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Post by StageFiyero on May 28, 2004 7:37:10 GMT -5
I just thought we should start a topic about the stage version of Wizard of Oz. Did you know that in the traveling stage show with Mickey Rooney as the Wizard, the Witch actually sang? The Jitterbug was included, and she sang the beginning of it. I got to see this version and it was totally amazing. Mickey Rooney was sick though. The yellow brick road was at the edge of the stage and was formed like ---o--- with the orchestra in the center of the circle. The road was made of lights that changed color according to the setting - the lights turned off, making the road disappear, during Kansas and the castle, was green in the Emerald City, and when Dorothy first stepped on it at the beginning of "Follow," it lit up in yellow as she stepped on sections. The Witch's crystal ball was held in a giant hand and the lights in Kansas were made so the entire stage was gray - and then multicolored in Oz. It was awesome. I was a member of the Lollipop Guild and a Citizen of the Emerald City. That was a fun show - we had wires for the monkeys and tornado and Witch and Glinda, and pyrotechnics that allowed us to make the Witch appear and disappear by a burst of smoke, as well as toss a real fireball at the Scarecrow (though the fire went out before it reached the actor). Our Glinda was really good, but she had black hair. My brother, who was also in it, still doesn't know how we melted the Witch and some of the biggest actors and actresses in this area couldn't figure out how we transformed our Miss Gulch to the Witch. Here's a picture of our Witch and flying monkeys. (We had three - two to "carry" Dorothy as they really flew away and Nikko, who isn't pictured here.)  |
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Post by DisneyFanatic on May 28, 2004 9:30:27 GMT -5
How DID you melt the witch and transform Miss Gulch?
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Post by ElphaZach on May 28, 2004 15:15:16 GMT -5
Usually in the case of the Melting Witch there is an elevator in the floor, often called a "Witch-evator" by Oz fans. The Gulch/Witch transformation can either be pre-filmed as the movie did or by having 2 actress & some how concealing them by smoke or sheets while the swap places. I have seen MANY stage versions of Oz.
I did not see the Wizard of Oz on Tour, because my dad wouldn't let me go. I did see the Wizard of Oz on Ice in 1995, it was pretty good. So far my fav stages adaption of Oz was the one I saw at the Indianapolis Civic Theatre.
In the past I have played the Scarecrow many times, as some of you may know, the last Oz play I auditioned for had an age-biast director who sent all the people under 16 home before they could even try for the main characters. I still managed to get Zeke & a Winkie. Our Witches are really good, 3 of the main 4 are good, but the Scarecrow got the part because of who he was. I will get pics when the show goes on in August, maybe I can dig up some pics from my Oz work in the past. I now potray the Scarecrow yearly at the Wizard of Oz Festival.
Oh, also what would an Oz on Stage thread be w/ out info on the 1st stage adaption? The 1st stage adaption premiered at the Chicago Grand Opera House in 1902. THe play replaced Toto w/ Imogene the cow, added scenes w/ nothing to do w/ the book or plot & completely cut out the Wicked Witch. The play was a major musical success, produced by author L. Frank Baum & Jullian Mitchell. Costumes designed by original book illustrator, W.W. Denslow. The play moved to Broadway in 1903, became highly successful & toured for 10 years...maybe the same could happen to Wicked. Following the success of the Wizard of Oz on stage, Baum tried 2 other plays, "The Wogglebug" based on the 2nd book, the Marvelous Land of Oz & "The Tik-Tok Man of Oz" based on the 3rd book, Ozma of Oz.
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Post by ElphaZach on May 28, 2004 15:17:41 GMT -5
Oh, BTW the 2 other Oz plays failed to live up to the Wizard of Oz play & each closed out quietly after a short-lived tour.
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Post by ElphieatShiz on May 29, 2004 9:18:13 GMT -5
It would be awesome to be a part of a stage production of WoO. My high school did it as the spring musical my freshman year and I really wanted to be in the pit, but I asked about it too late. Oh,well. It was a good show and everyone's favorite characters were the Winkies (their whole "song" thing).
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N0tThatGirL213
Winkie
Thanks to Drew for the awesome icon =P
Posts: 139
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Post by N0tThatGirL213 on May 30, 2004 14:09:19 GMT -5
WoO was my first ever musical...sixth grade, and it *totally* got me hooked. I was a tree...but I now think that's totally awesome because they painted me green for it.
Our Witch melted down a staircase...like, literally walked backwards off the stage down these steps, but there was so much fog it really looked like she melted.
Funny stories concerning this show:
1) During the cyclone scene, we had strobe lights and recorded sound effects and we had people in all black dance across the stage with "flying pieces of furniture." (keep in mind this is 4th-6th grade). Meanwhile, the techies changed the set to Oz. Unfortunately, we had an amazingly slow tech crew, so the sound effects kept stopping while they rewound the tape. Also, the "tornado dancers" weren't very good at wearing all black, so every once in a while, you'd see a hand or a head go dancing across the stage along with the furniture.
2) On opening night, our Wizard blanked on his lines. And I quote: "I am Oz, the Great and Terrible. Who are you and why do you seek me? LINE!"
3) Finally, the Witch got wayyy too close to the Scarecrow one night and the flashpaper from her broom *actually* set his costume on fire...THAT was interesting...
