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Theatre students to perform modern 'The Wizard of Oz'

February 16, 2011
	<p>From left, finance senior Barret Vollmer, theatre junior Graham Lundeen, theatre senior Brittane Rowe and theatre graduate student Wes Haskell will play some of the lead roles in “The Wizard of Oz,” which premieres 8 p.m. Friday in the Auditorium’s Fairchild Theatre. </p>

From left, finance senior Barret Vollmer, theatre junior Graham Lundeen, theatre senior Brittane Rowe and theatre graduate student Wes Haskell will play some of the lead roles in “The Wizard of Oz,” which premieres 8 p.m. Friday in the Auditorium’s Fairchild Theatre.

Photo by Photo courtesy of Corrina Van Hamlin | The State News

Wes Haskell said the latest role he’ll be playing onstage is one he has idolized since he was a child.

“It’s great for me because ‘The Wizard of Oz’ was my favorite movie growing up,” said Haskell, a theatre graduate student.

Haskell will portray the straw-stuffed character in the Department of Theatre’s “The Wizard of Oz,” which premieres Friday at 8 p.m. in the Auditorium’s Fairchild Theatre. The show will run through Feb. 27.

“I watched it so many times I ruined the tape,” Haskell said. “The scarecrow was always my favorite character, so to me, it’s really cool to have this opportunity.”

The musical has about 30 cast members and is directed by visiting theatre instructor Jen Bender.

The production takes the original script and songs of the “The Wizard of Oz” film and adds a modernized element to the design and setting for the stage production.

In the musical, residents of Emerald City sport couture costumes, 21st-century technology is integrated into the plot and the wizard has been transformed into a modernized version of the 1939 original.

Although the feel of the musical incorporates modern themes, Graham Lundeen, a theatre junior who will play the Cowardly Lion, said the audience still will take away the same idea from the production.

“We haven’t changed the journey or the characters or the message,” Lundeen said. “Everything that was already there is still very true to what was in the ‘The Wizard of Oz’ (film).”

Lundeen said playing such a well-known character had its perks and its drawbacks.

“It’s really awesome (to play the Cowardly Lion),” Lundeen said.

“But it got kind of frustrating at points because, while creating the character for the show, I wanted to make it my own and make a character that represented who I was as an actor but, at the same time, maintain the (prestige) of the character.”

Lundeen said the spin on the traditional character’s fashion was a fun one to witness.

“Costumewise, everything is very modern,” Lundeen said. “The Emerald City is high-fashion style. The costumes aren’t your stereotypical man in a lion suit, and Tin Man isn’t basically in something that’s a tin can.”

Brittane Rowe, a theatre senior who plays Dorothy, said although she is honored to play an iconic role, she never expected to have the leading role.

She said, similarly to Lundeen’s attitude toward his role as the Cowardly Lion, she wanted to keep the idea of the character portrayed by Judy Garland in the film but also add her own twist.

“It’s been a lot of fun trying to recreate the role and bring some elements to who I think Dorothy is,” Rowe said. “It’s been fun singing ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ and ‘We’re Off To See the Wizard’ … (and) making it my own.”

Haskell said although the cast made the script a work of its own, keeping the integrity and idea of the original was a priority.

“(Dorothy) goes away to this fantasy world but, at the same time, misses her family so much and realizes the great life that she does have at home,” Haskell said.

“(The musical) definitely sticks with the movie’s moral and the movie’s lesson.”

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Visit theatre.msu.edu for ticket information or showtimes for the musical.

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