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THE WIZARD OF OZ – INTRODUCTION Welcome to this introduction to The Wizard of Oz – the musical by L. Frank Baum with Music and Lyrics by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg. The production is directed by Jude Kelly.
The VocalEyes audio-described performance at The Royal Festival Hall at the South bank Centre will be on Saturday 16th August. There will be a touch tour at 12.45; the introductory notes will start at 2.15 and the performance itself at 2.30pm.
The production lasts for 2 hours and 40 minutes with a 20 minute interval. The live audio description will be given for VocalEyes by Miranda Yates and Jane Brambley.
There now follows information about the production which includes descriptions of the characters and the settings. This will be followed by a list of cast and production credits and finally, some useful information and contact details.
The Wizard of Oz tells the story of a young girl called Dorothy, who lives with her aunt and uncle on a poor farm in Kansas. When a neighbour threatens to destroy Dorothy’s dog Toto, she and Toto run away. In no time they find themselves on a magical journey to the Land of Oz, together with the Lion, the Scarecrow and the Tin Man. After many adventures they finally meet the Wizard, who gives each one of them the answer they’ve been searching for, and enables Dorothy and Toto to return home.
The Characters
Dorothy is about 12, and as neat as a pin. She wears a pale blue checked pinafore dress over a white blouse with short puffed sleeves. Her shiny long dark hair is tied in bunches with pale blue ribbon that matches her dress, and on her feet she wears white ankle socks with shiny black pumps with an ankle
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strap. She has a pretty fresh frace with bright blue eyes, which she opens wide as she takes in the magical events around her. She is full of youthfull vim and vigour gesticulating expressively as she bounds across the vastness of the festival stage. Nearly everyone Dorothy meets is taller than she is, so she’s often found looking up at them. Dorothy is played by Sian Brooke.
Her faithful companion is her dog Toto, a West Highland terrier with a white shaggy coat, pricked up ears and bright brown eyes. He is endlessly patient as he trots obediently after Dorothy on his lead, or gets scooped up and carried around by her family and friends. Toto is a real dog and his proper name is Bobby.
The first friend they make on their journey is The Scarecrow. He has a pale round soft featured face with brown painted nose and eyebrows. He wears old hand-me-down clothing in heavy fabrics.There’s a floppy dark brown hat on his head and a ragged dark woolen coat pulled tight round his chest tied at the waist with a piece of old rope. His straw stuffing escapes from his cuffs, his collar and through the gaps in his shirt buttons, occasionally falling to the floor, when he’ll just pick it up and stuff it back in. He has baggy old brown trousers that are a little short and brown boots with more straw sticking out round their tops. Initially he wobbles and staggers around unused to being on his feet as if his straw filled legs aren’t quite strong enough. Scarecrow is played by Hilton McRae.
Next they meet the Tin Man . He is silver from head to toe, including his silver painted face. He is made of a series of shiny tubes that fit neatly around his arms legs and torso, with joints at his elbows and knees. There’s a shiny upturned funnel on his head for a hat, and he carries a silver-coloured axe. He is extremely stiff when we first meet him and walks with difficulty with his legs sticking out straight and his movements jerky and robotic ,his head stuck on one side. The Tin Man is played by Adam Cooper. The Lion looks as soft as the Tin Man looks hard. He’s covered in golden fur, with a long thick ginger mane and a long ginger beard. The Lion’s tail is very
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long with a furry end like a paintbrush. He often picks it up and twirls it playfully or swishes it from side to side. When we first meet him he prances about on his big furry paws with his chest puffed out proudly. The Lion is played by Gary Wilmot.
The same actors who play the scarecrow, the lion and the tin man also play three workers on the farm where Dorothy lives. They’re called Zeke, Hunk and Hickory.
Zeke is burly and broad-faced with twinkly eyes, and he wears an old checked shirt and dungarees, with a brown felt hat on his black curly hair. He’s played by Gary Wilmot, who also plays the Lion.
Hunk is a little older, maybe in his forties, with frizzy greying hair. He wears old brown cord trousers and a brownish waistcoat and old shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and he’s played by Hilton McRae, who also plays the Scarecrow.
The third man, Hickory, is the youngest, in his early twenties, and he wears a pink vest and denim jeans. He’s played by Adam Cooper, who also plays the Tin Man. Dorothy lives with her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em. They’re both in their fifties and wear dull pale brown clothes as they hurry about the farm. Uncle Henry has a waistcoat and old shirt over worn trousers and boots – his hair is grey and thinning and sticks out as if he never has time to comb it. Aunt Em wears a calf-length dress with a big apron tied round her waist. Her blonde hair is crimped into waves and then pinmed into a bun at the nape of her neck. Both of them move quickly and purposefully. Uncle Henry is played by Julian Forsyth and Aunt Em by Susannah Fellows.
