WIZARD OF OZ ASSIGNMENT- UAL LEVEL 3 (UNIT 9)
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Task One:
P1) Blog your journey:
I have written my journey of the wizard of Oz throughout my blog. It starts at around week 8 of year 2.
P2) Your production role:
The process of this show-We began planning the wizard or Oz around the mid of November. We began with auditions, then chemistry reads and finally three days after we got read out the roles we will be playing in the show. That's when I found out that I'll be playing Dorothy! We began working on the production right away. The first thing that we worked on a lot, were the Munchkins. We ensured to make the munchkins have a personality and a mind of their own, we needed them to have characterisation to ensure that the scenes they are in, are lively and not dull. We gave them an age, occupation and name. As soon as we were done with that we started rehearsing the scenes that they were in. We spent a lot of time working on these scenes, at least a good two weeks. A lot of people were shy to act so silly, so it took time for its best potential to come out. The first proper day where we worked on the four main characters were on the last day of the second week. We thought really hard about our characters, so that we could bring them to life. We practised our movement. The Scarecrow needed to be super floppy, the Tin-man/ woman needed to be stiff, The Lion needed to act scared and anxious, and finally Dorothy needed to be lively and bouncy like a young girl. The movement that we portray as our characters are vital to the show. It shows the audience the characters personalities. If the Lion walked around normally, the comedic aspect would be taken away. It's the same with the Tin-man/ woman and the Scarecrow. These characters are also all for kid theatre, meaning everything needs to be exaggerated. After working on this we began rehearsing from the scene of meeting the Scarecrow, to the last scene of meeting the Lion. This lesson was very important, as it allowed us to see how we need to work together and how good our chemistry is. Later on we started working on the Ozians. This wasn't so hard since we got the gyst of the Munchkins. The first lesson we had about the Ozians, I led. In my opinion the Ozians are like the Munchkins, but they can't show it. I'd say that they are very loyal to the Wizard of Oz and worship him very much. There lines, "Yes Sir". They repeat this multiple times. For me this made them seem almost drone like. I made them out to be like soldiers/ drones, but of course they are just like the Munchkins out of work. After I told everyone what I think about them they agreed. So what I wanted to do was make sure that we all say the line, "Yes Sir", in sync. This adds the drone-like personality to them. I also wanted them to march onto the stage, so we rehearsed that. At one part of the script they need to gather up a load of green fabric. This is where I wanted to Munchkin-like personality to come out, because at the end of the day they are still living beings, there just very loyal to the Wizard as they believe that he is super powerful. After that was all done with, we REALLY focused on going through the whole script. We went through each and every scene working on our movement, chemistry and also our staging. The staging is another factor that's super important about acting and being able to perform a good show. You have to ensure that you are always facing the audience when saying a line. We also figured out where we need to sit or stand during a scene. After many rehearsals we started to bring Oz to life. The set and props were starting to be made and the stage was being painted. The last little bit of bringing the characters to life was also being made. This was the costumes, and also the makeup was being tested, ensuring to capture the characters craziness. It came to the last few days where we began doing a full run through. It all came to life with this process.
My production progress from 'The Witches' to the 'Wizard of Oz'- The first production role I was given was during our performance of connections. I took the role of marketing. What we did for that was post pictures of our rehearsals, and then a post on our stories which then got shared. I believe that we could have done way more for that, such as making an Instagram reel, showing the characters etc. Then for Blood Brothers I did set. I liked doing set and I helped set up the stage, and brought some stuff in. Now for the wizard of Oz I was a lead Munchkin, I believe that I did a few things for this which I'll put down below.
My production role- My production role for this show was being a lead Munchkin.
Movements & Chants: What I did for this was to lead a chant. There was one specific lesson where I led a chant. I tried to make everyone feel less shy and really turn into a Munchkin. I gave out lines for the chant and added movement. It did get altered a bit by Tom and Kane and it turned out great! The movement for a Munchkin has to be large, they aren't like normal people. They are quite child-like actually, so they need to have large expressions. For example when the good witch of the North says that we love her, we all owe in love and make a heart shape. I and the other lead Munchkins made sure that everyone's reactions are big. Since they have so much energy, we also moved around a lot and never really stayed still.
