FOR more than 100 years The Wizard of Oz has given faithful service to the young at heart and time has been powerless to put its kindly philosophy out of fashion.
This year the MGM film adaptation is celebrating its 75th anniversary and in conjunction with the anniversary the Players Theatre is inviting audiences to take a trip down the nostalgic yellow brick road and rediscover MGM’s The Wizard of Oz.
Opening on 10 January and running until 2 February at the Players Theatre in Port Macquarie, the play has a wonderful cast, who will make you laugh and scream as they tell the story of this much-loved family classic.
A young adult trapped in a 21st-century black and white world, Dorothy has dreams of a life to be lived in the spectrum of the rainbow. Dorothy (played by University of New England theatre student and local girl Jaimee Lindley) and her dog (Toto, played by local HSC student Michael Snow) and the audience are soon transported, via a tornado, to a world restored of colour, imagination and endless possibilities.
In this new world, called ‘Oz’, they encounter witches (of the good and bad variety), wizards, flying monkeys, ditzy scarecrows, a man made of tin, a lion without courage, a city of emeralds and so much more as they venture down the yellow brick road.
Fuelled with all the characters and songs generations have come to know and love, the cast strives to create a bold and exciting evening of live theatre while still staying true to the original heart of this story.
Led by fresh 20-year-old director Andrew Cockroft Penman, the company includes students of theatre and performance from the University of New England, Jono McAteer (Tin Man), Matthew Whittingham (Cowardly Lion) and Ashlee Cooke (Glinda, the Witch of the North).
The cast also showcases the talents of local young talent in the form of sisters Cherie Kershaw (Scarecrow) and Erin Kershaw (Nikko, flying monkey) and well-seasoned actors John Hincks (Uncle Henry, winner of best actor in the One Act Play festival 2013), Di Gillies (Auntie Em, previously seen in the hit comedy The Butler Did It) and John Uncle as the Wonderful Wizard of Oz (a local roving performer stemming from Shakespeare to Thomas the Tank Engine). Eileen Kerr terrifies as the Wicked Witch of the West.
The courage of the production comes from the talents of vocal director Ian Castle (head vocal tutor at Centre Stage Theatre Factory) and award-winning musician and conductor Ben Simon. Together with a live orchestra, they aim to allow the audience to escape with Dorothy “Behind the moon, beyond the rain, somewhere over the rainbow”.
Performances run from the 10 January until 2 February every Friday and Saturday night at 8pm and Sundays at 2pm at the Players Theatre on the corner of Gordon and Lord streets.
Tickets can be purchased at the Glasshouse 6581 8888 or at the Players Theatre box office one hour prior to any performance or through the theatre’s website at www.playerstheatre.org
