When I heard our HS would be doing the Wizard of Oz for the spring musical, I’ll admit I wasn’t thrilled. I felt like it was way over done. Emma tried out in November and was excited for her many supporting roles and six costume changes. She was the dance captain, a Lullaby league munchkin, one of the three trees, a spookly in the scary forest, a poppy, an Ozian, and a dancer for the twister scene. The week after auditions I got an email from the director asking if I wanted to do the choreography. I had to think about it because I knew it would be a huge time commitment. I said yes and was so happy I did. It was such an amazing experience to work with this group of talented kids. They were focused and respectful at every rehearsal. I loved doing this with Emma!
We did five performances starting on April 24th. The show was a sold-out hit! I purchased a total of 54 tickets for family and friends — Emma had fans at every show. Months later and people are still talking about how much they loved it. The music was fabulous, the scarecrow actually caught on fire, during the tornado Dorothy got lifted up 12 feet off the floor, the witch melted into the floor, and the costumes were absolutely amazing. We were all sad when it was over. We are looking forward to next year’s musical.
Emma, Adrienne Yu, Victoria Chen
Trees: Emma, Allison Gingerich and Renee Chen
Jonathan Tai, Katie Scheu and Young Zheng
For several months I had been involved in the planning for a five district youth conference/pioneer trek in Beijing. Unfortunately, it was the same weekend as the Wizard of Oz performance, so Emma and I could not attend. But James had a fantastic time and it seemed like the never-ending planning conference calls and emails paid off!