Costume & Props: We did make the costume a little like the book, as we decided to go all blue. In the film they wear all types of colours, but I like that we went all blue because it makes the land of Munchkins look funner and, well bluer. It also shows that they are the Munchkins. We all gave our Munchkin an occupation, and we needed to show that through our costumes. I gave everyone some ideas of what they could do. Originally my Munchkin was going to be a sweet seller, so I told everyone that I would bring a blue lollipop and bonbons, but someone else decided to do that so I changed my idea to becoming a dancer, so I bought a blue Tutu. Someone said that they were a baker so I told them to bring a blue apron or blue mittens. Someone was a fisherman so I suggested an idea of bringing a fake blue fish, but they came up with a good idea of making a blue fishing rod. People found a lot of their costumes in the costume cupboard, but a few people like myself really wanted to personalise theirs.
Make-up & Hair: The makeup for the Munchkins is pretty basic, It is a normal base but the girls have blue eye shadow and lipstick, with three little freckles on each cheek. The boys were meant to be the same but with blue eyebrows. Me and my friend Sienna helped and did a lot of people's makeup for the Munchkins and Ozians. The hair didn't really matter, but what I did was put mine in a half up and half down pigtails, I then put two blue ribbons in them.
I wasn't a lead Ozian but I also lead part of that. I also helped with painting and building the set. Overall I think that I should have done better through the whole production process. I wish I had done more. One thing I wish I did was to probably pick a better production role. I wasn't sure what to do as lead Munchkin except from trying to help with the lessons. Next time I'll pick something I know I'll be able to do.
Task Two: Developing and Devising ideas for children's Theatre-
PA- All the re-telling of 'the wizard of Oz')
Book- The first concept of 'The Wizard of Oz' was a book. It was originally called, 'The wonderful Wizard of Oz'. It's a children's novel written by the author, Frank L. Baum, and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. This book was our main source of inspiration for our show. The script that we were given was already using a lot from the book, but we took more of it into it, such as the munchkins and Ozians outfits etc. the book was first published in the United States in May 1900 by George M. Hill Company. In January 1901, the publishing company completed printing the first edition, a total of 10,000 copies, which quickly sold out. It had sold three million copies by the time it entered the public domain in 1956. It was often printed under the title 'The Wizard of Oz', which is the title of the successful 1902 Broadway musical adaptation as well as the classic 1939 live-action film. Due to the great success there is now 13 sequels of the original book.
Musicals- As I have written above the first Wizard of Oz musical was performed in 1902. It opened up on Broadway in January 21, 1903. The music was composed by Harold Arlen. There are now a few musicals based on the wizard of Oz, some of them being: Wicked and The Wiz!
Inspirations & symbolising- Frank used his personal life and experiences as his source of inspiration, to create the world of Oz and the characters. Many economists and historians believe that the book is a political allegory. They believe that it may have been inspired by the real-life economic struggles during the Gold standard. Frank had many jobs throughout his life, due to him having to move a lot, he said that this gave him many real life experiences that he could use for his stories. He also said that his trip to Holland gave him many ideas!
The Yellow Brick Road- The yellow Brick Road represents strategy, how you will get there and the path you identify as the best, smartest way to accomplish your goal. And each shiny yellow brick in the road represents an action step. It shows the smaller tactics that go into executing your strategy. Frank got the idea from an actual yellow brick road in Peek-skill in New York. (I'm pretty sure he attended a military academy there).
The Emerald City- Frank used to frequently visit the world Colombian exposition of 1893, nicknamed 'The white city' (In Chicago). This partly inspired him to make the Emerald City
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Film- On August 25th, 1939, The Wizard of Oz, produced by Metro- Goldwyn- Mayer, came out to the Theatres around the United States. It was written by Frank L. Baum, as you know wrote the original novel, and directed by Victor Fleming. It stars Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Billy Burke and Margaret Hamilton.
This film won an academic award for best music in 1940 (Herbert Stothart), and a satellite award for best classic DVD in 2005.
It was also nominated for 5 academy awards, including best picture, best art direction, best special effects, best original song and best original score.
After that in 1972 another sequel of the film came out, called Journey back to Oz, then in 1982 the cartoon version came out and lastly in 2013 a film called Oz: The great and powerful came out. A lot of things had happened throughout the filming of the Wizard of Oz. Here are some things that have happened:
♡ Margaret Hamilton who played the wicked witch of the west, was severely burned due to a trap door failing to remove her from a scene where a device releases sparks and smoke.
