The Origin of Once Upon A Holiday
Most people are surprised to learn that Once Upon A Holiday started in 2007 as a 1-Act 40 minute show. Many more are surprised to learn that it’s an original creation, made from my love of the holidays and my wacky sense of humor.
When SIDEWAYS started in 2006, we did a holiday event as a fundraiser. We created a very short (20-minute) comedy style dance show to my favorite holiday songs. The Parade of the Soldiers and Winter’s Night first debuted at that event. There was no story-line, just an odd collection of dances. I knew I wanted more. I wanted something intentional and something different (and perhaps more fun) than your standard Nutcracker.
I started to brainstorm ideas of things that were quirky but could be matched with the holidays. I immediately thought of Disney’s Nightmare before Christmas but I didn’t want to just copy a set story. I wanted to make my own. (Side note - Glad I didn’t go that route because I'm pretty sure I would be sued by Disney.) So after a few months, I settled on the fairytale of Alice in Wonderland.
What if Alice went into a festive holiday wonderland? Once Upon A Holiday was born.
The original storyline was pretty simple. There is a child named Alice at an all adult party. She gets bored and falls asleep. When she wakes up, there’s Ms. Claus (the white rabbit replacement) and she follows her into Wonderland. She meets some weird characters - child mad hatters, Elvis, and penguins who report to the Grinch. She warms the Grinch's heart through dancing with him and then returns home. The end.
Our first venue was the Beam, located close to Zoo Atlanta. The stage was small and the audience seating was old church pews they had arranged in the space. There was not a crossover for performers to change sides of the stage without being seen. I failed to ask when booking the space so dancers had to go outside the venue to get to the other side and the night of the show, it rained. There was theater lighting and they provided a crew member to run it. When I asked him if we could set some light cues, he asked, “What’s a light cue?”. Oh boy . . .
If you’ve seen the show recently, you know that we have incredibly beautiful sets. Not so much then. To go to Wonderland in 2007, Mrs. Claus & Alice got inside a wrapped refrigerator box. (Yes it was a tight squeeze). We had 1 flat brick piece with a fire on it made from toilet paper rolls & tissue paper. When the stage transformed to wonderland, we turned it around to reveal a spray-painted Wonderland sign. Brandon, age 5, crawled onto stage to manually plug in our trees. Ta-da!
Regardless of our humble beginnings, I saw the potential of the show. (Hey - we sold out the premiere year! Sure, we could only accommodate 40 people per show but it counts.) I’ve continued to develop the story each year to make it better.
In this blog series, I’ll be sharing the inside scoop on Once Upon A Holiday, how our creative process works, the process of the creation of Wonderland, and the hidden secrets in the show.
I hope you enjoy reading and we’ll see you at the show soon!
Charlotte