NEWCASTLE theatregoers have been heading down the yellow brick road to see The Wizard of Oz for more than 50years and their passion for the show has never dimmed.
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Young People’s Theatre is about to stage a new production of The Wizard of Oz, with advance bookings showing it will again be a crowd-pleaser.
The show holds a special place in the history of YPT. It was the first production staged by Newcastle Children’s Theatre, the 1950s offshoot of Newcastle Dramatic Art Club that took the Young People’s Theatre name when it became a separate company.
William Ford, who founded the company with wife Elizabeth, adapted Frank L. Baum’s novel.
That first production still holds the record for the longest-running theatre show in Newcastle’s history. It was staged in MacRobertson’s Hall, an upstairs venue in a building on the corner of Stewart Avenue and Parry Street and, with mainly Saturday matinee sessions, played for more than a year.
The new season of The Wizard of Oz opens at Young People’s Theatre in Hamilton on April 15 and runs until June 8.
The story’s continuing popularity was shown by the number of YPT members who auditioned. The show has two casts, totalling 70 people aged between eight and 19, with some of the major roles played at different performances by three actors.
Chloe Mclean, for example, shares with Olivia Dickinson and Cassidy Lobb the role of Dorothy, the orphan transported by a cyclone from Kansas to the land of Oz. And Elizabeth Collins is one of three Wicked Witches of the West, the others being India Monaghan and Jessie Lancaster.
Elizabeth Collins said that the Wicked Witch of the West, here called Nora, is played differently by each of the three.
“I see her as quite crazy, but also sad,’’ she said.
‘‘She is completely devastated that her sister, the Wicked Witch of the East, has been killed when Dorothy’s house lands on her.’’
Chloe Mclean sees Dorothy, who is around 12, as being very brave for her age.
‘‘She has been taken away from her home and family by the storm but she is persistent in saying ‘I can get home’ as she travels through Oz,’’ she said.
Dorothy encounters the Wicked Witch of the West five times during the story and always bravely defies her when she makes threats, Mclean said.
YPT’s Wizard of Oz originally used the songs from the film starring Judy Garland, but William Ford wrote 16 new numbers when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the studio that made the film, withdrew rights to the songs worldwide.
Chloe Mclean’s favourite song is Listen, sung in a forest by Dorothy and the friends she has met on her journey – the Tin Man, Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion. The trees around them, controlled by the Witch, move as they sing, adding intensity to the number.
Elizabeth Collins names A Little Girl as her favourite among the songs.
‘‘I sing it as the Wicked Witch when I have Dorothy trapped in my castle and I feel I am going to at last get the magic silver slippers on her feet that belonged to my sister. With my servants, the Winkies, around me, I feel quite powerful,’’ she said.
The Wizard of Oz is directed by Katy Booth and Emily Taylor.
The show plays at Young People’s Theatre, on the corner of Lindsay and Lawson streets, Hamilton. There will be performances daily at 11am from Monday, April 15, to Friday, April 19, plus 7pm shows on Wednesday, April 17, and Friday, April 19. There will be shows each Saturday at 2pm and 7pm from April 20 to June 8. There will also be a 7pm performance on Friday, April 26.
Tickets are $15, except for the April 17, 7pm, performance which includes supper: $20.
Bookings can be made at the theatre office by phone or in person on Friday between 4pm and 6pm or on Saturday between 9am and 1pm.
Tickets are $15, except for the April 17, 7pm, performance which includes supper: $20.
Bookings can be made at the theatre office by phone or in person on Friday between 4pm and 6pm or on Saturday between 9am and 1pm.