The Wizard of Oz - Seattle Children`s Theatre

EDUCATOR RESOURCE GUIDE
Presents
The Wizard
of Oz
Table of Contents
Synopsis .....................................................................................................................................................
Curriculum Connections & EALRs ..................................................................................................
The Father of Oz – L. Frank Baum ...................................................................................................
A Chat with Marianne Roberts, Choreographer .......................................................................
About the Set ...........................................................................................................................................
About the Costumes ..............................................................................................................................
Oz and Dorothy – Everyone’s Story ...............................................................................................
Moved by the Music: Why and How Music Affects Us ............................................................
True Tornado Stories ...........................................................................................................................
We’re Off to See the Wizard – Team Dorothy .............................................................................
Words & Phrases That Might Be New to You .............................................................................
Activity Pages ..........................................................................................................................................
Booklist ......................................................................................................................................................
Evaluation Form .....................................................................................................................................
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13-15
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SYNOPSIS
Dorothy Gale, a poor Kansas farm girl, dreams about escaping her troubles to a place “over the
rainbow.” One day a tornado rips through her family’s farm and carries Dorothy, her house and
her dog, Toto, to the magical, vibrant, and strange land of Oz. Her house
lands in Munchkinland, right on top of the Wicked Witch of the East. The
Munchkins are thrilled to be free from the terrors of the Witch. But the
Witch’s sister, the Wicked Witch of the West, is not so pleased—until she
realizes that this is her opportunity to get her hands on her dead sister’s
magic shoes. Before the Witch has a chance to grab the slippers, the Good
Witch, Glinda, magics them onto Dorothy’s feet, multiplying the Wicked
Witch’s anger at the poor girl. The Witch vows she will have her revenge—
and those ruby slippers, too! Dorothy just longs to return safely home to her
Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. Glinda suggests that Dorothy travel to the Emerald
City and ask the Wonderful Wizard for help.
Setting off for the Emerald City along the Yellow Brick Road, Dorothy makes several
dear friends also in need of help from the Wizard: Scarecrow, who seeks a brain;
Tin Man, who yearns for a heart; and Cowardly Lion, who just wants courage.
In an attempt to thwart Dorothy’s quest to reach the Wizard, the Wicked Witch
conjures a field of poisoned poppies to put Dorothy and her comrades to sleep
before they reach the city’s gates. Luckily, Scarecrow and Tin Man aren’t affected
by the spell and when Glinda magically makes it snow to dampen the potency of
the poppies, they are able to cart Dorothy, Lion and Toto to the Emerald City.
The Emerald City is filled with delights, and populated by delightful people. Unfortunately, when
the four companions (and Toto, too) finally gain an audience with the Wizard, he demands the
Wicked Witch’s broomstick as payment before he’ll come to their aid. So off they troop towards
the Castle of the Witch, determined to get courage, a brain, a heart and a return to Kansas. The
Witch sends her flying monkeys to attack the band of adventurers, stealing Dorothy and Toto
away. Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion may be frightened, but they won’t let their friends down—they
sneak into the Witch’s castle to save the girl and her dog. Before the friends can make their
escape, the guards corner them and the Witch sets fire to Scarecrow. Trying to douse him,
Dorothy throws a bucket of water, which accidently lands on the Witch, melting her into
nothingness. Free from their horrid mistress, the guards rejoice and give Dorothy the
broomstick she needs to secure the Wizard’s assistance.
Back at the Emerald City, the Wizard tries to go back on his deal, until Toto exposes him as
the impostor he is—why he’s just a man from Kansas himself! He decides to return with
Dorothy and Toto. First, he grants the friends their wishes, giving a diploma to Scarecrow,
a heart-shaped watch to Tin Man and a medal of valor to Lion. But before Dorothy and
Toto have a chance to join the Wizard, he floats away in his hot-air balloon, leaving
them stranded in Oz. Just when all seems lost, Glinda tells Dorothy that she has had the
means to get herself home all along. With three clicks of her heels, Dorothy bids her new
friends goodbye and finds herself back in Kansas, with her family and friends around
her, overjoyed that she has awakened. It seems the entire journey was but a dream.
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CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS & EALRs
The Wizard of Oz touches on many themes and ideas. Here are a few we believe would make
good Curriculum Connections: Courage, Wisdom, Compassion, Weather, Family, Quest, SelfConfidence, Reading, Adaptation.
We believe that seeing the show and using our Educator Resource Guide can help you meet the
following EALRs:
State Standards
1. The student understands and applies arts knowledge and skills.
1.1 Understand arts concepts and vocabulary, specifically, identifies and describes
characters, setting, actions, conflict, sounds.
1.2 Develops theatre skills and techniques.
1.3 Understands and applies theatre genres and styles of various artists, cultures, and
times.
1.4 Understands and applies audience conventions in a variety of settings and
performances of theatre.
3. Theatre: The student communicates through the arts (dance, music, theatre, and visual arts).
3.1 Uses theatre to express feelings and present ideas.
3.2 Uses theatre to communicate for a specific purpose.
4. Music: The student makes connections within and across the arts (dance, music, theatre,
and visual arts) to other disciplines, life, cultures, and work.
Music
4.1 Demonstrates and analyzes the connections among the arts disciplines (dance, music,
theatre, and visual arts).
4.2 Demonstrates and analyzes the connections among the arts and between the arts and
other content areas.
