Cassady will then talk about the exciting Wonderland Award at the University of Southern California, and show examples of the brilliant art it has inspired. Finally, Chris Morgan will demonstrate some of the magic practiced by Lewis Carroll. Other events include Friday’s Maxine Schaefer Reading for Children and a visit on Sunday to the Tannenbaum collection in nearby Chelmsford.

Download this pdf for the full program and for information on how to book meals and accommodation.

While in the area, members may also like to check out the current exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston: Silver, Salt, and Sunlight: Early Photography in Britain and France, featuring none other than Carroll’s own “Xie Kitchin Asleep on Sofa.”

We hope to see you there!

 

 

 

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Snark in the Park: Theater for children in New Orleans

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Skin Horse Theater Presents: "The Hunting of the Snark" by Lewis Carroll

Fresh air and nonsense is available for all at the New Orleans Museum of Art for the next two Saturdays of this month. The Hunting of the Snark, adapted for children by Skin Horse Theater, is being performed in the Sculpture Garden on March 10 and March 17 at 3pm. Admission is free. These daytime performances will each be followed by an evening performance at the Backyard Ballroom, 3519 St. Claude Avenue, at 10 pm, with a $5 admission fee. Will these late night Snarks be equally child-friendly, we wonder? The Backyard Ballroom doesn’t have a website; to find out more about the performances call (504) 473-6819.

Founded at Bard College in 2008, Skin Horse Theater has a bit of history with Lewis Carroll: their inaugural performance was Curiouser: A Historical Inaccuracy, which entwined the lives of Lewis Carroll, Alice Liddell and Sylvia Plath.

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Into the Looking Glass exhibit at the Noyes Museum

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Art from the Noyes Museum's exhibit Alice: Into the Looking Glass

If you’re on the Jersey Shore this Winter, stop in the Noyes Museum of Art in Oceanville, New Jersey. An exhibition called “Alice: Into the Looking Glass” is running from February 3rd thru May 20th. The show is described thusly:

A diverse selection of works range from illustrations based closely on Carroll’s text, to works which allude more subtly to the original story, offering new and sometimes challenging interpretations. Imagery relates to the multitude of themes found in Carroll’s stories. Conflict, identity, fear, language and perception are expressed in 2 and 3 dimensional works.

There’s also a panel discussion coming up there called “Lewis Carroll and the Alice in Wonderland Stories,” Tuesday, March 20 at 2:30pm.
Our photos were taken by an LCSNA member – if anyone has attributions for the artists, please put them in the comments & we will append!

Interactive art from the Noyes Museum's exhibit Alice: Into the Looking Glass
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500 years of interactive books (and no iPads) at the University of Rochester

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Another exhibition for our East Coast readers: Springing to Life: Movable Books & Mechanical Devices at the University of Rochester.

Interactive books long-predate the LCD screen, and this exhibition features over 50 examples of pop-up, pull-tab, lift-flap, spin-dial papier-mechanical ingenuity from the past 500 years. In the video below, curator Leah Hamilton introduces the exhibition and demonstrates some of the items on display. Robert Sabuda’s Alice pop-up features prominently as does work by Kubasta, who created the wonderful pop-up Alice published in 1960.

The exhibition is being held University of Rochester, Rare Books and Special Collections, Rush Rhees Library from January 23 to August 17, 2012. Call (585) 275-4477 for exhibition hours.

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Xie Kitchin Asleep on Sofa in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston

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Xie Kitchin Asleep on Sofa, Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

There’s a chance to see one of Charles Dodgson’s photographs up close at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston between now and August 5 this year. “Xie Kitchin Asleep on Sofa,” taken on July 14, 1873, is a recent acquisition by the museum and has been included in their new exhibition, Silver, Salt, and Sunlight: Early Photography in Britain and France. Other photographic pioneers celebrated include William Henry Fox Talbot, Edouard Baldus, Julia Margaret Cameron, and Francis Frith.

Salon.com has posted a slide show of exhibition highlights in an article entitled Postcards from the Dawn of Photography. The main article features an interview with Anne Havinga, the Estrellita and Yousuf Karsh senior curator of photographs at the museum. Havinga gives some interesting background to the exhibition and mentions Dodgson’s picture in particular: “…that’s our newest acquisition, so we’re very proud of it. Lewis Carroll’s work has a market beyond the photography world, so these images are expensive.”

The exhibition has also been reviewed by Mark Feeney for the Boston Globe.

Xie Kitchin Asleep on Sofa, Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Silver, Salt, and Sunlight: Early Photography in Britain and France
Museum of Fine Arts Boston from February 7 until August 19, 2012

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Jenny Portlock’s new Wood Engraving Website

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Jenny Portlock's "Looking Forward," Original Wood Engraving, from "Chasing Dreams"

Jenny Portlock, a wood engraver from Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, has taken inspiration from Lewis Carroll’s books for years. Now you can see some of her art on her new website, www.woodengravings.eu. “I print my wood Engravings and linocuts onto hand-made papers using an antique cast-iron press and have designed my own imprint which is hand-embossed into each print,” writes Portlock of her process. “Each original engraving and linocut is part of a small limited edition and prices range from £50-£150.”

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Tickets going quickly for the Washington Ballet’s ALICE

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Opening night for the Washington Ballet’s ALICE (in wonderland) is just around the corner and tickets are selling quickly. The world premiere production is the work of Washington Ballet choreographer Septime Webre, designer Liz Vandal, and composer Matthew Pierce. It is being heralded as a fantastical take on an already pretty fantastical story and the contribution of Liz Vandal, whose creations you may have seen at the Cirque du Soliel’s OVO show (the one with the insects), certainly suggests that this ballet is going to be a splendid spectacle.

Vandal’s costume sketches for the production were unveiled in January and were featured on the Huffington Post. They seem to promise a little bit of the familiar and a lot of the very strange indeed. Many more character sketches can been seen in a slideshow that accompanied the Huff Post’s article.

Liz Vandal
Liz Vandal
Liz Vandal

ALICE (in wonderland) will run from from April 11-15 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Eisenhower Theater, with only seven performances in all. Tickets are priced from $55 to $155.

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Caterina Morelli’s Italian index of illustrated Alices

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wonderlandbooks.blogspot.com

For many collectors, the act of cataloging the collection can be an essential part of the pleasure. Caterina Morelli’s blog Alice in Wonderland is a great example. In her native Italian, Morelli painstakingly documents her extensive collection of Carroll editions; as she puts it, “every post is an index card of a book.” Each card starts with an evocative description of the edition, followed by detailed information about the illustrator, publisher, and text – even the dimensions and the construction of the book are recorded. The cards are organized by illustrator.

When she told me about her blog, Caterina mentioned that some day she would like to translate it into English. Perhaps someone reading this blog is an Italian-English translator and an Alice fan? Would you like to help with her project? What nicer way could there be to brush up on your Italian?

 

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