The neighbour who causes Dorothy to run away is called Miss Gulch (Goolsh). She looks thin and bony in a dreary black coat, with a black skirt poking out beneath it, and a black felt hat on her head. Her angular pale face
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is pinched with a sour expression and her dark hair is mostly hidden under the hat. She looks even worse when she reappears as the Wicked Witch of the West, in a tall black hat and a long swishy black cloak that in a certain light has a green tinge to it. Her face is painted slimy green and so are her clawlike, long fingered hands. She carries a broomstick with a bunch of twigs tied to it’s end. The Witch and Miss Gulch are played by Julie Legrand. There’s a good witch too, of course. She’s called Glinda, Good Witch of the North. She’s tall, with thick auburn hair, and she carries herself with ‘queenlike’ grace and poise. She wears a long sparkly gown of candyfloss pink with glittery spagetti straps and a full puffy skirt. To top it off Glinda has a tall glittery crown on her head and the wand that she carries has a sparkly star on the end. She’s played by Susannah Fellows.
On her journey Dorothy also meets two magicians, both played by Roy Hudd. First she meets Professor Marvel, who arrives with a banner which reads ‘Professor Marvel – acclaimed by all the crowned heads of Europe – let me read your past, present and future’. The professor is quite old – maybe in his sixties – and he’s plump and rumpled looking; his white hair sticks out messily, his grey baggy cardigan and trousers look rather old and his white shirt could do with an iron, though it’s mostly covered with a blue and green cravat. For a long time the other magician is heard but not seen, as his voice booms out full of authority, making Dorothy and her friends jump. When he does appear he’s revealed as a plump elderly wizard with wild white hair but very ordinary clothes – white shirt, bootlace tie, grey trousers and shiny black shoes. He is - the Wizard of Oz.
Before they meet him, though the friends must pass his guard. The guard is smartly dressed in a long green greatcoat with gold braid on the shoulders and cuffs and an official looking peaked cap. He has a comically long and bushy grey moustache. He’s played by Julian Forsyth.
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Finally, as they travel through the magical Land of Oz to the Emerald City where the Wizard lives, Dorothy and her friends meet an assortment of unusual humans or animated plants. The Munchkins are lively young children in fresh bright clothes – purple, red, orange, pink, yellow, blue and turquoise. The boys wear short trousers with braces, shirts and big caps or short top hats, and the grils wear sundresses. They all wear simple flat shoes and some have stripy socks, and they bounce about cheerfully with lots of energy .
The following characters are all played by the men and women of the ensemble who come in all shapes and sizes.
The Winkys march about in long black coats and caps, sticking their right arms out in directly in front, then across their chests, out again and down like robots in time to their marching. They are a gloomy-looking bunch as they stamp about robotically in a long line, never changing their song or their march. The Revellers inhabit the wizard’s court and they all wear emerald green. They dance and somersault or wave long green ribbons, or gyrate with hula hoops. The men wear green hats, sparkly waistcoats, short trousers and stripy socks, and the girls have short green skirts or tutus and strappy, sparkly tops.
Three Crows caper about in loose black tail coats and black tights making their legs look long and skinny - there are five apple trees, in brown tops and trousers with green pouches at the waist and long lilting branches arching above their heads, laden with big red apples – and last but not least, a poppy field. The poppy plants wear plain black school-girl like calf length tunics and their black hair is cut with a fringe. They hold huge red poppies, one in each hand, and the oversized flowers are twice as tall as they are.
The Setting
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The setting is simple and stylised to represents a number of different locations, begining with Dorothy’s home, a farm in Kansas and moving to a variety of wierd and wonderful locations that lead eventually to the Emerald city and the Wizard of Oz. Initially the stage lighting and colours are dim and muted but as we journey to the ‘Merry old land of Oz’ the colours become richer and brighter.
For this production the vast stage of the Royal Festival Hall is 20 metres across and 10 metres deep and its floor is painted a deep mottled blue. Dominating the space is a huge rough hewn advertising billboard. It begins a metre above head height and rises to a height of 4 metres, running across most of the entire width of the space. It curves gently away from us so that the central floor space is deeper than it is at the sides.
The central guts of the huge billboard has been ripped away leaving rough edges on the remaining adverts on both sides and a huge 10 metre gap. The fading image on the left, is of a happy smiling husband and wife as they stand on the doorstep of their home with their little girl looking up at them. The tag line reads ‘When you buy an automobile, you give 3 months work to someone, which allows him to buy their products.’ The huge image on the right is of a burly square jawed and thick necked worker standing dynamically poised by a hulking great piece of machinery. The slogan above him reads ‘Overalls, Union made – Outwear to ordinary wear.’
The 10 metre gap in the centre is filled by a giant screen. As we take our seats in huge writing the words ‘The Wizard of Oz’ sprawls across it. During the performance the screen is used to display a number of different types of still and moving imagery, often forming the background to a particular location or evoking a particular mood or adding to the atmosphere.