4.3 Understands how the arts impact and reflect personal choices throughout life.
4.4 Understands how the arts influence and reflect cultures/civilization, place, and time.
4.5 Understands how arts knowledge and skills are used in the world of work, including
careers in the arts.
1. The student understands and uses different skills and strategies to read.
1.1 Use word recognition skills and strategies to read and comprehend text.
Reading
1.2 Use vocabulary (word meaning) strategies to comprehend text.
1.3 Build vocabulary through wide reading.
1.4 Apply word recognition skills and strategies to read fluently.
2. The student understands the meaning of what is read.
2.1 Demonstrate evidence of reading comprehension.
2.2 Understand and apply knowledge of text components to comprehend text.
2.3 Expand comprehension by analyzing, interpreting, and synthesizing information and
ideas in literary and informational text.
3. The student reads different materials for a variety of purposes.
3.1 Read to learn new information.
3.4 Read for literary experience in a variety of genres.
4: Earth and Space Science
2-3 ES2C Weather changes from day to day and over the seasons. Weather can be described
Science
by measurable quantities, such as temperature and precipitation.
1. The student uses listening and observation skills and strategies to gain understanding.
1.1 Uses listening and observation skills and strategies to focus attention and interpret
Communication
information.
1.2 Understands, analyzes, synthesizes, or evaluates information from a variety of sources.
Theatre
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THE FATHER OF OZ – L. FRANK BAUM
Lyman Frank Baum was born on May 15, 1856, near Syracuse, New York.
His father, Benjamin, was a wealthy oil businessman, and young Frank (who
disliked his first name and never used it) grew up in comfort. Because he
had a weak heart, Frank led a quiet life as a child and was educated largely
by tutors. A brief stay at a military academy was not successful, and Frank
returned home to indulge his taste for reading, writing, stamp collecting
and chicken breeding. He also published two different monthly newspapers
during his teenage years.
Baum grew up to become a man of great charm and many interests, yet he
L. Frank Baum
had little direction. He pursued a variety of careers ranging from acting to
newspaper reporting to theatrical management to writing plays. One of his plays, The Maid of Arran,
was a surprise smash hit, and Frank and his company toured with it throughout the United States
and Canada in the early 1880s.
While at home on a break from the tour, Baum met and became engaged to Maud Gage, youngest
daughter of prominent women’s suffrage activist Matilda J. Gage. The strong-willed Matilda did not
approve of the impractical Baum, but Maud, equally determined, insisted, and the two were married
in November 1882. The marriage, apparently one of opposites, was a happy one, as Maud provided
Baum with the stability and good sense he needed.
Baum gave up acting when Maud became pregnant with their first child and all the scenery, props
and costumes for The Maid of Arran were destroyed in a fire. He worked for a time in the family oil
business in Syracuse, still writing plays in his spare time, none of which were produced. In the late
1880s he and the family, which now included two sons, moved to the Dakota Territory, where Baum
worked for a time as a shopkeeper and then as a newspaper editor, enjoying both jobs but failing
financially in each.
By 1891 it was clear that his growing family, now with four sons, required
that he find a job that would provide financial stability. They moved to
Chicago, where he was first a newspaper reporter but soon took a better
paying job as a traveling salesman with a crockery firm. At the suggestion of
his mother-in-law, Baum began to write down some of the stories he made
up to tell his sons every evening when he was home. One of these stories,
Mother Goose in Prose, was published in 1897. The book sold well, and, on
the advice of his doctor, Baum gave up his traveling job. Instead, he became
the editor of a journal for window-dressers, which also did well.
Baum next decided to collaborate on a children’s book with a friend, the
artist W. W. Denslow. Father Goose, His Book, published in 1899, was a bestseller. One of the five books he published in 1900, also based on stories he
had told his sons and illustrated by Denslow, was The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which immediately
broke records for sales and made Baum a celebrity. At the suggestion of his publisher, Baum’s book,
The first book Baum and
W.W. Denslow created together
Continued on the next page...
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The company of Fairylogue and Radio-Plays, a multimedia Oz stage show created and presented by Baum,
to promote his first three Oz books. The show, staged
in the autumn of 1908, consisted of filmed segments,
magic-lantern slides, live actors and a narration spoken
by Baum himself (seen in the center of the photograph).
with substantial changes to fit the theatrical tastes of
the day, was made into a musical in 1902, which also
was a great success and toured the United States for
years. A second Oz book, The Marvelous Land of Oz, a
clever satire on the women’s suffrage movement, was
published in 1904 and was very popular, and other Oz
books followed, though none matched the originality
or sales of the first two books. In addition, over the
next two decades he wrote more than 35 non-Oz books
under various pseudonyms and aimed at various
audiences. Most of these were “pot-boilers,” but they did
well financially and helped make Baum a wealthy man.
Always looking for new outlets for his creativity, Baum
became interested in films. In 1909 he founded a
company to produce hand-colored slides featuring
characters from his Oz books. These were shown while
he narrated and an orchestra played background music.
Although highly innovative, these “radio-plays,” as he called them, lost a great deal of money, and
in June 1911 he was forced to declare bankruptcy. A later venture into the film business, the Oz
Film Company in 1914, produced six movies but experienced severe
distribution problems and also failed, though not as disastrously.