Okay, sorry if I bored anyone...I just had to share that.
=P Michelle
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Post by StageFiyero on May 30, 2004 14:53:06 GMT -5
For switching Miss Gulch to the Witch, we had a girl who had the same features as the Witch. So she did Miss Gulch for that one part and flew across on the bicycle, and then our real Miss Gulch/Witch flew on as the Witch.
Melting surprisingly did not involve a trapdoor or elevator. She was up on a high platform (the Witch castle set was HUGE - it took up half the backstage room and we've got a lot of backstage room on stage right... almost none on stage left) and lots of smoke emerged as she sank down to the floor, pretending to melt. There was a tower beside her with a hole in it, which wasn't visible thanks to the smoke, and she just crawled into the hole, hidden by the smoke. It looked amazingly real.
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Post by ElphaZach on May 30, 2004 15:56:45 GMT -5
OK, get this, our director for Oz has been making some major changes & instead of doing the regular melt, i'm not sure if this is to be original/interesting or if he is just too cheap to rig up a real melting scene, so when the Witch gets water thrown on her, there is going to be a lifesize painting of her on the wall & she's going to "Melt into it", like becoming one w/ the picture.
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Post by kerphaba on May 30, 2004 17:07:17 GMT -5
well...in nursery school we did the wizard of oz. i played glinda *the ga was silent;-)* and all i remember was the yellow bring road was a tiny circle made out of construction paper...and dorothys house was a few cardboard boxes.
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Post by MJRWicKeDFaN89 on May 30, 2004 18:07:04 GMT -5
I played Dorothy in a production of the WoO...but now that I'm obsessed with Wicked, I kind of wish I had played 1 of the witches for obvious reasons and so I could have a good story to tell or write in my fanmail..[Dear Idina, I just recentely played you in a production of the WoO] hehe...and now I have this thing against Dorothy for being the "bad one" to Elphie...[especially in the Wicked book] and for :spoiler: her house falling on Nessa!!!!!!! geez..and I mean, who takes a dead womans shoes? ! DSO
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Post by StageFiyero on May 31, 2004 2:14:18 GMT -5
Well, evil though it is to defend Dorothy, she really couldn't control her house.
Our house was cool, it was the outside on one side, then it flipped around had Dorothy's bedroom. The outside had a porch with steps, so the inside had to be up higher. The board that hid the empty space between the stage and the floorboard of the bedroom was removable, allowing someone to get under the house for the shoe-disappearance.
Our YBR was painted on the floor by the lady who grandfather painted it for the movie.
Our Wizard was forgetful as well, but thankfully didn't call for line in the middle of the show. Our Oz head/throne was huge (lots of huge sets...) and had those silk/fan/lights things for fire, which looked really good. The Wizard's lines were never the same so it was rough trying to figure out how to do the Oz head. In the end, he stood behind the curtain and the wall ended up having a paper taped to it - the paper had his lines written on it. A tiny camera was placed above the paper and then projected onto a screen that was placed on the throne, so the head was the actual Wizard's head.
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N0tThatGirL213
Winkie
Thanks to Drew for the awesome icon =P
Posts: 139
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Post by N0tThatGirL213 on May 31, 2004 3:14:21 GMT -5
I was supposed to be Glinda...I walked out of callbacks because I refused to do it. I thought it was "too girlie". So yes, I was happier to play a tree...::ponders::
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gypsy
.:.BoZ.:.
Who's the mage?
Posts: 825
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Post by gypsy on May 31, 2004 3:21:17 GMT -5
In my elementary school production of WoO (The one they wouldn't let me be in because they thought I didn't speak english because I was foreign). I'm still bitter about it, so I got it in my head to hate the show and say how much it sucks, but the twister scene was really cool. It had everyone in the number dressed up in greys and blacks, tanks with skirts that had teal, pink, gold and silver ribbons hanging from it. And they did this really cool sort of dance, that I really liked and WANTED TO BE IN! But that's about all I remember from the show.
-gyps
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Post by StageFiyero on May 31, 2004 5:29:13 GMT -5
Our tornado was cool. Four guys came on in these shiney cape-like costumes and they were the four "tornado people" who movied and spinned the house. Lots of fog was involved and we had people come in like they floating the storm - the canoe didn't have a bottom and did have straps so it went over the heads of the men and they rowed it, the rocking chair had false legs in it so the woman could walk and look like she was riding at the same time. It was so cool. Then Miss Gulch became the Witch and the lights went black, except for a spotlight fixed on a miniature house, dangling from the ceiling and spinning. While the audience watched that, the set changed to Munchkinland.
One night, all the fog set off the fire alarm! The audience thought it was part of the show, like a tornado alarm. They couldn't get it off until more than halfway through Munchkinland.
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Post by FaeAtShiz on May 31, 2004 10:44:11 GMT -5
When my school put on WoO they dimmed the lights for the tornado and had the house shake from side to side. While that was happening the tech people set up Munchkin land and pulled out the WWotE's shoes from under the house. It was not a real person.
We also had a new song I'd never heard before. The WWotW sang "I am evil," which was a pretty cool song. Has anyone else heard of it?
Edit: I also remembered that our WWotW said that only her sister would wear the socks she did with ruby slippers, and I was thinking Elphaba said something similar in Wicked. Can anyone back me up on this?
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