DIRECTOR’S NOTES
L. Frank Baum’s tale of the young girl who is swept away to a magical land, and despite her wondrous adventures, who wishes so desperately to go home, has been told and re-told in as many artistic forms as you can count. But the story and its lessons couldn’t be timelier than they are today.
The forces of nature in Baum’s story, originally published in 1900, are powerful enough to move Dorothy outside of her homestead, into a surreal world where the pursuit of knowledge, the desire for affection, and the will to be brave in the face of adversity, play out before her. In the end, we’re told, there’s no place like home.
The young actors, musicians, and stage technicians presenting this ageless story tonight are faced in real life with a pretty impressive struggle in their homeland, too—and one that won’t easily be overcome. They, along with the generations that precede them, are only beginning to understand the enormity of the damage we have done to our planet through industry, ignorance, and neglect, and the immediacy of our need to reverse that damage. Is it a coincidence that the idealized end of the yellow brick road is a verdant green?
Surely Baum isn’t as prescient as I suggest; perhaps he only intended for his reader to take a renewed look at ‘home’ and what it represents. For me, anyway, when I look around, this hometown (my hometown) is represented by this high school, and these students. They have brains, heart, and courage, and I am happy to be home among them.
~Brandon E. Doemling
Save the Date Alert