Using money Maud had inherited from her mother, the Baums moved to
Hollywood, California, in 1910 for Frank’s health, and there built Ozcot,
a large home with an impressive garden. Here he produced additional
Ozcot, Baum’s home in California
Oz books, to a total of 14, which helped ease his financial problems.
But with most of his fortune gone and his health failing, in his later years Baum lived quietly at
Ozcot, gardening, writing stories and answering the hundreds of letters he received from Oz-struck
children. After a long illness he died on May 6, 1919.
Excerpted from:
Your Dictionary – http://biography.yourdictionary.com/l-frank-baum
L. FRANK BAUM’S OZ BOOKS
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz 1900
The Marvelous Land of Oz 1904
Ozma of Oz 1907
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz 1908
The Road to Oz 1909
The Emerald City of Oz 1910
The Patchwork Girl of Oz 1913
Tik-Tok of Oz 1914
The Scarecrow of Oz 1915
Rinkitink in Oz 1916
The Lost Princess of Oz 1917
The Tin Woodman of Oz The Magic of Oz Glinda of Oz 6
1918
1919
1920
A CHAT WITH MARIANNE ROBERTS, CHOREOGRAPHER
Please tell us a little bit about your working process.
First, I read the script so I can start to understand the characters and
situations where there will be musical numbers. Then I listen to the music
to get a sense of the tempo, rhythm and tonality of the song—what we
sometimes call the “feel” of it. I start developing ideas for how I might
approach each song, but before I begin choreographing I sit down with the
director to discuss what we want from each number. Sometimes we want
to move the plot along, sometimes we want to show something about the
characters and their relationships. Then I spend hours working with the
music, trying out movements to see if they create the effect I want. For
large group musical numbers, like Ding, Dong, the Witch Is Dead and Follow the Yellow Brick Road in
Munchkinland, I might take a ground plan of the set and move around chess pieces that represent
the actors so I can keep track of who’s moving where throughout the number.
What is a particularly interesting or unusual challenge on this project, and how are you
setting out to solve it?
So many people have seen the movie version of The Wizard of Oz that there are probably a lot
of expectations for what our stage version will be. I want to honor the memories people have of
the film, but also add something fresh and different to the dances. One of the most famous dance
sequences from the film is the step Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion do as they sing We’re Off
to See the Wizard. Anyone who has seen the film remembers it because it’s repeated each time a
new character is added to the group. I definitely want to come up with something different there,
so I’ll put together some new steps that accomplish the same thing—show they’re friends happily
traveling along the yellow brick road together.
What in your childhood got you to where you are today?
When I was growing up way back in the 1950s and 1960s there was a lot of musical entertainment
in the movies and on TV. I grew up watching great dancers like Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and
Gene Kelly in movie musicals. This was before videos or DVDs, so each year I had to wait for the
one night The Wizard of Oz and Peter Pan were shown on TV. I would listen to all kinds of music on
my record player and dance to it in my living room. When I was in middle school, I choreographed
Peter Pan and Stravinsky’s The Firebird for my class. During college, I started studying classical
ballet, moved to New York City to dance and was lucky enough to perform all over the world. After
I was done performing, I moved to Seattle and remembered how much fun I had watching and
choreographing musicals when I was young, so I started doing it again.
Marianne Roberts has choreographed over 30 productions at SCT, including Lyle the Crocodile, Peter
Pan, Goodnight Moon and The Brementown Musicians. She has also choreographed for Seattle Rep,
Intiman, Cornish College and Village Theatre. In addition to choreographing, Marianne works as a
Speech Language Pathologist Assistant.
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ABOUT THE SET
From Matthew Smucker, Set Designer
A big challenge in designing a musical like The Wizard of Oz is that Dorothy’s journey
takes her to so many different places. A big goal of the design was to find the right visual
style for each series of locations, so we know that we are literally “not in Kansas anymore.”
Kansas itself wants to
be very gray, flat and
expansive. There is very
little color. Everything
is worn down and wants
to feel tired and lifeless.
To help create a sense of
the huge expanse of the
prairie, buildings and
fences are built very small
to make them seem far
away.
Rough model of Kansas with Dorothy’s house in the distance. Notice the very small fence
near the house that helps show how far away it is.
Rough model of Kansas with Dorothy’s house closer in
Continued on the next page...
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Munchkinland wants to
be the polar opposite of
Kansas. The hills are green
and have a whimsical
rolling quality and the
world is filled with color.
In the original book, L.
Frank Baum says the
Munchkin’s favorite color
is blue, so the design
tries to make a nod to his
description in the colors
of the buildings, trees and
flowers.
Rough sketch of the gate to the Emerald City
While the landscape around Munchkinland is based on a series of low curves, the Emerald
City is very tall and angular. The jagged shapes come from urban Art Deco architecture, as
well as the smooth crystallized shapes of precious gems. This is probably the biggest city a
Kansas farm girl has ever seen, so it wants to be impressive in its scale.
The darkest, scariest part of Dorothy’s journey is
her time in the Witch’s Castle. The castle has a dark
grayish-purple color to it, and wants to appear like
it was carved out of highly textured rock. I chose to
suggest medieval architecture by using the repeated
shape of a Gothic arch. This style of arch has an almost
knife-like shape, playing up the sense of danger in the
home of the Wicked Witch.
Technical drawing of the Witch’s gate with a
Gothic arch
Completed model of the Witch’s castle set
Continued on the next page...
