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Alice in Wonderland

By: Janis Adams

Believe it or not, Alice in Wonderland does not start with Alice. In fact, Alice’s origin story begins with a boy- a boy named Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. 

Alice in Wonderland
Who is Charles Lutwidge Dodgson?

In a desolate, remote, country village, the fabled “Lewis Carroll” was born. He was a puzzler from the very beginning.

Born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, the child, who would one day write the maddest tale, was the eldest son and third child in a family of seven. Charles had very little friends outside of his siblings. 

 

From a young age, he was known to create riddles and puzzles as entertainment for his siblings. By twelve he was writing the majority of the pages of “Rectory Magazines,” manuscripts to which all the family contributed. 

Early Creativity

Painfully shy, he endured brutal bullying, which drove him inward even more. With a focus on academics, Charles became a great mathematician, fueling his passion for puzzles.

 As he grew from child to man, Charles had—what he termed his “hesitation”—a stutter that he never wholly overcame. Because of this, he was not inclined to public speaking. However, despite that Charles became the deacon of Christ Church. Here, he met Henry Lidell, the dean. 

Lewis Carroll Meets His Alice

Due to his shyness, Charles came to prefer babysitting. He entertained Lidell’s three daughters, along with the children of the writer George Macdonald and the sons of the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and other chance acquaintances. 

Among all the church’s children, Alice Lidell was his favorite.

It was after a picnic, with Alice, and while caught in a terrible rain storm that Charles was inspired to tell a labyrinth of a tale that we now know as Alice in Wonderland. 
 
Alice in Wonderland is Born
Alice in Wonderland
"On the left, Alice as Carroll draws her in the mushroom scene, and on the right, Carroll's portrait of Alice Lidell on the final page"

When they returned to the deanery, Alice cried, “Oh, Mr. Dodgson, I wish you would write out Alice’s adventures for me!” He would later chronicle her words in his diary.

Charles was able to write down the story, more or less as he had first narrated it, and then added to it several extra adventures. He illustrated it with his own crude but distinctive drawings. When completed, Charles gave the finished product to Alice Liddell.

 

Getting Discovered

Sometime later, while visiting the deanery, novelist Henry Kingsley chanced to pick up the daybook from the drawing-room table and read it. 

Kingsley urged Mrs. Liddell to persuade the author to publish it. Charles, when approached by Alice’s mother was surprised, and consulted his friend, author George Macdonald. 

Macdonald took it home to be read to his children His son Greville, aged six, declared that he “wished there were 60,000 volumes of it.”

And the Rest is History

And thus, Alice and her other world adventures came to capture the minds of people everywhere, including us. Here, at Trap Door Escape Company, we now host two of the largest themed Alice in Wonderland escape rooms in the country: We’re All Mad Here and The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party!

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Our Experiences
Poconos Escape Room Asylum

Travel down the rabbit hole and experience a brand new world that just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser in our asylum escape room.

$60 Per Player

You have 120 minutes to escape the theme at $60 per person plus tax. This is the largest escape room in the country, spanning upwards of over 4,000 square feet of playing space each! Large Private Groups are welcome, as these experiences allow player dispersement with ease. All bookings for this asylum escape room are private.

Poconos Escape Room Wonderland

Travel down the rabbit hole and experience a brand new world that just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser in our asylum escape room.

$45 Per Player

60 minutes to escape the theme at $45 per person plus tax. These are the largest Escape Rooms in the country spanning upwards of over 1,000 square feet of playing space each! Large Private Groups welcome as these experiences allow player dispersement with ease. All private bookings.

Trap Door Escape Company

Trap Door Escape Room has 4 locations: 3180 Route 611 in Bartonsville, PA in the Poconos; 60 White St. in Red Bank, NJ; 34A Speedwell Ave. in Morristown, NJ: and 77 Wind Creek Blvd in Bethlehem, PA. The Red Bank location was the first of the 4 locations, opening in the fall of 2015. Morristown followed in the summer of 2017, and Bartonsville opened during the holiday season of 2018. Wind Creek is currently undergoing construction and will be opening in September 2022.

History

The idea came to Tone Purzycki back in 2011 after he wrote a screenplay that developed into a live-streaming game. The game revolved around an actor trapped in a situation and the audience had to solve puzzles to figure out where he was trapped. The “Find Me Event” had more than 1,000 people playing over the course of several hours. After the success of several other streaming events, the idea of an escape room was born.

Location

Each location has different rooms from which to choose. Our Morristown location is home to Day of the DeadWitch Huntand The Greatest Freakshow. In Bartonsville, you’ll find Cure ZF5 Tornado EscapeFear the BogeymanMad Hatter’s Tea PartyWe’re All Mad Here, and Prisoner Z. In Red Bank we currently have Everest – our first 2 story escape room. Ripper of London is also available at this location. Our pirate themed games will soon be open at Wind Creek.

Trap Door Escape Room also offers team buildingstreaming events, and birthday parties. For more information on any of our games, prices, and locations, explore our website or call 570-234-3366