From director to center stage

Caitlynn Didlick fully embraces the lead role in Mt. Hood’s Children’s Theatre production of “Alice In Wonderland,” which opens Nov. 4.

“It’s got a lot of energy, and we just keep building the energy more,” she said. “I think it’s something that people aren’t going to be bored by when they’re seeing it.”

Didlick said she connects with her character on a personal level. “There’s times where she (Alice) cries it out, and she’s just crying, but then she shakes it off and she’s fine. And that’s exactly how I am.

“I like her positivity… when things are so dark or so hopeless,” she said.

This is one of Didlick’s first starring roles in a play at the collegiate level.

She made her directing debut at MHCC last spring, with “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.” At first, she wanted a lead role in “Cuckoo’s Nest” and wasn’t interested in directing, but now she is glad she took the position. “It was awesome. It was a fun experience,” she said.

Didlick has put her own spin on the role of Alice. She began by playing her as a very “timid” character, she said. “When people would yell at her, I’d be like ‘Oh, so sorry.’ But then, my director was like, ‘She needs to be more adversarial.’

“It was so much more fun playing her, actually challenging the other characters rather than letting them step all over her,” she said.

She hopes her portrayal of Alice can inspire her young audience. “I feel like it’s important that we aren’t having Alice be that way (timid), because maybe it will make little kids look and be, like, ‘Oh, wow, she can be tough.’ ”

After attending both the University of Oregon and Oregon State University for theater, nursing and fashion programs, Didlick enrolled at MHCC determined to focus on theater.

“I wanted to do something artsy, so I tried fashion design, but I was, like, it’s fun, but it’s not feeding my soul.”

Now, Didlick hopes to build her resumé with as many roles as she can and head for Los Angeles within a few years to make her dream of becoming an actress a reality. “I want to be in movies, so bad. Even if it’s indie, not even to get ‘big,’ I just want to act on film,” she said.

While the November play is a Children’s Theatre production, Didlick is acting for all ages.

“We don’t play it as if we’re playing to little kids,” she said. “Kids understand a lot more than people give them credit for, so it’s one of those shows that, because we aren’t playing it to little kids, everyone can see it.”