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Rough sketch of Munchkinland
Drafting for Munchkinland
Munchkinland’s white model. Since the designer takes copies of the
drafting and cuts it up to make this model, if you look closely you can
see the drawing on the surfaces of the set pieces.
Color model
Photograph of Munchkinland in the finished production
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A design (or any artist’s work for that
matter) doesn’t spring fully completed
from the designer’s imagination.
There are a series of steps that need
to happen, progressing from the very
loose and sketchy to very completed
and realized. At each stage, there is
the opportunity to evaluate and revise.
My process usually begins with rough
pencil or pen sketches (sometimes
called “thumbnail sketches”) and then
moves into a three-dimensional sketch
or “rough model.” I will also start to
draft (draw out) the plans at this point
and will cut out these plans and turn
them into what is called a “white model”
because there usually isn’t any paint or
color information shown yet. The final
stage is to create a painted or “color
model.” This will hopefully represent all
of the final design information clearly,
so the entire company of the show, from
the director and actors to the painters
and carpenters, will all know what it is
we are making together.
ABOUT THE COSTUMES
From Catherine Hunt, Costume Designer
This sketch of Dorothy’s costume also includes
some images that influenced the costume designer
When I first met with Linda Hartzell, the director of the
play, we talked a lot about the costume imagery for the
show. It was really important for Linda, who grew up
reading the books rather than watching the movie, to
focus on the time period when the books were written.
So, for example, in the Kansas scenes we have dressed
the actors in more of a 1910-1913 style than the 1930s
style that many people remember from the film. The
colors are also very muted and sepia toned, so that
when we get to Oz we experience shapes and colors,
and odd-looking people unlike what we’ve seen before.
We, the audience, become just like Dorothy. We’re
pulled in by the beauty of the locations, but ultimately,
we want to go home.
Munchkinland is larger than life, with round jolly people. The shapes are oversized and I used
lots of blues, purples and some contrast yellows and orange. The costumes of the Munchkinland
characters are built out to make them bigger and rounder than the actors really are.
In contrast, the people of The Emerald City are all in greens. Their fabrics are shiny, have reflective
details and are sleek. They represent an exaggerated 1913 style of dress. The Emerald City is “The
Place” and everyone wants to go there, so we wanted to make it glamorous and really cool.
Three Munchkins
Continued on the next page...
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Some residents of the Emerald City
Flying monkey
Sketch for the Wicked Witch of the West with some fabric
samples, known as “swatches” attached, as well as images that
the designer found inspiring
As for the Witches, the monkeys and the Winkies—
they are a bit scary but we also wanted to make them
very beautiful.
Winkie costume sketch with research
images attached
I hope that the play is enhanced by the costumes and
that when you see the play you are swept away into
Oz and home again, just like Dorothy.
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OZ AND DOROTHY – EVERYONE’S STORY
“Where is Kansas?” asked the man, with surprise.
“I don’t know,” replied Dorothy sorrowfully, “but it is my home, and I’m sure it’s somewhere.”
In 1900, L. Frank Baum wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and created two images that have
echoed throughout the world ever since, across many ages and cultures. Dorothy, the poor
orphan farm girl, who expresses the universal human longing for home; and Oz, the magical land,
which fulfills the opposing wish to escape from reality. Neither the wonderful beauty of Oz, nor
the harshness of Baum’s Kansas affects Dorothy’s desire to go home. And Baum paints a truly
terrible Kansas:
Even the grass was not green, for the sun had burned the tops of the long blades until they
were the same gray color to be seen everywhere. …When Aunt Em came there to live she was
a young, pretty wife. The sun and wind had changed her, too. They had taken the sparkle
from her eyes and left them a sober gray; they had taken the red from her cheeks and lips,
and they were gray also. She was thin and gaunt, and never smiled now.
The Land of Oz, on the other hand, provides a break from stark reality. Oz is as beautiful as
Kansas is bleak:
The cyclone had set the house down very gently—for a cyclone—in the midst of a country
of marvelous beauty. There were lovely patches of greensward all about, with stately trees
bearing rich and luscious fruits. Banks of gorgeous flowers were on every hand, and birds
with rare and brilliant plumage sang and fluttered in the trees and bushes.
And Oz is a place not just beautiful, but full of magic, where animals talk
and objects come alive. In the introduction to The Wonderful Wizard of
Oz, Baum writes that:
…the story of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” was written solely to
please children of today. It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale,
in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches
and nightmares are left out.
But if that was truly his intention, he failed. Oz has always appealed
to adults as well as children. Nor did he succeed in leaving out “the
heartaches and nightmares.” Oz is a place where ideas and imaginings
Poster for the 1902 musical
The Wizard of Oz
come to life, and not all ideas and imaginings are happy and safe. The
freedom to invent an infinite variety of characters and stories that range from whimsical to
terrifying, accounts for the appeal of that magic land, not only to Baum’s readers, but to the many
artists aside from Baum who have made Oz their own.
Continued on the next page...
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Almost immediately after The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was published in 1900, both the story
and the Land of Oz itself began to take on lives of their own, escaping from the control of their
creator. For both have been recreated many times by many different authors and artists. Some of
these re-creations have been just as successful as Baum’s original book.
