Talk about a twister.
Last night marked the first rehearsal for Wizard of Oz since Laughter on the 23rd Floor closed. When I arrived, the set looked just like it had when we came out for our bows on Saturday. But within 15 minutes, the tables and chairs were gone, picture frames had come down and all that was left were the yellow walls.
There was no time for nostalgia, though, because we had another play to work on. Fittingly, the first scene we blocked is the scene in which Dorothy is whisked away to Oz by a funnel of wind.
While the stage shifted appearances, the actors mostly stayed the same, just in different roles.
Instead of playing a hypochondriac, Jeff Roberts played the cowardly lion. Tim Novotny ditched the director’s hat and put on the Tin Man’s top. And Byrell Justice left the stage completely to give directions. Jim and Joyce Kemp, who had been stage hands, became Uncle Henry and Aunt Em.
And while Saturday we put on a two-hour production, complete with props, accents and makeup; Monday we just focused on one scene on a bare stage with scripts in our hands.
We have a long way to go, but it won’t be long before we’ve created a whole new world on stage, complete with flying monkeys, munchkins and, yes, a tornado.
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Tags: Byrell Justice, Jeff Roberts, Jim Kemp, Joyce Kemp, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, Tim Novotny, Wizard of Oz