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School
& Youth Theatre
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An Approach to The Wizard of Oz (2)I began with the Munchkins. How would they feel, being ruled over by an arbitrary, evil witch? Scared, obviously, but also they would be on their guard all the time, just in case they said or did something to annoy her. In fact, they would even have to watch their facial expressions because, if she glimpsed something she didn't like, she could punish them for that. So the idea of masks occured to me. I'd just been going through the Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation's catalogue (sorting out what I needed for lessons) and I'd noticed that they had some white, expressionless masks, and realised they would be just perfect. They would wear the masks until they were sure the witch was actually dead, and only then would the take them off and reveal their true faces and feelings. I realised, too, that colourful clothes were not suitable, so, taking the cue from the masks and for the traditional witches' preference for black, I decided they would wear black trousers and white shirts, with no attempt at any individuality at all. The Ozians, however, had to be different: they were happy, totally carefree - and totally gullible! So they were to wear brightly coloured clothes, as stylish and - where appropriate - as sexy as possible. As for the main characters, I felt that it would be wrong (because unacceptable to an audience) to deviate from the traditional costumes, so Dorothy wore her gingham dress and the Scarecrow, the Lion and the Tin Man their expected costumes. Aunt Em and co., of course, wore Kansas farmer garb and only the Wizard gave me any real pause for thought. In the end I decided on pretty formal wear: black trousers and white shirt, brightened up by a colourful bow tie. The Jitterbugs were a problem. I considered costumes which suggested animals or insects, but neither of these ideas really appealed. Eventually I decided that they were the product of the evil which, thanks to the witches, pervaded much of Oz, so I simply dressed them completely in black. I also had a word with the choreographer and told her that what I wanted in the Jitterbug dance was lots of angular, sharp, jerky movement. This, I felt, would accentuate the sense of evil. It worked, I think. Everything seemed to be coming together nicely, but I still had one problem: the flying house! Unfortunately our school hall - like, I would imagine, every other in the country - does not have flying facilities, so I had to come up with a way of having Dorothy snatched from Kansas and flown to Oz. She had to leave the ground, that was for sure, and the only way I could think of doing that was for her to be picked up by others and held above their heads whilst being rushed across the stage. That in itself, however, wouldn't be enough. So I had the rest of the cast swirling around her (like the twister). Once we tried it, it looked OK, but no more than OK. Something was missing. I considered a smoke machine, but they've given me nothing but trouble when I've used them in the past, so I tried a rapid lighting chase. That helped, but it still wasn't enough. So I borrowed a strobe and added it to the mix. It looked right, but there was still something missing. So I got the MD to play the music as loud and wildly as possible, whilst the dialogue was shrieked to come over the music. It worked! Big sigh of relief! After all, it was only at the final tech rehearsal that all of this came together: up until then, the final picture was only in my mind! And now we have to go back to the beginning again, to consider the other problem, the casting. >> Part 3
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