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American Theater Arts for Youth "Wizard of Oz"

Knoxville Auditorium

May 13th, 2008

American Theater Arts For Youth’s production of Wizard of Oz is an original telling of the American classic.

The show begins in Kansas with Auntie Em. She calls to Dorothy and her three farmhands, Rusty, Slim, and Lionel. (Soups on) Soon, the evil Ms. Scragg arrives to take away Dorothy’s dog Toto. Dorothy and her friends sing (Somewhere) a song about dreams and imagination and a land of lollipops and roses.

When the song ends, a salesman arrives at the farm and shows Dorothy her future through a crystal ball. As Dorothy becomes more and more entranced, a tornado twister is spotted on the horizon. Everyone safely escapes except, of course, Dorothy.

When she wakes up, Dorothy realizes she is not in Kansas anymore but rather in the land of lollipops and roses. She is in the land of Oz. There she meets Glinda, the Good Witch who sends Dorothy off to see the Wizard of Oz, as he is the only person who will be able to get her back to Kansas. Glinda tells Dorothy to follow the yellow brick road. She also gives Dorothy the magical ruby slippers that had belonged to the wicked Witch of the East. As Dorothy is about to head off, the evil Wicked Witch of the West stops her. She wants the slippers and will stop at nothing to get them.

Along the yellow brick road Dorothy meets a talking scarecrow without any brains. (Dumb) She meets a Tin Woodsman with no heart, (Heart) and a Lion without any courage. (Guts) Dorothy insists that her three new friends accompany her to find the Wizard of Oz because she believes that if the Wizard can get her back to her family, then he can help Scarecrow get a brain, the Tin Woodsman get a heart and the Lion, courage. (Follow the Yellow Brick Road)

Along the way, Dorothy sings of her home in Kansas and how much she misses it. (Back Home) Her new traveling companions try to cheer her up by telling her the Wizard can send her back. (Any Wizard)

Soon they arrive in Oz, but receive a cold reception from the powerful Oz. He refuses to help them unless they can destroy the Wicked Witch of the West.

Desperate to get home, Dorothy and her friends agree and set off to find the Witch. (It’s So Easy to be a Witch) However, the witch is a step ahead and casts a spell on the friends, which causes them to fall asleep in a Poppy field. When Scarecrow, Lion and Tinman awake, they discover that Dorothy has been kidnapped and rush off to rescue her. (Be Brave)

Using all their “strength”, “brains” and “heart”, the friends save Dorothy, destroy the witch and bring the witch’s hat back to the great and almighty Oz so that he can fulfill his promise to them all. Unfortunately the Wizard breaks his promise and still refuses to help Dorothy and her friends. Disappointed and angry, the gang notices a curtain and sneak around to check it out. They pull back the curtain only to discover that the powerful Wizard is actually a human, who, like Dorothy and her friends, has no powers at all. Though not able to offer magic to help the gang, the “wizard” reminds Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tinman and Lion that what they were all seeking is already inside them. Dorothy clicks her heels and wakes up back in Kansas with Auntie Em, her friends and Toto.

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