A youth production combining the worlds of Sherlock Holmes and Alice in Wonderland is debuting at Arlington’s Encore Stage & Studio.
“Sherlock in Wonderland” opened last Friday at Thomas Jefferson Community Center (3501 S. 2nd Street), marking the second collaboration between Encore and playwright Lynne Streeter Childress.
“I’m having a blast” watching the show, Childress said during intermission at Saturday’s matinee performance. It was the first time she had seen her work, written in 2025, performed on stage.
In the show, a bored Sherlock Holmes, portrayed by Gunston Middle School eighth-grader Wanjiru Ogonji, is contacted by the White Rabbit, played by Washington-Liberty High School ninth-grader Emma Pritchard.
The rabbit comes from Wonderland, where Alice has gone missing. Accompanied by the ever-faithful Dr. Watson (Grayson Malcom), Holmes heads to Wonderland and begins sleuthing amid its eccentric inhabitants.
The production runs through Sunday.
Childress said that before writing, she researched Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes tales, as well as Lewis Carroll’s 1865 novel “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and subsequent adaptations.
“I did a lot of reading. I wanted to make sure I was being true to the characters,” said Childress, an Annapolis resident and the founding artistic director of Building Better People Productions.
Childress previously collaborated with Encore on “What Makes a Winner,” an adaptation of the classic tortoise-and-hare fable. It was performed in 2023.
“Her writing is just unbelievable — she understands Encore,” said Madaline Langston, the troupe’s director of programming.
“We are a great fit,” Childress said of the collaborative process. “The kids are doing an amazing job.”
Childress told ARLnow that while the target audience is ages 4 to pre-teen, she tries to work in plot twists and humor that will appeal to their parents, as well.
“I love stuff for kids that adults can watch, too,” she said.
Director Erin Birchfield said the “Sherlock in Wonderland” script, completed last December, provided a great starting point for getting the story to the stage and in front of audiences.
“Every member of the cast, crew and production team has put their all into this process and has delivered their very best work to build this magical world,” she said.
Encore Stage & Studio traces its roots to 1967, when — as the Children’s Theatre of Arlington — it presented a show called “Pocketful of Preposterous Poems” at Lubber Run Amphitheatre. Recent years’ efforts to find a script or more information on that production have been unsuccessful thus far.
In 2010, the organization moved to a professional-theater model, presenting about a half-dozen shows per year.
The organization also has an extensive theater-training initiative, as well as programming during spring break and summer break.
An increasing number of its shows, like the current one, are commissioned specifically for the local stage.
“We are all dedicated to bringing new works to Encore,” Langston said.
