It’s definitely not the Disney version.

Bainbridge Performing Arts’ original musical, “Alice and Wonderland” by theater school director Steven Fogell, sends Lewis Carrol’s character on a journey of interior exploration more complex and challenging than a short fall down a rabbit hole.

“I decided to do a completely different twist on Alice,” Fogell said. “We not only have Alice, but we have ‘good’ Alice and ‘bad’ Alice – both sides of Alice’s conscience.”

She faces decisions similar to those of contemporary teens and preteens, grappling with such issues as lying and relating to authority figures. Moral questions are plumbed as Alice (played by Sasha Carter), is drawn to explore by her “bad” alter-ego (Pepper McCormick).

The theme reflects the concerns of the actors – students in Fogell’s fifth-eighth-grade theatre school production class.

Like every BPA theater school production, “Alice” is shaped by the kids who happen to sign on.

“It’s pretty much ‘am I getting the older ones or the younger ones,’” Fogell said. “This is a mix, so I could do a line-intensive production. It’s the ‘full-meal deal,’ with music, acting and dancing.”

To shape the play into a musical, Fogell teamed up with co-director Shelley Long, who, with Mark Soltys, composed and produced an original musical score. Long and Fogell collaborated on lyrics.

“I met Shelley two years ago doing ‘Snow Queen,’ and we talked about doing a musical together someday,” Fogell said. “I love musicals but I’ve never done one.”

“Alice” is especially exciting, Fogell says, because the story can accommodate different musical idioms. The surreal Wonderland venue, where flowers sing and a cat scolds its mistress for not changing the litter box, combines rap with blues, rock, show tunes and ballades.

Tweedledee (Lizzie Sivitz) and Tweedledum (Melanie Curran) sing a rap song. Seated on a stump in a swamp the caterpillar (Tavis Hamilton) is a Cajun crooner. The Cheshire Cat (Allison Sterrett) makes a fine Elvis-Presley-type swaggerer – and the feline love interest for Alice’s kitty, Dinah (Emma Eisenhauer), who, in this version, falls down the rabbit hole with her mistress.

Long punctuates the music with sly, glancing references to other contexts.

Alice’s line, “Am I dreaming – if I pinch myself, will I awake?’” prompts the rest of the cast to sing the opening line of “The Impossible Dream” from “Man of La Mancha,” and mention of the tea party prompts the opening of “Be Our Guest” from “Beauty and the Beast.”

Long’s particular strength is choreographing kids in musical numbers that adults can genuinely enjoy. Although the play marks the stage debut for a number of the cast, Long and Fogell have them moving around the stage like pros.

But not all of the cast are first-timers; Lizzie Sivitz, who graduated from Odyssey Multiage Program this spring, is a BPA pro with five plays under her belt.

Sivitiz finds her Tweedledee role more of a challenge than others she has played.

“It’s fun because a lot of the parts I’ve been before haven’t been a huge departure from myself,” she said. “It was harder to find a personality…I didn’t want to be like the movie. I wanted something new.”

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Bainbridge Performing Arts presents the Fifth-Eighth-Grade Theatre School Production Class in “Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland (The Musical)” appears at 7:30 p.m. at the Playhouse June 12-13 and 3 p.m. June 14.

Tickets are $12/adults; $9 seniors/students are available at the Playhouse, or charge by phone at 842-8569.