The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
A show like no other is about to hit Charleston, when The River Cities Youth Ballet, the Youth Symphony Orchestra, childSong and womanSong join forces to present the premiere of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz performed as a ballet.
The idea came to Michelle Raider, artistic director of River Cities Youth Ballet. She then contacted Robert Turizziani, conductor of the Youth Symphony Orchestra and Joann Cordell, director of childSong and womanSong to ask for their help in putting on the production.
A New Oz
Margaret Lieberman, executive director for Fund for the Arts who also works at River Cities Youth Ballet, soon joined the group and is helping to choreograph the original ballet.
"We started with a story outline and we all chose which parts to put in, the parts that people will recognize," explains Raider. Lieberman adds "And we are calling it The Wonderful Wizard of Oz because it really is more true to the book than the film."
Cordell is rewriting some of the original songs, true to The Wizard of Oz, into choral renditions to be performed by childSong and womanSong. "We will be doing Follow the Yellow Brick Road, Somewhere over the Rainbow and Ding-dong the Witch is Dead. They will be different from the original songs but you will definitely recognize them," Cordell explains.
There will also be some music that everyone knows, but won't associate with the play, explains Turizziani. For example, during the scene where the flying monkeys raid the stage, the Youth Symphony Orchestra will be playing the "William Tell Overature."
Since this is a ballet and not a play, there were some modifications made to the performance to keep it original and "fresh" Lieberman says. "The monkeys will be on scooters and the tornado will be performed by ballet dancers twirling about the stage."
Also, during the song Somewhere Over the Rainbow , the rainbow will be represented by ballet dancers in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet costumes. The rest of the costumes in the show will be much like the costumes from the film, which are being created by Kathy Campbell, the costume designer, and parents of the performers.
Curtain Call
The ballet dancers, the orchestra and the chorus are practicing for the performance. The four groups will join to practice together for the first time in early April.
Included in the performance is a broad range of women and children of all ages. The childSong Chorus includes children from 5 to 18, while the ballet dancers range from 7 to 20 years old and the orchestra is comprised of 13 to 18 year olds.
Kathryn Molitor is playing Dorothy, Katie Kelsh is playing the Lion, Megan Meadows is the Tin Man and Betsy Sokolosky is the Scarecrow. Emily Almquist landed the fitting role of Auntie Em while Glenda the Good Witch is Jennifer Arnold, the Wicked Witch of the West is Joanna Radow and the Wizard of Oz is Tommy Snyder. Last but not least, 9-year-old Kierstyn Kirk is playing the role of Toto.
"You don't usually get a lot of opportunity to have big stage productions," Turizziani states. "And many productions don't involve orchestras. So this is a great chance to play for a big audience."
Lieberman hopes that this performance will be as big a success as last year's Cinderella. "The children screamed their heads off in excitement at the end of Cinderella. If we could just recreate that moment it will all be worthwhile," she adds.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz will be held at the Clay Center on April 28. A school performance will take place earlier in the day and the public performance begins at 7:00 p.m. Eight hundred tickets are already reserved for the 1,400-occupancy theatre. Tickets range from $21, $16 to $11. To reserve tickets, call the Clay Center at (304) 561-3500.
