Young Actors on a Well Worn Yellow Brick Road

The land of little people, a green faced witch, and those great Ruby Slippers are iconic images for generations who have sat through countless screenings of the 1939 classic “The Wizard of Oz.” 

But when a director and a group of actors decide to take a timeless classic and put it on stage, how do they go about presenting the familiar tale in a new light? For the Pierson Middle School students who will be performing in a stage version of “The Wizard of Oz” this weekend, the key to freshness is avoiding blatant imitation of the original.

“Everyone knows the movie,” says Abby Ruiz who plays the tin man in the show. “That makes it stressful. It’s hard to live up to it.”

“It’s kind of hard to play these parts because we know them so much from growing up,” adds Kyra Christopher (a.k.a. Dorothy). 

Kyra admits that when she began her career as Dorothy a couple months ago, her initial impulse was to simply copy that diva of Dorothydom herself — Judy Garland.

“I mastered how she spoke, but it felt over-acted, so I started using my own voice,” says Krya. “I can kind of relate to Dorothy sometimes. ‘Over the Rainbow’ is about dreams. I have dreams too. They may be different, but it’s cool how you can relate to a character.”

“You want to be your own person,” explains Sophie Gianis who plays the scarecrow. “I really wanted to get down his mannerisms and the way he’s always happy. One thing I don’t want to do is be like the scarecrow in the movie and the way he talks in rhythm. I want to give a spin on how he talks and sings.”

This is exactly what director Paula Brannon wanted her young actors to do with their parts. But, she notes, there are still certain things that people will be looking for in any interpretation of the story.

“The danger in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ is it’s a fine line they have to toe,” explains Brannon. “They want to add their own interpretations, but there are performances that are expected — like the lion representing courage.”

Abby, Kyra and Sophie, who are all eighth graders, take their job seriously. From reciting lines in their free time to carrying around props like the stuffed dog playing Toto (that would be Kyra), the trio has found that, just as Dorothy and her buddies form a tight knit friendship through their many trials and tribulations in the script, so too has this group.

“Ms. Brannon said you have to bond, and we really did,” says Kyra. “We were friends before but now it’s a whole different level.”

“I think that we all really have a connection with each other,” says Sophie. 

While the movie version of L. Frank Baum’s book is the one that everyone knows, Brannon notes that over the years, there have actually been a few different stage versions of “The Wizard of Oz,” including one by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RCS).

“That’s the one most like the movie,” explains Brannon. “There’s another, the original stage version by L. Frank Baum, and another right after that, which was the standard for a while.”

“We are doing basically the RCS version, with an addition — a song called ‘The Jitterbugs’ which was originally in the movie, but they cut it,” says Brannon. “We liked it though, it’s jazzy and one big dance number.”

“We also added a song from ‘The Wiz,’ called ‘Home.’ It’s a beautiful song,” says Brannon. “We have a lot of talented middle schoolers, and put this in in order to showcase some of the other voices and talents.” 

And are there ever a lot of voices and talents in this show — 63 of them to be exact. The cast is so large, notes Brannon, that the construction crew extended the Pierson stage a full six feet to make room for all the cast and scenery. 

“Forty munchkins never would’ve fit on the stage without building out,” she says.

There have been many discussions about Populist metaphors allegedly contained within “The Wizard of Oz,” including the idea of the Tin Man representing U.S. industrial workers while the Scarecrow embodies the plight of farmers and the Lion major party politicos. The good news is, it’s also just a story about a group of friends on an adventure, and that, the young stars of this production understand.

“We are so excited to be doing it,” says Sophie. “I think it means more to the people who were around when the movie came out, and their children or grandchildren who grew up watching it.”

“The Wizard of Oz” opens tonight Thursday, February 5 at 7 p.m. in the Pierson Auditorium, 200 Jermain Avenue, Sag Harbor. Shows also run Friday, February 6 and Saturday, February 7 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, February 8 at 2 p.m. A live orchestra made up of high school students will provide music under direction of Pierson teacher Eric Reynolds, while Jayne Freedman handles choreography and Melissa Luppi acting as producer.

Above: Abby Ruiz, Sophie Gianis, Kyra Christopher and Zach DePetris on the Yellow Brick Road