What a Wiz It Was!

It was my great honor and privilege to assist with the production Flying Dragon's Wizard of Oz.  This was a great production performed the first two weekends of February.  Pictured above was our phenomenally cute Lullaby League: Hannah, Marin and Madison.

I was proud that my son Benjamin played the Wizard, playing the character with flair and confidence.  This also shows our amazing Toto, Daykota, who was perfection and the hit of the show.  The Dorothy is our Cast One week Dorothy, Katie, whom I am very proud of.  She is an outstanding young actress with a tremendous amount of potential.

This is Emily, the daughter of my good friend and co-director, Kimberly.  She was the cutest Scarecrow ever, and very expressive.

Another picture of Toto, played by Daykota.  This young lady always hit her spot, doing all the right things at exactly the right time.  The audience loved her.

Cast One Lion played by Andrew, who was very charming and humorous as the Lion with well crafted dance moves.  In back are our scarecrow Emily and our Tin Girl, Anna.  Anna really impressed me with how she took control of her part, showing a lot of heart!

Out Green Man Group, playing our talking trees.  Their movements during the Tin Girl/Man song added an extra special layer of fun and enjoyment for our audience.

Our Cast Two heroes...Ally as Dorothy (very sweet, amazing, and sang beautifully), Gage (perfect character and singing - hard to believe he was only eight), Adam (fabulous - just about stole the show!) and Krysta (Cowardly Lion extraordinaire).  Many I want to recognize I don't have a picture of, but I want to thank for their performances, including our two talented witches, Amara Grace and Sydney, who interestingly, last year split the part of Dorothy.

I was very impressed by the contributions of so many to make this show work.  We had over fifty children, all learining their parts and having a great time.  We had tremendous support from parents, who helped get their kids to rehearsal and contributed so much backstage.  We had full house audiences every performance, showing fantastic community support.

I felt like I contributed very little to the success of the show.  I did as much as I could given the overwhelming nature of my job, particularly when tax season started.  I appreciate everyone who stepped in to help.

I did start with the vision that maybe we should do the play with all young people cast.  I wanted to try it, but was unsure we could pull it off.  That fear lasted until tryouts began.  I was impressed by the depth of talent at the Flying Dragon.  In fact, there were so many worthy young people trying out, that we actually made the potentially insane decision to double cast!  We had ten roles, including most of the major ones, that switched from week one to week two.

Amazingly, we pulled it off!  Each cast was both individual and brilliant.  It was a tough thing to keep going, and sometimes I had to be the Tiger Dad, a role I hated but at rare times felt necessary.  I am grateful that all the hard work we did paid off in a performance that was fun and entertaining for both the kids AND the audience.

As much fun as it all was, I think I need to pull away from theatre for a little while.  There are some things I need to think about.  I want to take some time  for some other things.  I want to improve my physical and mental health.  I want to see if there are other things, supplemental and otherwise, that I can do to help support and assist my family.  When I go back into theatre again (which I will), I can do so refreshed and renewed.

Again, God bless all of you who contributed so much to make this one of the area's most spectacular shows, reaching the stratospheric heights for successful children's theatrical productions.  and...that's all, folks!