As the overture begins huge colourful sketched images of the faces of beautiful women fill the huge screen. The women have fashionable 1930’s
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bobbed haircuts and flimstar looks. Following this a collage of enlarged newspaper clippings include an advertisment for a new ‘Chevrolet’.
The farmstead in Kansas is embellished by a series of sepia toned images dusty farm buildings in the barren mid-western landscape, the sprawling flatness before a low horizon or an empty highway whose only company is a distant string of telegraph poles and wires.
Later the images change dramatically into the simple colouful animations of child-like drawings. A black and white spiralling circle represents the ‘twister’ that blows through the farm. Childlike bright green trees represent a forest clearing and huge colourful sweets rain down to enhance a mood of celebration.
The main action unfolds before us below the massive billboard, though very occasionally a character may pop up there from a concealed door high up on the right. Just in front of the billboard, on the left and right a number of wooden telegraph poles with slim metal ladders reach up from the floor.
Underneath the billboard, following its curve, is a series of door size corrigated metal panels. The panels are placed side by side creating a back wall to the space. Each has two long metal supports that run from corner to corner forming an X shape. The panels look rusty and worn in Kansas but are lit to appear a lush green in the Emerald city. This wall of panels stands about a metre further back than the billboard above. Some of the panels open up as doorways and are used as entances and exits. At other times the central panels slide apart revealing another similar panelled wall a few metres further back.
A few metres in front of the billboard is a large circular section of the floor about 5 metres wide that periodically revolves sometimes moving us to new locations. A few key items are occasionally added - a piece of scenery may be placed at the back of the revoving floor and then move towards us as the floor turns.
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Dorothys’ infamous house is represented by a small section of a ramshackle wooden dwelling. This section of is big enough for a small front door and a window. When this is turned around it is as if we are inside, where just under the window is a very small bed big enough for someone to curl up on. This house also later doubles as the Wicked Witches castle.
And last but not least are the 20 members of the orchestra who occupy the orchestra pit, which is directly in front of the stage, a couple of metres deep.
Cast and Production Credits
Dorothy Scarecrow / Hunk Tin Man / Hickory Lion / Zeke Uncle Henry / Emerald City Guard Aunt Em / Glinda the Good Witch Miss Gulch / Wicked Witch Professor Marvel / Wizard of Oz Toto
Sian Brooke Hilton McRae Adam Cooper Gary Wilmot Julian Forsythe Susannah Fellows Julie Legrand Roy Hudd Bobby
The Ensemble Verity Bentham, Jina Burrows, Owain Rhys Davies, Daniel Fallow, Darren J Fawthrop, Nolan Frederick, Carly Hainsby, Kiara Jay, Leroy Ricardo Jones, Rebecca Loius, David McGranaghan, Kyle Millanaise, Rachael Louise Miller, Harry Morrison, Saori Oda and Moyo Omoniyi
The Munchkins are played by the ensemble and children from Glenbrook Primary School, St Bernadette’s RC Junior School, St Andrew’s CE Primary School and Bonneville Primary School.
The Creative Team
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The musical director is Jonathan Gill The Designer is Michael Vale Choreography is by Nick Winston Lighting is by Mike Gunning The Sound designer is Ed Clarke Visual Installation in the production is by Huntley Muir And the director is Jude Kelly.
N.B. Please note that there is use of strobe and flashing light and that there are several loud bangs during the performance.
Useful Information and Contact Details
At the Royal Festival Hall Guide and companion dogs are welcome and can be taken into the auditorium. However, please note that dogs cannot be looked after by staff during the performance.
There are numerous cafes, bars and restaurants throughout the Southbank Centre. Many are situated on the Festival Riverside and Festival Terrace. In the Festival Hall itself there are four options: The Skylon Restaurant serves a modern British menu with an extensive wine list. For reservations call 0207 654 7800, The Canteen serves simple British cuisine. Call 0845 686 1122. The Central Bar is a public bar in the Level 2 foyer. The Riverside Terrace Café is a quick service bakery adjoining the Central Bar with a terrace overlooking the River Thames. It serves seasonal food and hot and cold beverages.
The Southbank Centre has an Access List for visitors with a disability, who may be eligible for concessions and to bring a companion. To request a form
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to join, please contact the ticket office on 0871 663 2587, or e.mail accesslist@southbankcentre.co.uk.
You can call this same number if you require any information or assistance prior to your visit. Further information is also available on the Southbank Centre website – www.southbankcentre.co.uk
To contact VocalEyes, call us on 020 7375 1043. You can receive a copy of the free VocalEyes Newsletter with full details on all our work by calling us or by following the links on the VocalEyes accessible website. The Newsletter is available in print, Braille, on CD or via e-mail. The website address is www.VocalEyes.co.uk.
VocalEyes is a charity funded by Arts Council England.
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