In 1902 a vaudeville-style musical
extravaganza called The Wizard of Oz opened
in Chicago. Although Baum helped to write
the show, many other writers were involved,
and it veered wildly away from his book,
incorporating a multitude of songs, comic
bits, new characters and plot changes. Toto
was replaced by Dorothy’s pet cow, Imogene.
The Wicked Witch of the West did not appear
at all. Baum was not completely happy with
the show, but it was a huge hit.
The MGM film that came out in 1939,
starring Judy Garland as Dorothy, returned
Pictures showing some costumes and design elements from
to the original story. Many previous attempts
the 1902 musical
to film Dorothy’s story had failed, cluttered
with jokes and diversions. The 1939 film changed the plot of the book in many ways, but it took
Dorothy’s struggle seriously and became a classic. The most famous song, Somewhere Over the
Rainbow, expressed Dorothy’s desire to escape her harsh life, which Baum’s book had never
mentioned. This added guilt to her struggle to return home, making it even more emotional.
Moved by the power of Dorothy’s journey and the chance to create magic
in the Land of Oz, other authors and artists have told the story from the
perspective of their own cultures. Translations of Oz have often become
adaptations, as the translators, under the spell of Oz, change details and
sometimes end up inventing completely new versions of the world and the
stories. In 1939, the same year that MGM released the Judy Garland movie
version, the Russian writer Alexander Volkov wrote something between
a translation and an adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz called
The Wizard of the Emerald City, in which a girl named Ellie and her dog
Totoshka travel throughout the “Magic Land.” Eventually this would lead Alexander Volkov’s Russian book
to a series of books written by Volkov, which became popular throughout The Wizard of the Emerald City
the Communist world during the 1960s. In places like Russia, Eastern Germany and China they
are still better known than Baum’s version. Volkov’s books harbor dark plot elements, including
mind control, poison gas and alien invasions.
Continued on the next page...
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Another successful attempt at placing Oz in a different culture:
in 1975 The Wiz opened on Broadway. The musical told the
story of Dorothy and her companions in an African-American
context, with an all-black cast. However, the show stays more
faithful to the plot of the original book than the 1939 film;
for example, Dorothy wears silver shoes, not ruby slippers.
The play won seven Tony awards, including Best Musical, and
ran for four years on Broadway. But a 1978 movie version of
the show flopped, despite an impressive cast that included
Diana Ross, Richard Pryor and Lena Horne, and a standout
performance by Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow (singing Ease
on Down the Road).
Just as some writers have adapted Oz to their own cultures,
others have tried to create a more consistent world of Oz.
The Land of Oz as created by L. Frank Baum is riddled with
contradictions. For example,
Baum writes in some of his sequels to The Wonderful Wizard
of Oz that since the original enchantment of Oz by the Fairy
Queen Lurline, no creature in Oz can age or die, but the actual
plots of many of his books contradict this basic law. By far
the most serious attempt to create a more coherent Oz came
in 1995, when Gregory Maguire published Wicked: The Life
and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, a very different
kind of Oz book, aimed at adults, not children. Maguire took
elements from many Oz books and the 1939 film to create
the story of the future Wicked Witch of the West, whom he
named Elphaba. Maguire’s Oz is a land troubled by religious
division, political unrest and economic hardship. The musical
Wicked, by Stephen Schwartz, is based on Maguire’s book.
Wicked premiered on Broadway in October 2003 and is still
playing today.
Dorothy and Oz have proved amazingly enduring and adaptable, as generations of artists and
audiences have found inspiration in both the story and the world. Somehow, all the competing
versions seem to have strengthened each other in the long run. Anyone who strives to create
an Oz story today, in whatever form—book, movie, play, song, video game—has a huge wealth
of material and memories to work with. Who knows what the future may hold? Oz and Dorothy
may, like Camelot and Arthur, continue to inspire artists, authors, performers and audiences a
thousand years on from their creation.
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MOVED BY THE MUSIC: WHY AND HOW
MUSIC AFFECTS US
Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
There’s a place that I heard of
Once in a lullaby
– Over the Rainbow music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg
The 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz begins as a story of the troubles of a poor farm girl in Kansas.
Soon a bump on the head and a powerful tornado will transport her to the amazing world of
Oz. But even before that happens, the first and most famous song in the movie lifts us out of the
realm of realism as Dorothy sings Over the Rainbow. The song affects so many people so deeply
partly because it recalls, in words, melody and rhythm, the lullabies that most of us hear when
we are very young. The fact that we are so strongly motivated to sing to babies, and to talk to
them in musical ways, provides one proof of how strongly rooted music is in humanity.
The enduring popularity of musicals provides more evidence of the power of music. The musical
Phantom of the Opera opened on Broadway in January 1988 and will perform again tonight,
making it the longest-running Broadway show of all time. In fact, the top ten longest-running
shows on Broadway are all musicals. But pairing music and theater didn’t begin in Times Square.
Theatrical traditions all over the world incorporate music, especially singing. The tragedies of
Ancient Greece featured a singing chorus. Noh theater in Japan, Sanskrit theater in India and the
traditional “Operas” of Ancient China all use music and song to tell stories.
