“Playground” used well-known children’s songs and games, such as hand-clapping games slide and “Miss Susie,” dancing and narrative to discuss adult issues.
“[White] really wants it to be a conversation starter, a show that makes you think,” said actor Jeffrey Moro ’13. “Whatever thoughts you have in response to it are valid. A lot of decisions were made with that in mind, to give the audience something to see, something to consider. You can see a line between what happens in the playground and what happens in adult life, what starts in the playground can carry through.”
The second half of the show brought Lewis Carroll’s Alice and company to the stage. Featuring Aarons as the titular character, the show followed him in an often drug-addled trip through Wonderland and its curious inhabitants.
One highlight of the show was the costume design, done by Javier Chavez Chacon ’12, who appreciated the opportunity to see his sketches put on stage.
“It’s the first time I got to see my work actually come to life, and then when I saw it on the dancers on stage, it was actually alive,” he said. “I even dare to say it was ‘living moving art.’”