Rosebud brings Oz to the Prairies
The Wizard of Oz transforms local theatre with magical performances
If ever there was a place that’s both a bit of Kansas, with a little dash of Oz tucked inside, it’s Rosebud.
After all, how many rural Albertan hamlets are also arts incubators on the Prairies?
So it’s not surprising to hear from longtime Rosebud artistic director Morris Ertman that their latest musical offering is none other than The Wizard of Oz, which kicked off a summer- long run Friday night.
“The whole prairie- scape that we face at the top ( of the show)," Ertman says, "( where) Aunt Em and Uncle Henry are busy with the chicks? And the farmhands are just really down to earth? That ( Kansas farm) world is really familiar to this area and to Rosebud.”
Until the town of around 150 transforms into a theatre hub that offers professional productions at two different theatres, that is.
“It does have some Oz in it too,” Ertman says. “This place is like Munchkinland. It’s a bit like Oz too — dreams come true ( here) for so many people.” Why Oz, and why now? “It’s been on my list for several years,” Ertman says.
It was always too big a show, or lacked a little something Ertman was looking for — a bit of soul, really — but then he discovered the Royal Shakespeare Company adaptation, and that changed the game.
“This Royal Shakespeare production is really wonderful,” he says.
“It’s filled with humour, and has a kind of wisdom to it that moves beyond the sort of dimply cheeked thing you expect in Oz — and so because of that, I feel like it really is something we can offer our audience.”
Ertman says the trick lies in how you interpret The Wizard of Oz.
“Oz,” says Ertman, "can be seen as basically a fantasia in many ways.
“It can be staged really successfully that way,” he says. "And those classical elements are part of what we do, but what I think is the soul of the piece ...( is that) it really is wiser and richer than I thought.
“All of a sudden, I thought, the story’s got something to say,” he adds, “and share about the way we see the people we love and how we change after going on a little pilgrimage — and how we grow, absolutely.”
Rosebud’s production is a Prairie variation on those gigantic Broadway Across Canada style shows, presented on a stage that’s not quite Jubilee auditorium sized, either.
Rosebud’s production is simpler, with an emphasis on streamlining the transitions between Kansas and Oz — starting with the Jarod Fahlman- designed, set, Ertman says.
“It’s a giant wooden slat billboard that says Welcome to Kansas,” Ertman says, "and it’s really, really simple — with this spiral pattern of floorboards in the floor. This thing articulates into all kinds of different things — the forest and there’s an arch, what we call the oval ... and that thing flips around, it says Welcome to Oz.
“With light, and movement of that oval,” he says, “and the shift of costumes, we arrive in Munchkinland and then Oz and the magical forest where they’re attacked by monkeys.” And what about Dorothy? Rosebud audiences know Cassia Schramm, who plays Dorothy, well. She’s appeared in everything from The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, to Anne in Anne of Green Gables to Oliver in Oliver!
“When she sings Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” says Ertman, “I mean the song makes your heart melt anyhow — but when she does it, it’s just effortless. It’s beautiful.”
But Schramm’s Dorothy is a little more substantial than that, Ertman says.
“She’s got some brass in her,” he says. “Her Dorothy isn’t a little girl from Kansas — she’s a teenager who’s got to deal with this quest she encounters in Oz.”
As far as dealing with the expectations of those who grew up thinking Dorothy was Judy Garland, Ertman says set those aside.
“That’s tricky,” he says. "Because you know there’s an expectation in the audience, because they love the story and love the movie.
“But we’ve long sort of thrown that stuff to the wind here in Rosebud,” he adds, "meaning that if you set out to try and copy what’s been done before, we’ll fail.
“You can’t live up to the movie,” he says. "You can’t recreate the movie. And you can’t recreate people’s experiences of the movie — so when you do the show, it’s just about putting a different lens on it, if you will.
“Let people see the story as new again,” he says, “and that’s the fun of it. The fun of it is to actually mine the story — not the expectation.”
Rosebud Theatre presents The Wizard of Oz through September 5
rosebudtheatre.com or 1- 800267- 7553.