♡ The Tin-man was poisoned by his make-up
♡ Garland was emotionally and physically abused
♡ The fake snow was made using a toxic mineral asbestos. This could have caused permanent damage to the body.
The film did overall have some small differences from the book. such as the Munchkins were multicoloured in the film and in the book they were blue. The biggest difference was that in the film she was dreaming the whole time, whereas in the book she actually does go to the land of Oz. The Ruby shoes are actually silver in the book, but due to the fact that the silver wasn't picking up on camera they changed it to Ruby. The film doesn't explain how the Tin-man becomes a Tin-man, he just shows up.
Growing up with the film, I can say that it has made a large impact on my childhood, and on many others too!
All about Frank L. Baum:
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Frank L, the American Author, best known for his book 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'. Frank loved writing, and creating new ideas, this means that he wrote a lot more, than just the Wizard of Oz. Frank wrote 14 novels of the Oz series, and 41 other novels, 83 short stories, over 200 poems, and at least 42 scripts. He tried many times to bring his work onto stage and screen, which is why The Wizard of Oz was such a big thing to him!
He and his wife opened up a store in South Dakota, and he edited and published a newspaper. This was after he moved from Upstate New York, (which was where he was raised) due to an unsuccessful stint as a theatre producer and playwright. He then began publishing children's literature after he moved to Chicago. This was where he realised his first ever Oz book in the 1900. This was where his dream began coming true.
Childhood & Early Life- Frank was given a cheap printing press by his father, which allowed him to start writing in his early life. He was also close with his brother Henry, who helped in the production of 'The Rose Lawn Home' journal. They published several issues of the journal. By the age of 17, he established a second amateur journal called, 'The stamp Collector'. This started a stamp dealership with his friends. In 1886, when he was 30, his first book was published (The book of the Hamburgs).
Basic facts- Frank L. Baum was born on May 15th, 1896, and passed away on May 6th, 1919.
-He married Maud Gage in 1888
-He started his own film production called the Oz film manufacture company in 1914.
PB- Collaborative work
Our collaborative work would be when we were working together as Munchkins and Ozians. Although they are in a few scenes for only a short amount of time, they help to create the world of the story. Here are a few videos: The first two are from the very beginning of our journey. You can see how stiff we are, and that not many of us are letting loose. We were to shy/ embarrassed to fully show what we are capable of. We didn't take any good videos showing how amazing the Munchkins turned out sadly. I really wish we got a video of them coming out or doing their chant, sadly we didn't. The last two videos are from my performance, and you can see the Munchkins in the background. If you look closely you can see their reactions and how exaggerated they are!
Our teachers Kelly, Kane and Tom all worked really hard and showed us different ways to make the chant work. We're not allowed any music throughout the show due to the rights of the script, so what we originally started with using a piano o and some other instruments. We ended cutting that bit out as it was too chaotic. What we did was make it rhythmic. It didn't need any music for it to sound fun and bouncy. As long as we gave off enough energy it worked super well!
My theory before the shows- Now that its coming closer to the show I thought I'd write what i think the ensemble is going to turn out like! After working soooo hard on them and seeing how much progress we have done first hand, I believe that It's going to turn out great. Everyone has come out of their shell, which is allowing them to perform to their full potential. Now that everyone knows who their Munchkins are, as in their name, occupation and age, they came with a great costume. When rehearsing with a costume, it added so much characterisation! It allowed them to do things they couldn't before.
PC- Character research
Dorothy:
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I really wanted to make Dorothy my own. Of course I didn't want to change her, but I wanted to make her a little different to everyone else's. So what I did was add a little sass to her. Only a tiny bit. For example, when the Lion comes on I start calling him a sissy or making fun of him, I didn't want to say it lightly so I exaggerated it and made sure I sounded a little disappointed. Another one was that the Scarecrow tells me that the Crows told him that he'll never be like a man, my line after that was, "He was quite right". The other Dorothy's said it lightly whereas I said it bluntly, like I agree with the Crows, because I know that he's a Scarecrow. Even though it's something so small, I think it adds a lot.
