We're Off to See the Wizard!

Or rather, we went to see the Wizard!

My hometown high school now has a huge and impressive "Performing Arts Center" that was built 5-10 years ago. (I was thinking five years at first but time goes so quickly that it may have been longer than that)! It is humbling...and a tad bit disconcerting...to realize that my experiences on a high school stage -- in the much smaller and far less impressive auditorium that has since been converted to a couple of lecture halls -- were more than 20 years ago. How did I get to be old enough to reminisce and vividly remember an experience more than two decades ago. Gulp.

Anyway...I had heard that the high school was going to put on a Wizard of Oz production and figured it would be a great way to introduce my girls to the Oz experience (since they have been resistant to watching the evil witch on the small screen). I called my mom and told her that I wanted to bring the two older girls down to see the show and asked if she and my dad wanted to join us. She said "sure" and even offered to buy the tickets for us. Great!

Saturday morning I loaded up the car and drove down to my parents' house with R and A (not being much of a fan of musicals, Rick chose to stay home with E who I felt was not up for seeing the witch in action just yet). We arrived at lunch time and hung out with Grandma and Papa until it was time to go to the high school. On the way we grabbed a quick pizza dinner and arrived more than an hour before the show to get in line. We had heard the lines would be insane and we were glad we got there early. Being close to the front of the line and waiting a full hour meant we got great seats!

That is, most of us had great seats. We were seated in the center about 10 rows from the orchestra and no one was seated in front of us when we sat down. A short time later a young couple chose the seats in front of us and boy was I wishing I had brought along a pair of loppers...



It was like sitting behind the Statue of Liberty...



But at least he was polite enough to keep his arm down and his torch at home.

The show was as impressive as I had expected. The same director/drama teacher I had is still there and still performing his special brand of 'magic.' He is amazingly talented not only in the coaching of the students but also in the creation of backdrops, props and special effects. The playbill also indicated that all costumes were hand made by various students, parents and faculty. The results of all their efforts was a sight to behold. I took some pictures to post here because could not adequately describe in words what we saw:

Dorothy and Toto meeting Glinda for the first time.

The drama teacher (center, dressed in purple as the"Coroner") and all the munchkins thanking Dorothy for dropping the house on the witch. I love when the director does cameos in his productions!

Not that easy to see, but this is the 'poppies' scene and the huge stage is FULL of little and big kids - from preschool on up - dressed as a huge field of poppies!! That's a lot of costumes to make!

The director driving the carriage being pulled by an honest-to-goodness REAL horse who was somehow dyed green! This will be the drama teacher's last production of The Wizard of Oz and he promised to make it his best one yet - he wasn't kidding!


Another example of amazing artwork/set design. I loved this scene! I don't know what they are called but the eyes of the wizard are actually large glass orbs with blue lights that crackled inside like lightning! So cool!

A close-up of the main cast when they were in front of the stage during the final scene. These students were all outstanding singers and actors. They truly captured the characters as we all know and love them from the MGM version of this great musical.

Hats off to the great cast and crew for a fabulous and thoroughly enjoyable production!!! There may be "no place like home" but for great theater at a great price there's no place like my old high school! Rock on, BHS!