Welcome to our Wizard of Oz blog.  Over the next 3 months we will keep you up to date with casting, rehearsals, costume & props creation and everything that goes into bringing a large Production like Wizard of Oz to the stage. If there is anything you would particularly like to know about the Show post a question on our Messageboard and we will try and answer all question here.
 

Toto

The search for Toto started as soon as we had received the Licence to perform "Wizard".  Toto in the 1939 MGM Film was a Cairn Terrier called 'Terry' and we were very keen to also cast a 'Cairn' in this key role. 

A chance meeting between the Producers mother and Jane of "Ruff-Food" provided us with the opportunity to meet "Chloe" a 5 year old female Cairn terrier. As soon as Jane & Chloe arrived we knew we had found our "Toto" - Chloe is fantastic, she loves to be the centre of attention and has many tricks in her repertory.  We shall have to be careful or "Chloe" will 'up-stage' the rest of the Cast!! :-)

Chloe

Dorothy & Toto

Meeting the Munchkins

Following excellent Munchkin Auditions we held our first "Munchkin" rehearsal on September 23rd. We split the Munchkins into two teams - The Rubies & The Emeralds.  We cast the "Principal" Munchkins for each team and in a forthcoming "blog" update I will introduce them all to you.

The Ruby Team

The Emerald Team

Rehearsals for the two team have continued through October and both teams are already looking excellent, words learnt, moves remembered and characterizations taking shape   - an amazing achievement by the Children, many of whom are very young!

We currently have 28 Rubies & 27 Emeralds we are looking for a few extra Munchkins (max height 4' 10") to make 32 in each team - contact us for details  Each team will perform on alternate nights.

Costumes

To make this show as Spectacular as we hope it will be,  we needed to have a set of Costumes that where 'made to measure' for the Cast, giving the Production exactly the look the Producer had envisaged.

For the 'Tinman', 'Scarecrow's' Head and the 'Monkeys' we again approached Liz and Max Carson who had made the wonderful masks for the  Ballet Scene in  last winters "The King & I"   plus many other key props for the show.  They kindly agreed to look at these Costumes for us and pictures from the "Tinman" production process will be shown in a forthcoming update.

For the other Principal and Munchkin costumes fate played a part and Gemma Dawes of "Shibby Fashion" contacted us just as we were making plans to find a Costume Designer. Gemma offered to Design and manage the Costume Plot for the show.

Gemma is in the final year of her Design degree course at Thames Valley University  and has already design complete wardrobes for a number of Productions. With the support of the Design department at TVU , 'Wizard of Oz' is Gemma's major Design project for her final year.

Gemma has been designing costumes, collecting material samples and cutting patterns over the last few months - here are some of her early designs.

Costumes are now starting to move from paper to works in progress and as Pictures become available they will appear on the Blog

And Finally

Early ticket sales have been extremely positive. As mentioned last week we have budgeted for 70% sales (approx £55,000)  and we have already reached 13% - which an excellent start so early into the Promotion campaign.

Friday & Sat Matinee are really selling strongly with 32% sales for Friday and 28% for Sat Matinee.  With the Hexagon brochure due shortly and our Newspaper & Radio campaigns starting in late November we are hoping for strong sales leading up to Christmas.

Thanks for your interest, look out for next weeks update

The WOZ Production Team.

Planning & Budgeting

Wishing to follow our tradition of presenting a "family" show in our January time slot at the Hexagon we decided that the "Wizard of Oz" would be a good choice for 2008. There are two versions of the show - one is the MUNY version and the other the  Royal Shakespeare Company  (RSC) version . The RSC version is the preferred choice for most Companies, as it follows the 1939 MGM film very closely.  For further reading see here

A licence was applied for from Musicscope and this was granted for six performances in Jan '08.

Having chosen the show we needed to set an initial "draft" budget, engage a Musical Director and book Sets, Costumes & Rehearsal Venues

Tim Cumper our resident MD was approached and agreed to take charge of the Musical Direction for the Show

An initial Budget was prepared in May '07 based upon previous Hexagon Productions and "best guestimates"   - this came in at £55,000 which has a +/- 15% variance and will be firmed up as contracts are signed .

