Through the Silly Glass : Alice is back, only a bit wackier in this children’s play based on Lewis Carroll’s classic. The moral this time “is that rules are important to keep,” the director-choreographer says.

Alice is back--no worse for wear but a little funkier.

“It’s a little more silly, a little more wacky, than the regular ‘Alice,’ ” says Steffanie Vance, who’s producing, directing and choreographing “Alice” (book and music by Carol Weiss), a new version of Lewis Carroll’s immortal “Alice in Wonderland.” With a cast of 13--ranging in age from 10 to 35--the production opens Sunday at the West End Playhouse.

True to the original story, title character Alice falls down a rabbit hole and meets up with what Vance describes as a flamboyant group of characters, including a Ninja Mock Turtle, the Cheshire Cat and his Cheshirettes, and a caterpillar who comes apart into many pieces.

“The moral is that rules are important to keep,” says the director-choreographer, who’s keyed the hourlong show to children ages 5 to 14. “It may seem fun for a while to go without them, but then it catches up with you.”

Author Weiss--who was originally commissioned to write the piece three years ago for the Long Beach Civic Light Opera’s youth theater--echoes Vance’s take on the material.

“My vision was of a little girl who’s fed up with the rules and wants to live in a world without them--so she goes to this insane world,” says Weiss, a vocal coach and accompanist who also teaches a workshop on how to audition for musical theater. “I think all fairy tales are morality tales,” she adds. “ ‘Snow White’ was about ‘Beauty is skin-deep.’ Kids can figure that out.”

This past winter, also at the West End, Vance staged Weiss’ adaptation of “Snow White,” which became the first show of Vance’s company, Mocking Bird Productions. In July, she intends to do a bilingual (alternating performances in English and Spanish) production of “Clowns,” an original piece she’s written with Ricky B. Jones.

“It’s about six clowns who enter a little boy’s dream world; he falls asleep and they come to life,” Vance explains. “It’s a lot of fun, and a real good message.”

A South Bay native, Vance first trained as a dancer and choreographer, gradually moving into theater and gathering production and technical training during her three years at the Golden Theatre in Burbank. Her mother is a kindergarten teacher, and five years ago, Vance began assisting her in her work.

“I’ve always enjoyed working with young people,” she emphasizes. “And I’ve found I had the knack, so I decided to put that out there. I got such great responses from ‘Snow White’; a lot of kids came back three or four times. Children are really into expressing themselves in art--and there aren’t a lot of venues for them to do it.”

As for the bilingual “Clowns,” the interest in providing Spanish-language shows is to fill what Vance sees as a need--and has little to do with her own proficiency. “I don’t speak Spanish fluently,” the director says. “I speak kitchen Spanish, street Spanish. I wouldn’t know how to conjugate a verb.”

WHERE AND WHEN

What: “Alice.”

Location: West End Playhouse, 7446 Van Nuys Blvd., Van Nuys.

Hours: Noon and 3 p.m. Sundays. Closes June 20.

Price: $6 to $7.

Call: (818) 904-0444.