10/25/2026
Director Spotlight: Alice Nelson
Meet the director of Mega Python vs. Gatoroid! 🐍🐊
In this spotlight, she shares how she found her way to Hip Pocket, what it took to bring two enormous reptile puppets to life, and the experience of navigating an unforgettable production.
And her advice for those meddling with the Florida Everglades? Make better choices.
Read on to meet the artist behind the mayhem!
Q- What is this play about? How would you describe Mega Python vs. Gatoroid?
A- It’s a stage adaptation of the B-horror movie of the same name (starring '80s pop sensations Debbie Gibson and Tiffany). I would describe the show as a jukebox B-horror creature-feature camp parody. With big puppets.
It takes place in the Florida Everglades, where the gator population is down, but the invasive Burmese python population is up. Activist Dr. Nikki Riley and her team have been releasing captured pythons into the Everglades in the name of freedom. After her fiancée is killed by a nest of pythons, Ranger Terry O’Hara concocts a plan to make the gators killing machines to wipe out the pythons. Of course, this all backfires. But while it backfires, there are recognizable parody pop songs, giant reptiles attacking, dance numbers, and a wrestling match.
However, if you need a deeper message from this campy creature feature, it highlights the stupidity of humans and ecosystems. Thanks to the exotic pet trade, invasive Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades are decimating the native wildlife and robbing panthers, raptors, bobcats, and other predators of their food source. Our message: Don’t put invasive species in the Everglades. Also, don’t give 'roids to gators. Make better choices.
Q- What do you hope audiences take away from this show?
A- I hope audiences, gathered under a starry sky, take away the joyful experience of being in a theatre full of people who need a laugh, or several laughs, at an outrageous comedy. I hope they delight in watching character clowns race around the stage trying to escape a thirty-foot Burmese python. Most of all, I hope they leave charmed by the fact that we attempted the impossible onstage with humour and a DIY spirit, saying, “Well, you don’t see that every day!”
Q- What brings you to Hip Pocket Theatre?
A- I moved here for work a year ago from Ontario, Canada. Yup, I’m a Canuck. I reached out to my mothership (Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre) and asked if there were any theatres doing new work, devising, and physical theatre in DFW. The response was that I needed to go to Hip Pocket.
I immediately fell in love with it and pitched doing a Puppet Slam, which is a puppet cabaret for adults and a testing ground for new work. In true Hip Pocket community-building and risk-taking fashion, they said yes, and I’ve curated and emceed two so far.
Last spring, I was asked to assistant direct Mega Python vs. Gatoroid. This turned into writing, directing, and working on sound for the show... talk about baptism by fire.
Q- What is your favorite show memory?
A- Honestly, it’s hard to find one with this show. I was writing under a tight deadline for a cast I didn’t know, we had to cancel rehearsals due to rain (something I never considered about working in an outdoor venue), we had two thirty-foot puppets we were running out of time to work with, and then the cast and crew were faced with the tragedy of losing a brilliant comic stage partner, Madi Duren.
As a director, I’ve never had to navigate such a stormy sea on a show. Luckily, my stage manager (and the Managing Director of Hip Pocket) was the best co-captain I could have asked for. That’s my favorite show memory: getting through the storm with Gianina Lambert.
Q- Tell us about the kind of work you do.
A- I have the best day job. I’m a Theatre Arts Professor and head of the BA in Theatre Arts with Teaching Certification program at the University of Texas at Arlington. In my Theatre for Young Audiences course, I’ve been co-directing (with Anthony Quattlebaum) a physical comedy adaptation of 3 Little Pigs that will tour elementary schools in Arlington and Cook Children’s Medical Center in November.
As a contract artist, I coached puppetry for Fort Worth Opera’s Family Series, am building Commedia masks for schools in Canada and the US, work as a healthcare clown, Dr. Poutine (keepin’ it Canadian), with Laughter League at Cook Children’s, and am juggling three writing projects.
The next show I’m directing is the beloved Charlotte’s Web for UTA’s mainstage. I plan for the show to have physical comedy, live music, puppets, audience interaction, and a whole lot of heart. I’m particularly drawn to children’s theatre because kids dig comedy and have wonder-filled imaginations.
Looking at my recent directing, I don’t know what’s with all the plays about animals, but I’m definitely noticing a trend. At this point, I’m just gonna roll with it.
This show closes November 1st!
HipPocket.org
