THE WIZARD OF OZ (MUNY VERSION) 1996
When we began production on our sixth annual Musical Theatre project, little did we know that the show was to become part of a School District 34 “showcase” for visiting out-of-town School Trustees hosted by SD34 (Abbotsford)! You can see in the Memory Lane Photos for this show how impressed they were with the show.
“The Wizard Of Oz” stage production has two main versions. This one is referred to as “The Muny Version”. The production provided us with some wonderful opportunities for utilizing the Abbey Arts Centre technical facilities.....we flew scenery, used a trap door, flew a variety of objects over the audience - such as in the famous “twister” sequence and with bats and spiders in the witch cave sequence , and, of course played with the stage lighting and fog machines. About 140 members of the “Yale community” including students, staff, parents and other community volunteers participated in the production, making it one of the biggest in our brief history to that date. It was the second production that featured members of the Musical Theatre course. 16 members of the team were from Yale’s Graduating class giving the show a “veteran” look but we still had many students debuting with YMT, including many students from Yale’s “feeder” Elementary schools. The chorus got to play in a variety of scenes that kept them busily changing costumes and characters - farmhands, Jitterbugs, Ghosts, Munchkins, Emerald City Guards and townspeople, and so on. There was even special “guest appearances” by three members of the Yale staff as the Lollipop Guild - any resemblance to the school’s administration team was purely accidental! Then, of course, there was the scene stealing Toto played by the Larsen family dog “Sally-Anne” (yes we know...”never act with kids and dogs”.....). The lead players all gave excellent performances and drew many “rave reviews”. Harold Arlen’s musical score was performed by the Yale orchestra under the direction of Diego Testa. Vicki Wong served admirably in the arduous task as the rehearsal accompanist.
Here’s some of the comments: “Congratulations on a marvellous production!”; “Everyone raved! What an incredible job”; “those who attended were truly amazed at the caliber of the acting, the sets, the music....”
Two last anecdotes: the open audition for roles as Muchkins drew over a hundred students...making it one of the longest of all the auditions we held......it truly tested the patience of the children and their parents who were at the “end of the line”. Yes.....Yar Recned did make another appearance in this production!
see also: Memory Lane (Photos) - The Wizard Of Oz (1996)
