Description

Like the stage manager in Our Town, Frank Baum stage manages his story to keep the action brisk from scene to scene. Baum is a welcome and theatrical addition. In real life he was an actor, traveling salesman, vaudeville manager and newspaperman’an authentic American gypsy. Swept to Oz on a cyclone, Dorothy joins with the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion as she searches for home and family. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz celebrates the importance of mind and heart; courage in facing what is feared; the need to dream, to dare, to ride out storms; the joys of loving, laughing, crying, being lost and found. Faithful to the original book, Virginia Koste’s play creates a fresh framework for Oz. Area staging.