Vocal changes: Dorothy is a young girl from Kansas, this means she has a slight southern american accent. When I did her accent, I also made it soft due to the fact that she is around 11 years old, and is also a gentle and sweet girl. This however made it a lot harder to project my voice. At the end with all the practise I feel as if I did a good job, I got feedback saying that I was one of the loudest in my cast, which I was really happy about, since I was a little worried.
Body language: Dorothy's body language changed throughout the show. It really depends on what's happening in the scene. The scene where she's met the Scarecrow, or doing the first two chants, she's happy and open, overall quite energetic and bouncy, because she is excited and happy. But in the scenes where she's being held captive or when the wicked which of the West came to get Dorothy in the first part of the show, she's very closed up and timid, she's scared so she makes herself look smaller. I hid behind Belinda to show that Dorothy was nervous, and afraid, another thing I did to show that I was nervous was to hold Toto close by. I feel as if Toto is her safe space, as she loves him very much. I made Dorothy's walk to be quite skippy, I also made her take small but quick steps.
Facial expressions: Since it's theatre I did exaggerate her expressions more than usual. Dorothy is typically a happy girl, I'd say she's young and quite naive. I never had a blank face on, I always reacted to everything ensuring to show the emotions on my face. For example when the Scarecrow and Tin-man are telling their stories I pulled a concerned and pouty face (I don't really know how to explain it, kinda like she's in awe, like puppy eyes. It sounds odd, but I don't know how to describe it). When she meets the Lion I make my face flexed because he surprises her. She then begins to judge him because of how cowardly he is.
Costume: Dorothy wears a pinafore dress, which is a sleeveless garment usually worn by young girls, as a dress over a blouse. The dress is made from a blue and white gingham fabric. She has red ribbons in her hair, Ruby heels and fluffy white socks.
Make-up: Due to the fact that it's theatre, the make-up is exaggerated. I had, foundation, contour, a lot of blush, fake eyelashes, red lipstick and some fake freckles put on. This adds the young and innocent look to her.
Staging: Whilst being Dorothy, I always made her be in the middle or in front, kinda like the leader of the group, because she is the one leading everyone to the emerald city.
Munchkin:
Ozian:
Task Three: Production and performance-
All in my weekly blogs.
Task Four:
Evaluation- These have been taken from my blog about show week (Put them here so that everything is together, I also shortened it. I talk about the other shows too on that post).
Day 1, Show 1) Lets just say that it didn't go as planned. It went bad. For me it went really bad. Lets take it bit by bit. The first thing that went wrong was that the actress who played the good witch of the South forgot a lot of her lines, one of the being, "Come out, come out and thank her". This means the Munchkins couldn't come out, and they are crucial to this part of the story. I knew most of her lines or the jist of them so I knew that I had to hint to her to bring them out. I think I gave her around 7 hints. I said something along the lines of, "Am I going to get to meet them?", or "Are they going to come and greet me?". I said a few lines like that, and finally she caught on and brought them out. Of course this really stressed me out as it was only the second scene and it had already been messed up. The next thing that had gone wrong was that the Scarecrow was brought onto the stage quite late. I go down the stairs saying "Well this is the yellow brick road, Now which way do we go?", then the scarecrow is meant to reply with, "Excuse me, that way looks like a very nice way to go?". But he wasn't on stage yet so I had to improvise yet again. I began talking to Toto, and asking him which way I should go, and I talked to myself. Then when I could see from the corner of my eye that he was where he was meant to be I repeated the line and he replied back. Another mistake was the Tin-woman's scene. The oil can was missing. So when she asked us to oil her, I had to use an imaginary oil can. This obviously didn't help capture the moment. One other thing was that The Tin-woman forgot to start crying (She stepped on a bug), This means the scarecrow couldn't ask what was wrong, which means a whole chunk was cut out. The last thing that went wrong for act 1 was in the emerald city. Before we enter the throne room, the wizard of Oz asks us to put some green spectacles on, but they were not there. The green spectacles are really important, as later on in the story it reveals that they are what actually makes the land look like its made out of emeralds. The actor who played the wizard of Oz did some great improvisation. He began saying that the Ozians haven't brought them out and that he's going to be firing somebody. I went a long with it and said "We don't really need them tho do we?", this then lead on to him saying that we should just squint our eyes. We made our way through the back of the curtains so that the Ozians change the stage into the throne room. When we came back onto the stage and an ozian brought on the glasses, The actor who played the wizard of Oz went and told him that he was fired. It added a comedic sense to it. After this scene it was the interval. I began panicking because I just felt like it was going so incredibly bad, and I just wasn't happy with the outcome at all. My teacher and loads of other people that I've been saving the show and helped lead everything in the right direction. My teacher also said that my improvisation skills are really pulling through and are what has helped put everything together. Although I was panicking, what they said has helped calm me down. I mean I wasn't going crazy, I just sat down and had a sad face. I was internally panicking. I would say that the second act had gone quite well. I heard that someone had forgotten a few lines in the only part I'm not in, but it wasn't too bad. When we finished my teachers had a talk with us and told us that it went like a good dress run. We were lucky that it was only students that came to watch us. But now I and all the others know what went wrong, and we knew what we needed to do to fix it. I talked to my cast mates and told them the main bits that we need to fix that doesn't include props. As soon as we all talked the first thing that I did was put the oil can in place and the glasses. Now that they were definitely there, the only things we had left to worry about was for the good witch to bring the Munchkins out and to not forget the tin-woman crying.
