Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" is arriving Lehi's way on May 23 with some strings attached, marionette strings.

The children's classic story for the show features six students, ages 8 to 18, who have designed, built their puppets and created each costume. They have met every Saturday for five months with their instructor and director, Nat Reed.

Erin Rollins, age 9, has created a rabbit marionette that will fill the role of the March Hare, the White Rabbit and also the Ace of Hearts.

She liked painting and sculpting the heads of the puppets the most of all her classes, that was the most fun, but it was also the hardest part of the class.

"It's a challenge," said her brother Sam Rollins, age 11. He is fascinated with marionettes and puppetry.

"It's good entertainment for other people," he said of putting on a show. And of the marionettes, "It's like their other people. They walk and they talk."

Their mother Rebecca Rollins was helping the students put together costumes for their puppets and the characters they would portray.

Nathan Meide, another puppeteer for the production, had his first experience with marionettes when working in the Lehi Arts Council "Sound of Music" production and decided he liked it.

"Cuz it's fun," Nathan said.

Their voices are already prerecorded for the play so the students can focus on moving the strings of the puppets in acting out the Alice in Wonderland story.

Tickets for the play are $5 for adults and $3 for children. Show times are May 23 at 7 p.m. and May 24 at noon and 4 p.m.

Funding for the Utah Marionette Theatre also comes from The Utah Arts Council and National Endowment for the Arts, an organization that espouses the belief that a great nation deserves great art.

The Utah Marionette Theatre program, according to its Web site at www.utahmarionette.org, strives to bring puppetry performance and education to the children and adults of Utah by creating educational programs on puppetry skills, producing puppet performances, presenting quality puppet theater in public schools, and preserving and promoting international traditions of puppetry.