But why do we add music to plays? One answer is that music heightens emotion in a variety
of powerful ways. As the neurologist Oliver Sacks writes in his book Musicophilia, we are a
musical species; music occupies many more areas of our brain than language does. Music can
lift us out of depression when nothing else can. Music can animate people with Parkinson’s
disease who cannot otherwise move, and give words to stroke patients who cannot otherwise
speak. Sacks also reports that music is so deeply wired into human neurobiology that it can
cause serious problems. Almost all of us have had tunes
“stuck in our heads”—some people cannot get rid of
those tunes for years, and in some cases people are
tormented by complete musical hallucinations that
they cannot control. At the other extreme, people
with “amusia,” cannot perceive the difference
between sound and music. To them, a symphony
carries no more emotion or meaning than the
clattering of pots and pans.
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But for most of us, music directly and deeply affects our minds and bodies. Rhythm has deep
roots in human biology and pre-history. As Robert Goodall explains in the BBC series How Music
Works, rhythm comes to us naturally, through breath, heartbeats heard in the womb, walking
and so on. But animals also have breath, beating hearts and sounding feet, and they do not
respond to or create musical rhythm the way people do. In his book Beethoven’s Anvil: Music in
Mind and Culture, William Benzon suggests two possible origins for musical rhythm: humans
imitated animals in dance, which led them to alter their own natural rhythms to mimic those
of the animals around them; and humans also chipped stone tools, which can be done far more
efficiently when it is done in rhythm. Since humans have formed stone tools for about two
million years, musical rhythm may be part of human biological evolution.
Joseph Jordania, in his 2011 book Why do People Sing? Music in Human Evolution suggested
another way that music may have been incorporated into human evolution: people developed
rhythmic music to defend themselves against large predators, after they descended from the
safer tree branches to more dangerous ground. According to Jordania, rhythmic music can put
humans into a battle trance in which they do not feel fear or pain, do not question orders from the
group leader and are willing to sacrifice their lives for the group. As evidence, he points out that
rhythmic music has often been used to train soldiers and inspire them during combat. Still today,
soldiers use rhythmic chants in training and often listen to heavy rhythmic rock music in combat.
Clearly, music can bring us an enormous variety of intense emotional responses. But musicals
still seem strange to some people. We do not, by and large, spontaneously burst into song when
we speak to each other, nor even when we fight or fall in love or die. Or do we? Diana Deutsch,
professor of psychology at University of California, San Diego, has demonstrated a very close
relationship between speaking and singing. While working on the spoken commentary for a
recording, she listened to the phrase “sometimes behave so strangely” repeatedly, and noticed
that after a number of repetitions, the phrase sounded as though it had been sung rather than
spoken. Later she included this illusion in her CD Phantom Words
and Other Curiosities, in which she demonstrates that speech can be
perceived as song, not by transforming the sounds in any way or
adding accompaniment, but simply by repeating a phrase several
times over.
Despite all these advances in research, we do not
completely understand how and why music moves us or
where it comes from. But, clearly, music can move us: get
us dancing to its beat, bring us to the heights or depths
of emotion, persuade us to buy something, lead us to fall
in love, or awaken a lifelong longing for a magical world
“somewhere over the rainbow.”
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TRUE TORNADO STORIES
Tornadoes on the Soccer Field!
by Nicole Gordon
It was a hot, steamy day for an afternoon soccer game. I was 10 years old and forgot to bring my soccer
shoes along, so the coach made me play goalie in sandals. My team was ahead by a few goals. From where
I stood in the net, bored and sweating, I had a perfect view of thunderclouds swelling on the horizon.
The game was held at the National Sports Center in Blaine, Minnesota.
It was a flat expanse of plains with nothing but a few parking lots and
drainage ditches. The longer the game went on, the darker the sky got.
Thunderstorms can blow in quickly on summer days, but even so, we
were surprised at how soon the first raindrops fell. By half-time it was
pouring and lightning strikes were close enough to our field that the
referee temporarily stopped the game.
I was huddling with my teammates in a canvas tent by the side of the field when we saw a funnel
forming at the bottom of the clouds. Before we realized what has happening, a tornado was spiraling
down from the sky, spinning tight and fast toward the ground. The tornado touched down on the
soccer field. A few miles away, another twister was also dropping from the clouds.
In a flurry of flying lawn chairs, wet blankets and soccer bags, parents grabbed their kids and ran in
different directions. My family’s car was several fields away and there was no good shelter nearby
and no time to think. We ran to the nearest drainage ditch.
We crouched just above the ditch water, worried about lightning strikes, and watched the tornado
come closer until it was just across the field and the grass flew in its wake. I could see every detail of
its twisting body. We ran across the next field and ducked into another ditch.
We ran from ditch to ditch three times, planning our routes and sprinting through the wind. I remember
being scared but also thinking that the tornadoes were the most amazing things I’d ever seen.
And then, in the same way it came, the tornado shrank and melted back into the sky into wisps of
cloud. The rain stopped and the clouds loosened. The sun came out and dried our clothes as we
walked to the car, cold and tired but happy to be safe and grateful for what we’d just seen.
Xenia, Ohio Tornado – April 3, 1974
by Rick Hoag
On that fateful day, I was a young boy of 8 years old. That afternoon I was around the corner playing
with some neighbor kids. I thought I could hear my father calling me, so I ran back to the house. I got
through the door just in time to answer the ringing phone. It was my mother. She told me she heard
a bad storm was on the way. She told me to make sure the garage door was shut and to stay inside.
After I hung up the phone, I settled down to watch the Dennis the Menace TV show. To this day I can
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vividly remember the electricity going out. I looked out the large picture window in the living room
and didn’t have a clue as to what I was looking at.