Ticket prices were set based upon previous January Box Office takings and set at 70% of total Box Office potential, which is sales of 3500 seats required.  This figure is a little higher than "King & I" (2900) similar to "Scrooge" (3400) and less than "Oliver!" (4200) and "Annie" (6100) (Annie ran for 10 performances)

Contacts with the Hexagon were signed, deposits paid and the Box Office available from mid-October.

The Artwork for Posters, flyers and promo material was designed and signed off by the Company.

We now needed to arrange a Set for the Production. We approached Scenicprojects who had a Professional "Wizard" set created for a production in 2005 at the  Lowery Theatre, Salford and then used again for the Professional production at the New Theatre Oxford. This set was available and so this was booked.

Our first meeting with the Hexagon Technical Management team followed shortly after agreeing the details of the Set.  This initial meeting focused mainly on the "Flying" and the "Get-In" timings .  To "Fly" , Glinda, the Wicked Witch, the Flying Monkeys and the Wizard needs a professional flying equipment company. Flying by Foy have now been engaged to provide this service.

The size of the Production and the complexities of the Set and the Flying Rigs mean that the "standard" get-in time for a Non-Professional Show (Set In & Technical Run-Through on Sunday and Dress Rehearsal on Monday)  needed to be adjusted. Therefore to allow for six performances Tuesday to Saturday with a Sat Matinee, the "Get-In" timings have been changed:-
The Rig the Flying Equipment will go in Saturday Night/ Sunday Morning - the Set & Stage Floor will go in Sunday during the day - Sunday evening will be the "Flying Rehearsals" - Monday Evening will be the Technical Run-Thru with full Orchestra and Tuesday Afternoon will be the Dress Rehearsal allowing the show to open on the Tuesday night as normal.

Further meetings with the Hexagon Team & the Oz Crew are planned for late November.

Auditions

Auditions were held in mid September so we could make a start with the Munchkins - we were able to Cast a strong line-up of Principals , Dancers and Munchkins. 

Georgia Oldman has been cast in the lead role of "Dorothy" - Georgia is a member of our Stage School and played the lead role in "Annie" in 2005. Georgia is 14 and already possesses a beautifully mature mezzo voice this is complimented by Georgia excellent stage presence.

Damian Sollesse takes the role of "Scarecrow" - Damian has played many lead roles for Masquerade including "Lun Tha" in last years "King & I" - A very strong singer/dancer Damian will  bring real panache to the role of Scarecrow.

Aled Davies a newcomer to Masquerade is the "Cowardly Lion" - Aled has a rich lyrical tenor voice;  a larger than life stage presence and will make a great impact as Lion

"Tinman" is David Williams - David has played many character roles for Masquerade including "Kralahome" in the "King & I" - David is a very strong character actor and a great  exponent of the method system so no dustbin is safe leading up to the show!

Maria Lukeman plays the role of "Glinda" - Maria has played a number of leading lady roles for the Company the last being "Mrs Anna" in the "King and I"  - a lovely soaring soprano voice and 'star quality' stage presence Maria will delight as the Glinda the Good.

Sam Rogers as the Wicked Witch of the West will scare the living daylights out of you! - Sam was born to play this role, she is so evil it will make your toes curl and has a wicked laugh that chills the blood!!

We also were able to cast "Chloe" as Toto and pictures of Chloe will be available here shortly.

We are still looking for a few more Munchkins to complete the two Munchkin teams ~ The Rubies & The Emeralds.

We also need a few more Men & Dancers for the Ensemble.  Adverts for these extra people will appear during mid - November.

The Munchkins have already made a great start and both teams now have most of their songs learnt and much of the blocking is complete. In the next few weeks the Principals will be added into the scene to finalize blocking before starting to polish at the run throughs

Full Company rehearsals start on Monday 5th November - rehearsal updates will appear in later blogs.

In the next weeks blog, we will look at Costumes and Props planning, the first rehearsal pictures and talk about Promotions and Ticket sales so far

Thanks for reading :-)

The WOZ Production team