Oz, revisited!

This afternoon I attended an excellent production of The Wizard of Oz presented at Monument Mountain High School in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. A neighbor kindly invited me to go with her. Her son was a member of the production team who not only constructed the scenery but moved it all about the stage for the many scene changes. He is also the technical advisor for my computer!

Not having seen a high school production of a musical for a number of years, I wasn't sure what to expect. To my great joy, these young people put on a very professional performance of what is, without doubt, a very complicated piece of musical theatre. The number of scene changes and costume changes alone boggles the mind. And both of these areas had been handled expertly by students and adult volunteers. My hat is off to the costume designer who came up with the many creative outfits that graced the stage. To say nothing of the dedicated people who sewed most of them.

The singing was of a uniformly high order. The Dorothy sang with a very sweet, unaffected voice, clear diction and great stage presence. She made you forget Judy Garland for a couple of hours. The Wicked Witch of the West, and Glinda, the Good Witch, were equally good. The young men as The Cowardly Lion, The Scarecrow, and The Tin Man, as well as The Wizard himself, sang very well. Young men's voices at this age have not had time to mature in the same way a similarly aged young woman's voice has, but these guys sang well, with energy and good sound. Puberty has a much different effect on the male voice from the female voice.

An enormous ensemble of Munchkins, Crows, Poppies, Guards, and Monkeys also sang very well. A well-rehearsed and trained group.

The scrim at the back of the stage showed various scenes of the tornado, Munchkinland, the woods, the field of poppies, the snow, which also fell from above, and the Emerald City.

In this day and age when music is not the most funded part of the public school system, it is good to see that this branch of the arts, at least, is being encouraged to produce productions like this one today.

More power to you!