This ‘Alice’ Invites the Audience Along on Her Adventures : Theater: The Laguna Youth Theatre production of the Lewis Carroll classic is staged outdoors and designed to let those watching get in on the act.

The grown-ups call it environmental theater, but don’t let that highbrow talk scare you: The Laguna Playhouse Youth Theatre is offering a children’s play that lets kids be kids. And this is one “Alice in Wonderland” that you can really get behind--or in front of or beside if you prefer.

“Environmental theater means site-specific,” said Jody Davidson, Laguna Playhouse general manager and co-director of the show with Scott Davidson and Joe Lauderdale. “This production of ‘Alice’ was designed just for the space where we’re performing, so the audience literally follows Alice through her adventure in Wonderland.”

The production is being staged outdoors six times daily each weekend through Oct. 22 at Annaliese’s Willowbrook School, a private preschool in Laguna Canyon. In groups of 40, the audience tags along with Alice, meeting and greeting the more than a dozen eccentric characters she encounters on her surrealistic trip. Theatergoers get to chat with the loony Duchess and her crazed cook, and dance the Lobster Quadrille with the Dodo, Mock Turtle and Gryphon. They can swap puns with the Mad Hatter and March Hare, and referee a spat between the Tweedles, Dee and Dum. And they wrap up the tour in a rigged but riotous game of croquet with the Queen of Hearts.

Bring your walking shoes for this one. During the course of the show, the audience puts in almost half a mile. You’ll climb a gentle hillside, maneuver through ramps and whoosh down a slide. (The more vertically inclined can take the stairs instead.)

This production was adapted from a presentation by the Rainbow Company, a children’s group in Las Vegas, Davidson said.

The costumes were designed by South Coast Repertory regular Dwight Richard Odle, and they are delightfully off kilter. The Duchess looks especially sharp in her candy-striped tights, ratty doggie slippers and frowzy dust cap cum tiara.

The dialogue, although generally true to the Lewis Carroll text, has been pared down and sprinkled with lots of off-the-cuff remarks to the audience.

“Actually, if you’re talking about the perfect children’s story, ‘Alice in Wonderland’ really isn’t,” Davidson said. “It’s very talky . . . much of the dialogue is puns or very literary references.

“The Mad Hatter’s tea party, for example, is really a lot of bad puns. The parents enjoy the puns, but the kids like the action and the crazy characters.”

Speaking of characters, don’t come to this “Alice” looking for Disney’s sugar-and-spice miss. This girl is of pluckier stock, a no-nonsense young lady who knows her manners but doesn’t hesitate to speak her mind when the situation calls for straight talk.

Teen-agers Alexis Mirman, Heather deMichele and Tamara Hoffman rotate in the role of Alice. Tony Kaufman and Ryan Baron alternate as the White Rabbit. The rest of the characters are single-cast.

Many of the 25 cast members, the youngest of whom is 9, were chosen from the Laguna Playhouse Young Ensemble, a theater education program for children. According to Davidson, the ensemble chooses children 7 through 17 to participate, and they study all aspects of the theater, including set and costume design. There is no tuition, but students are required to work on all Youth Theatre productions.

“They help out on every show we do,” Davidson said. “For ‘Alice,’ the box office and props department are run by kids, and the stage manager is a child. When we do shows in our regular theater, the kids even run the lights and sound. The kid you see in the lead in one show may usher in the next. They understand theater is a collaborative art.”

The Laguna Playhouse Youth Theatre program was recently named the country’s most outstanding new youth theater by the American Alliance for Theatre and Education, a national children’s theater group.

The playhouse also offers other theater classes for children 4 through 17, and it coordinates an acting program for handicapped children.

“Alice in Wonderland” is the first of five Youth Theatre productions this season. Also scheduled for an off-site performance is “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” a comedy by Barbara Robinson. To be staged at Moulton Theatre in Lagu;na Beach are the world premiere of “Draw Fire,” a drama by Brian Kral; “The Code Breaker,” a science fiction play by Pauline Conley, and “The Bluebird,” the classic children’s story by Maurice Maeterlinck.

The Laguna Playhouse Youth Theatre production of “Alice in Wonderland” runs through Oct. 22. Show times are noon, 12:40, 1:20, 3, 3:40 and 4:20 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays . Annaliese’sWillowbrook School is at 20062 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. Tickets are $8 general and $5 for children under 13 , and they may be purchased in advance by calling (714) 494-8021 or (714) 494-0743. A limited number of tickets may be available at the door. Strollers are not permitted, and long pants and comfortable shoes are recommended.