Actors gathered inside the Julie Harris Theatre Monday evening excited to run through “Alice by Heart” before taking the stage Friday for the first of four performances on the campus of Perry Mansfield performing Arts School & Camp.

“This one is really special because the cast is so special,” said Ruby Frank, who plays Alice Spencer in the production. “Eight of us are seniors, and we’ve all grown in theater the past four years together … Everyone is so talented and so driven, and we really uplift each other better than any cast that I’ve ever performed with, and that is just so special to me.”

The plot of the musical production tells the story of Alice, a young woman who seeks to escape the Blitz of World War II and saves her friend Alfred Hallam, who is dying of tuberculosis. The two main characters shared a love for Lewis Carrol’s novel Alice’s “Adventures in Wonderland.”

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“We have eight seniors involved from various high schools. We have two elementary school students, three other high school students and one adult from the community,” said Deena Selko, the show’s director. “It’s a coming-of-age story and a quick take on ‘Alice in Wonderland’ through the lens of World War II in London.”

The musical opens in an underground tube station with the sound of bombs exploding in the background as the story unfolds. The story revolves around the main characters switching settings between the reality of the shelter in London and the pages of the “Alice in Wonderland.”

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“The special thing about Alice is that while everyone else is transforming from their World War II characters into their Wonderland characters, I remain Alice Spencer the entire time because my characters through line is a coming-of-age story,” Frank said. “It’s so fun because I get to play the same role in both worlds, and the same character as she reacts differently to the different roles, she is in.”

On stage, Frank will share the spotlights with actors, Jacob Griffith playing the part of Alfred, Jeremiah MacGray, playing the part of the Caterpillar and Korbin Pyles playing the parts of The Duchess and doubling as Dodgy.

“I think I’ve been in nine shows between tech and acting,” said Pyles, who is a junior. “I would say that acting is my favorite, but it really brings light on how important the technical side of theater is, and that’s something that, like, audience members don’t necessarily recognize, but the show couldn’t go on if we didn’t have a tech team. And that’s like, something that’s like up here, or became very apparent to me through acting in tech.”

The musical’s cast includes 13 actors ranging from elementary school students — Sylvie Selko playing young Alice and Joshua Griffith playing young Alfred — to adults like Abbey Iberg who plays The Queen of Hearts, and The Red Cross Nurse.

Behind the scenes, Madison Lee —who graduated from University of Southern California in 2024 with a degree in chemical engineering and will start a full-time job in June — is handling the music direction and sound.

Steamboat Springs High School student Duke Fitzgerald has set up the lights and is sharing the duties this weekend with Madison’s mom, Katy Lee.

“The entire show is just like a bajillion moving pieces at once, right?” Madison said. “I’m going into engineering, but I’ve always thought that theater and even tech, is very helpful for that kind of work — being able to run things smoothly and trouble troubleshoot on the fly.”

Selko said “Alice by Heart” is being put on by Moth Productions with the support of a Be Better Grant provided from SBNY. Performances will take place at 7 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m.-7 p.m. on Saturday and 4 p.m. on Sunday.

Tickets are available at Perry-Mansfield.org.

“This is unlike anything I’ve really ever done,” MacGray said. “I’ve done productions in the past, but especially with this group of people, and in this space it’s just been so different, and it’s been really cool.”