Follow Alice down the rabbit hole in BalletMet Columbus’ Alice in Wonderland March 6-14 at the Capitol Theatre, 77 S. High St.

Choreographed by BalletMet Artistic Director Gerard Charles with a script by Phoenix Theatre for Children Artistic Director Steven Anderson, the production is as clever for adults as it is playful for children. This whimsical adventure features BalletMet’s professional Company dancers and Academy student dancers performing alongside local actors.

Alice in Wonderland premiered in 2006. Lewis Carroll’s celebrated tales come to life with larger than life characters including Alice, the White Rabbit, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Mad Hatter and more.

Two actors help move the story along through multiple speaking roles including Mock Turtle, Humpty Dumpty, Caterpillar and Alice. Filled with both logic and nonsense characteristic of Carroll’s work, the literature leaps from the page to stage through innovative choreography, expressive spoken word and wildly colorful and fanciful costumes, sets and lighting. This season’s production offers new choreographic elements and updated sets.

The fantasy includes choreography by Gerard Charles with contributions from BalletMet dancers Jimmy Orrante and Adam Hundt and former Company dancer Justin Gibbs; a script adapted by Steven Anderson from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass; spoken dialogue by actors Jeff Horst and Heather Burley; and BalletMet’s 28 professional Company dancers and about 16 Academy student dancers in roles including hedgehogs, fish and young Alice.

The production features more than 75 vibrant costumes designed by Linda Pisano and created by the BalletMet Costume Shop; set design by Stephanie Gerkens; a score compiled from the music of British composer Edward Elgar; and lighting by Michael Lincoln, professor of lighting design at Ohio University.

“You want to stay true to the original but also to be creative and invent something new,” Charles says. “In this case, the challenge was balancing everyone’s expectations with the fact that the original work was in fact literary, not dance. There’s always the challenge to produce something that’s as fabulous as the concept you have in your mind.”

For more information and tickets, visit www.balletmet.org.