The New Vic’s senior carpenter is taking a trip down memory lane to explore the Wonderland she first discovered as a child.

Twenty-five years ago Louise Rider was a wide-eyed four-year-old excitedly sitting in the New Vic watching Alice in Wonderland after winning a colouring competition to see the production.

Fast-forward to 2011 and she is the theatre-in-the-round’s senior carpenter and is helping to create the magical world of Wonderland as the award-winning New Vic marks its 25th anniversary by revisiting the children’s classic.

The 29-year-old, who lives in Leek, said: “When the show opened in November I thought to myself, ‘I remember going to see this’ – I was told Alice in Wonderland was the first Christmas production the New Vic did 25 years ago, so it clicked that I must have seen it here back then.

“I told my mum and we had a look in a family photograph album and then I remembered I’d entered a colouring competition and had won tickets to come and see it.”

Recalling that she was always a creative child, Louise added: “Even when I was little I loved drawing and painting so I felt so proud to win a colouring competition!

“It is such a coincidence that I was here 25 years ago watching Alice in Wonderland after winning a competition and now I’m here helping to pull it all together.”

Theresa Heskins, New Vic Artistic Director, said: “It is delightful to know when we have a play about a child growing bigger and smaller that our own senior carpenter, the person who helped make the stage and build the props, has been associated with Alice in Wonderland for a quarter of a century.”