Click your heels together and repeat: there's no show like this, there's no show like this....
Tonight, the Brookfield East High School Drama Department kicks off four shows of The Wizard of Oz at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts, compete with unique special effects, courtesy of a Chicago theater flying rigging company.
"Glinda the Good Witch will float down to Munchkin Land and the Emerald City," parent volunteer Jim Mirda tells Patch. "Almira Gultch will peddle her bicycle through the tornado. Professor Marvel will float away in his balloon to the upper reaches of the stratosphere and Flying Monkey will be dropping in to do the Wicked Witch's evil biddings."
East believes it will sell out four shows or 2,500 seats over the weekend. Tickets are $16 for adults, $12 for seniors and $10 for students. They can be purchased online or at the box office (262) 781-9520.
The shows are at 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday.
More than 120 students and staff in art, orchestra, band, choir, technical education, marketing, drama and English have been involved in making this fall musical production a reality. There will be a real Toto and some non-pyro explosions in the 2 1/2-hour production with an intermission.
Actors trained last weekend with a professional rigging crew to meld their acting with their costumes and the technology. The shows are directed by Corey Schneidewent and Joshua Grant-Konegn, respectively the associate director and director of the Brookfield East Drama Department.
For more information about the production, see this BrookfieldNOW.com story.
You can follow East's Drama Department on Facebook and on Twitter @behsdrama. See a few clips of the student actors on Youtube that are attached to this article, including Erica Bridge playing Dorothy with Naomi as Toto, Brian Hass as the Scarecrow and Carter Piggee as the Wizard — plus this promo video with Corey Schneidewent and Toto.