Day 1, Show 2) I felt so incredibly happy with the outcome of this show!!!! At the end I felt so proud of everyone and I felt like I had created something special. I felt proud of myself too. The same thing had happened and The good witch of the South had forgotten her line to bring out the Munchkins so I had to do the same thing and improvised to remind her, but she clicked on quicker so it wasn't as bad. The Scarecrow was also brought on late again, but not as late so again it wasn't as bad. I knew what I had to do now, so it felt seamless and it felt like it was meant to happen. I made sure that there were no awkward gaps so I just improvised until it was set on the right path. The last thing that had gone wrong in the story was that the oil can was missing. But not this timeeee. It was definitely there, and I made sure of it! The oil can really helped with the characterisation. The crying scene for the oil-woman was missed again, but luckily it didn't look bad and no one even noticed from behind the curtains. The green glasses were there too!!!! no improvisation needed there anymore. The first act ends with us chanting and running out of the theatre, and let me just say, as soon as the doors shut behind us, we were sooooo HAPPY!!!! The chemistry and energy was off the roof!! The audience was also great! I personally believe that having a reactive audience helps us give out more energy. We feed on it!! My favourite part of performing is when the audience is reacting to it. So after our maybe 10-15 minute interval we went straight back onto the stage. My favourite part of the whole show is the part where Dorothy and the lion have been captured and the Dorothy killing the wicked witch of the east. I just think that it's super fun, it's also something I haven't done before. I've always played characters where they are super sweet and innocent. This might just be me but I personally think that Dorothy is somewhat sassy. She is definitely sweet and innocent but she has a sassy tone to her. I love that she does tho, because it adds more depth to her personality. The second act went really smoothly. A lot of people came to watch the second show. At the end me and the main cast stayed in the foyer, the audience came and congratulated us and a lot of people asked for pictures. I felt so special when they asked to have individual ones with them. But my favourite part was when they hugged me!!! It was so cute. Too cute. I went home really happy, and even though the first show went so bad, I learnt from it, which is what helped me to make the second show so much better!
Day 5, Show 1&2) Everything went right today! and I'm going to be talking about both shows here, after both the shows I felt a little down and people were confused to why. It was hard to explain to them that I felt like I did a dry performance. Of course when I said that, they were surprised and said that I couldn't have done any better! I believe them too! because I tried my absolute best. And now thinking about it, there wasn't anything that I could have done better. I think it was because it was my last day being Dorothy and I really wanted to make it the moist outstanding performance, I also had special people coming to watch me in both of the shows, so I wanted them to see the best of me, and all the hard work I put into it! I don't really tell people how I feel at the end of my performances because they always reply with the same thing, but I never feel satisfied with my outcome. I always feel like I could have done more. I never know what I could have done, but I just have this feeling. My teacher saw that I kind of had a pouty face, and asked me what was wrong. I told he and she said that she was thinking the opposite! Of course this made me feel better. A message that I got from my teacher on Teams after my first day as Dorothy was probably the best compliment I had ever gotten. She said: "I think you were better than Judy Garland herself!" & "You are the best Dorothy I could have wished for". I'm editing this in a whole month after because I thought that I should include it. I still think about it till this day. Whenever I feel like I'm not great at acting I think about this message, and that my hard work and effort is worth it.
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