Dad was asleep on the couch, so I woke him up to look. Dad looked and
said to get into the bathroom. We sat on the floor. Dad had his back to the
door and his feet pushing against the wall opposite the door. I remember
that as soon as we sat down, the windows broke. Glass blew under the
door, and the sound was tremendous. I know it really didn’t take too long
for the tornado to go past, but I do remember the conversation we had in
the process. I could feel the cool air rushing under the floor through the
crawlspace vents. I asked if we were flying. He said he wasn’t sure, but he didn’t think we were. He said
the house was tearing apart. I asked him how he knew. He said he just knew it was.
When things calmed down, we opened the door. The odd feeling I had, looking up the street from
inside what once was my hallway, is still with me today.
Tornado Facts
• Tornadoes form where warm moist air is trapped underneath a layer of cold, dry air. As the moist
air rises, it cools, forming clouds and thunderstorms. If the conditions are right, the rapidly rising
air will spin around a central funnel, at speeds sometimes exceeding 250 miles per hour—tornado
winds are the fastest winds on Earth. A funnel cloud becomes a tornado the moment it touches the
ground.
• Tornadoes can last from several seconds to more than an hour. Most tornadoes last less than 10
minutes. The longest-lived tornado was probably the Tri-State Tornado in 1925 which may have
lasted as long as three-and-a-half hours.
• Tornadoes are known to carry heavy objects, such as cars, up to a mile; lighter objects, like books
and clothing, up to 20 miles; and really light objects, like paper, up to 200 miles. A strong tornado
can pick up a house and move it down the block.
• Every tornado has a unique color, sound and shape.
• Tornadoes have been reported in every state in the U.S. and also in every season. Each year, about
a thousand tornadoes touch down in the United States, far more than any other country. Nebraska,
South Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas make up Tornado Alley, where tornadoes strike
regularly in the spring and early summer.
• Popularly known as twisters, tornado is derived from the Spanish words “tronada” meaning
“thunderstorm” and “tornar” meaning “to turn.”
• The chances of a tornado hitting your house are about one in ten million. However, if you do see
a tornado or hear that one is coming, you should get inside and go in the basement or a room
without windows. Stay as low as possible. Whatever you do, don’t go out to see the tornado. If you
can’t get inside, lie down in the lowest place you can find, like in a ditch.
Stories excerpted from:
The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research – Web Weather for Kids –
http://eo.ucar.edu/webweather/index.html
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WE’RE OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD – TEAM DOROTHY
At the beginning of Seattle Children’s Theatre’s The Wizard of Oz,
Dorothy feels that, except for Toto, she’s all alone in the world.
Aunt Em and Uncle Henry are too busy trying to save baby
chicks to listen to her problems. The farmhands, Zeke, Hickory
and Hunk, give her some advice but they are also too busy to
really help her. After the tornado whisks her away to Oz, she
needs to find her way home. Glinda the Good Witch points her in
the right direction, but Dorothy sets off on her big journey with
Toto as her only companion.
Luckily, she soon finds some valuable companions. First
Scarecrow, then Tin Man and Cowardly Lion join her, each with
a reason of his own to travel to the Emerald City and see the
Wonderful Wizard. Bit by bit, a team is born. And each member
of the team plays a special part. Dorothy leads the team with
An illustration by W.W. Denslow from
encouragement, compassion and determination to succeed.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Scarecrow may not think he is a thinker, but he comes up with
some of the best ideas. Tin Man thinks he has no heart, but he is patient and kind. Cowardly Lion
may not roar with confidence, but he does whatever he needs to do to protect Dorothy at every
turn. And let’s not forget Toto—Dorothy’s best friend, he has the good sense to trust his senses
when it comes to sniffing out a fake Wizard.
When team members struggle, the others step in to support them. Dorothy and Cowardly Lion
fall asleep in the poison poppy field, but Scarecrow and Tin Man aren’t affected by the poppies
and are able to call for help. Glinda finds them all and brings the snow that breaks the poppies’
spell. Every time Tin Man starts to rust, his friends are ready with the oil can to loosen him back
up. They have to take care of each other if they want to get where they are headed.
They also never even imagine leaving one of their team members behind. The flying monkeys
scare them all and take Dorothy and Toto away, but as soon as Tin Man and Cowardly Lion put
Scarecrow back together, all three head off to get their friends back. And once they get to the
Witch’s castle, no matter how frightening she may be, they are going to find a way to get in there
and rescue Dorothy, with brave Toto leading the way.
Our heroes have skills and personalities that fit together like pieces of a puzzle. As they become
a strong team, they find within themselves the things they thought the Wizard could give them.
They trust each other, are loyal to each other and they never give up. Those are all qualities you
need in any team to make it successful—whether your team is on the field, in a classroom, at
home or in the Land of Oz.
