Theatre Productions

“The Wizard of OZ”
Presented by the Pagosa Pretenders Family Theater

Susan Garman had her Pretenders directorial debut with this show with assistance from director Bill Hudson; they looked to the original Frank Baum story for inspiration, rather than to the Hollywood movie classic. As usual, the actors began rehearsals without even a hint of a script, and used improv activities to develop the scenes, based on their own inclinations.

Garman and production designers Bill & Clarissa Hudson decided that the best way to create a tornado on-stage was to have the opening scene portrayed by puppets, which allowed the puppet-sized house to be swept up into a swirl of wind created by dancers carrying streamers on long poles.

The production drew a large cast – over 100 actors – of all ages, and the Pretenders, as always, placed everyone who auditioned into the show, in line with their philosophy of encouraging all interested actors no matter what their experience level.

In order to give actors as much time on stage as possible, the director used participants as living set pieces, such as trees and gates. This approach also made the "sets" self-transporting, speeding up the transitions between scenes.

Bill Hudson and David Snyder wrote the original songs for the show, which were then arranged by Melinda Baum. Bill Hudson was the set-designer with many hands from the cast to cut, glue, paint, carve and clean up! Clarissa Hudson handled the costume design duties, with inspirational assistance from Brian Cutaia, Tabitha Barnard, and Karina Silver.