But after you get used to it, you don't want to come down. Eugene Carlson, the wizard, was unfazed by his space travel, no surprise since he is a licensed pilot and volunteer member of the Civil Air Patrol. Adults do, too, partly for the nostalgia connected with the classic 1939 movie starring Judy Garland. There also is a generational angle. Normandie's grandmother Judy Atkins, a seamstress for that first production, remains a costume builder.
Literature is an important aspect of our program.
We want children to read. You'll see sections from the book, like the Land of Porcelain China, with its porcelain clowns, milkmaids and China Princess, that aren't in the musical. The audience also will see the yellow brick road, the wicked witch of the West riding her broom, the little dog Toto, the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Munchkins, and the Hammerheads, characters with long, retractable necks of papier-mache. The music we use is not necessarily familiar, but it fits the characters and situations. I worked a year to put it together.