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WORDS & PHRASES THAT MIGHT BE NEW TO YOU
I’m doing something right now honey so just keep out of our hair. – stop bothering us
We got a parcel of lumber to haul from town before the weather turns.
parcel of lumber – bundle of wooden boards
turns – changes
Here, here, what’s all this jabber-wapping when there’s work to be done? – foolish, useless talking
It’s just a rib, Dorothy. – friendly joke
Get that wagon hitched up and Zeke you go feed those hogs before they worry themselves into
anemia! – get upset and make themselves sick
You always get yourself into a fret over nothing. – make yourself worried about
Oh please, Professor, why can’t we go with you and see all the Crowned Heads of Europe? – Kings
and Queens
Oh, fiddle-faddle! – nonsense
Too much of a stuffed shirt. – person who thinks they are very important
Come to think of it, forty winks wouldn’t be a bad idea. – a short nap
Well, bust my buttons! Why didn’t you say that in the first place? That’s a horse of a different color!
bust my buttons – what a surprise
a horse of a different color – something completely different
You clinking, clanking, clattering collection of caliginous junk! – dark, gloomy
And you, Scarecrow, have the effrontery to ask for a brain—you
billowing bale of bovine fodder!
effrontery – shameless boldness
billowing bale of bovine fodder – bulging bundle of cattle food (It’s a lot
more fun the way the Wizard says it, isn’t it?)
Silence whippersnapper! – rude child
You, humbug! – impostor, fake
I take pleasure at this time in presenting you with a small token of our
esteem and affection. – symbol of our respect for you
Child, you cut me to the quick! – hurt me deeply
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Follow the Yellow Brick Road
Show Dorothy and Toto the way to the Emerald City
and help them meet their friends along the way.
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The _______ of _______, by ______
Adapt Dorothy’s story from The Wizard of Oz by filling in the blanks with the appropriate type
of word to create a new adventure. Don’t just tell the story you already know – make it your
own.
Once you have made your own story, ask a friend (or friends) to choose the word, without
showing them the story, while you write the words they choose. Then switch!
My three friends and I wanted to ____________ (verb) to ____________ (place) to
meet ____________ (an important person), who could help me get home, give Sam a
____________ (noun), give Taylor a ____________ (noun), and give Logan ____________
(personality trait). However, wicked Wendy wanted to steal my ____________ (noun), so she
tried to stop us. First, she enchanted some ____________ (plural noun) to make them throw
____________ (plural noun) at us. Next, she threw ____________ (plural noun) at us. Then she
made a field of ____________ (adjective) ____________ (plural noun) that made us
___________ (adjective). Luckily, ____________ (person) saved us with his/her ____________
(adjective) ____________ (plural noun) and we were on our way.
We finally arrived and met ____________ (the same person of importance), who would
only help us if we brought back Wendy’s ____________ (noun)! On our way to Wendy’s
____________ (adjective) house, I was taken away by a pack of ____________ (plural animal).
____________ (adverb ending in -ly), my friends are very talented. Taylor used her
____________ (noun) to encourage the group to rescue me. Logan used his ____________
(noun) to lead them through ____________ (place). Sam used his ____________ (noun) to get
them safely to me. But Wendy almost ____________ (past tense verb) Sam with
______________ (noun)! So I ____________ (past tense verb) a ____________ (noun) on her,
and she ____________ (past tense verb)! We successfully brought her____________ (noun)
back to ____________ (the same important person). My friends got their ___________ (plural
noun), and I went home to ____________ (place).
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BOOKLIST
For Children & Young Adults:
For Adults Working With Children & Young
Adults:
Fiction:
Breadcrumbs
Anne Ursu
What to Read When: The Books and Stories to
Read with Your Child, and All the Best Times
to Read Them
Pam Allyn
The Talent Show
Dan Gutman
Weather Projects for Young Scientists:
Experiments and Science Fair Ideas
Mary Kay Carson
The Wizard
Jack Prelutsky
The Mighty Miss Malone
Christopher Paul Curtis
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
Grace Lin
After hearing stories of the Old Man in the
Moon and his ability to change one’s fortune,
Minli sets off on a quest to find him, meeting
many magical creatures along the way.
Nonfiction:
Tornado! The Story Behind These Twisting,
Turning, Spinning, and Spiraling Storms
Judith Bloom Fradin and Dennis Brindell
Fradin
Imagine That! Poems of Never-Was
Jack Prelutsky
A selection of poems selected by Jack
Prelutsky that celebrate magical and mythical
creatures such as the Jabberwock and the
Bugle-Billed Bazoo.
Booklist prepared by Lupine Bybee Miller,
Seattle Public Library System
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HOW DID WE DO?
We’d love to know what was helpful to you as you read and used this guide. Please fill out and
return this short survey to us. We appreciate your feedback.
1. For which play/plays did you use the Educator Resource Guide?
□ Dr. Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat
□ The Edge of Peace
□ Danny, King of the Basement
□ Adventures with Spot
□ The Wizard of Oz
□ Crash
□ Dot & Ziggy
2. Was it easy for you to find and download the Educator Resource Guide?
□ Very □ Somewhat □ Not very
□ Not at all
3. On a scale of 1 – 5 (5 being the highest), how useful was the Educator Resource Guide?
□ 1
□ 2
□ 3
□ 4
□ 5
4. What did you use from the Educator Resource Guide?
5. Is there something you would like to see included in the Educator Resource Guide that wasn’t here?
6. Which of the following best describes you? I teach:
□ Preschool
□ High school
Other Comments:
□ Elementary school
□ Home school
THANK YOU!
MAIL to: or EMAIL: Seattle Children’s Theatre
schoolshows@sct.org
201 Thomas Street
Seattle, WA 98109
Attention: School Shows
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□ Middle school or FAX:
206.443.0442