Audiences will delight in the stage performance of a classic children’s tale when Nansemond River High School’s drama club presents “Alice in Wonderland” early next month.

The show is a “full-blown production,” marketing director and student Christian Ellis said, with a cast and crew of about 50 and Suffolk Audio Services providing lighting.

It’s the club’s winter musical, he said, while it puts on a large annual show each spring.

“This is Alice in Wonderland Junior,” Ellis said. ‘It’s a junior variation, (which) shortens the show from two hours 30 (minutes) to about one hour to one-and-a-half hours.”

There will be three performances in the school auditorium for the general public: 7 p.m. on Dec. 12, 13 and 14.

Students will also perform the show for elementary school children on Thursday and Friday morning of the performance week. Project Lead the Way students also will be in the audience. Drama teacher Joleen Neighbours, the show’s co-director with student Harold Hodge, invited interested elementary schools to contact her at Nansemond River.

“We try to introduce the younger students to the arts by bringing to life for them one of their favorite stories,” Ellis said.

The production is on track after two weeks of rehearsals, according to Hodge. “Actors are learning where they need to stand and we are getting dances and songs down,” he said.

He described the show as a family-friendly musical suitable for all ages. “Everyone will like it,” he added.

Alice will be played by Cady Strickland, who said she started with the club last year.

“It’s really fun and it’s, like, a challenge in the amount of time that we perform,” she said. “We have to keep up our rehearsals.”

Strickland said she has had to “keep (her) head in the clouds” to portray Alice correctly.

Neighbours said she was trying to get students more involved in the business side of the production, hence assigning Ellis to his marketing role and co-directing the play with Hodge.

“The students are really stepping up and taking the initiative, and that’s what I really want them to do,” she said.

“It’s so they can learn how to make this a business; we are trying to get real-world skills out of this.”

Advance tickets — $10 for general admission, $14 for gold circle (first four rows) and $5 for students and teachers — are available here.

Tickets will cost $3 more at the door.