BERNE — With a cast of 80 middle- and high-school students, and nearly 20 others contributing to the production, a great and all-powerful Oz is coming to the Hilltowns this weekend.

The Wizard of Oz, made popular by the 1939 film, will be performed at the Berne-Knox-Westerlo secondary school Friday and Saturday night, with a matinee performance on Sunday.

Music teacher Coriellen Travis will direct her fifth BKW musical. Travis said she is in the middle of the most challenging show she has directed, simply because of the film’s popularity and familiarity.
"Every show," she said, "presents its own challenges."

Almost everyone, she said, knows the story from what they have seen in the movie, and it is difficult to put that on stage.

The BKW Elementary School principal, Brian Corey, will conduct the orchestra, which, he said, consists of professional musicians from the area.

Corey, in his first year as elementary-school principal, is getting back to his music roots. Prior to this school year, Corey taught instrumental music to BKW elementary-, middle-school, and high-school students.

Fab Four

Monday, Travis and Corey were beginning to put the finishing touches on the show, which features four seniors in their final production. Each is playing one of the four main characters — Dorothy, the scarecrow, the tin man, and the cowardly lion.

Caitlyn Osterhout will play the displaced, out-of-Kansas Dorothy Gale; Drew Swint will courageously don a sweat-inducing lion costume; Jayson Villeneuve is oiled up to play the tin man; and Luke Brown will play the scarecrow, using his common sense as the puzzled band makes their way along the yellow brick road in hopes of obtaining what they think they lack.

Swint, Villeneuve, and Brown will also play Zeke, Hickory, and Hunk, a playful bunch of Midwestern pranksters, in the show’s opening Kansas scene.
All have acted in BKW musicals, and were in character Monday, enjoying their last week as players. "It’s been a blast," one said, and they all agreed. But, they said, it’s also sad since it’s their last production.
"It’s like family," Osterhout said of her counterparts and working with Travis. Osterhout, not yet in full costume, hadn’t yet put on her ruby red slippers, which the Wicked Witch envies throughout the show.
"I haven’t traveled to Oz yet," she laughed.
Swint, as the cowardly lion, said he "definitely" got the part he wanted. His character, he said, is "active," "scared," and "embracing."

Swint said the film, starring Judy Garland, had aired on the Turner Network Television channel the day before auditions.
Villeneuve, as the tin man, said he’d had his hopes on the lion role, but, he said, turning to Swint, "His part fits him more."
"It’s really free," said Brown of his role as the scarecrow — "brainless." Brown said that, by not being involved in sports, he "fell into music." He said of this weekend, "I hope everyone enjoys the show."

In their last performances at BKW, the four were uncertain about their future acting endeavors, mulling over the possibilities of acting on a college stage.

Director on Oz

Travis is very aware of the film’s place in American culture. Travis, who teaches music and coaches soccer, chose The Wizard of Oz because she has a large number of students — both younger and older — interested in musical theater.
"I wanted something that would afford my large group of talented seniors many roles but still a show that would allow my younger students to be involved," she said.

The Wizard of Oz, she said, "just seemed like the perfect fit."

Travis said she has been fascinated with The Wizard of Oz since she was a girl. Her mother, she said, would let her and her sisters and brothers stay up late once a year to watch it together on television.
"I am excited to be able to bring it to life on stage and I just hope our audience enjoys it as much as we have," she said.

Travis said she directs musicals hoping that at least some of her students take away with them the same amazing experiences she did when she was in high school.

She would not be the same person or teacher, she said, if it were not for her director and the opportunity to be part of a team working together to put on a show.
The large cast and crew has really come together on this production, she said. "I feel very lucky to be part of the BKW school community and that I have the opportunity to work with so many respectful and talented students everyday."
"Even during our most challenging rehearsals, they make me laugh — in a good way," she said. "I couldn't be more proud of this cast. They are fantabulous."

Out of Kansas

As the opening orchestral fanfare closes, Dorothy Gale finds her dog, Toto, alone and frightened, on the opposite side of the stage.
"She must be the meanest old woman there ever was," Osterhout says of Miss Gultch, played by Alyssa Wetterau, who has been mistreating the creature.

Wetterau also plays the Wicked Witch and torments Dorothy and her sidekicks throughout the show. Wetterau plays the witch masterfully, armed with a sinister, blood-curdling laugh.

Osterhout clutches Toto, her companion for the entire show, tightly in her arms.
Miss Gultch insists the dog is "the menace of the community," and that she was "shaken by the ferocious attack" of the blameless Toto.

Osterhout, a seasoned BKW actress, plays Dorothy Gale with precision — distraught and resentful toward her family and circumstances at the play’s opening.
She wishes to go "someplace where there isn’t any trouble."

Once displaced in the fantastical world of Oz, disillusioned Dorothy wishes to return to her humble beginnings. To prepare for her role, Osterhout said, she watched the Judy Garland film "a couple of times."

Landing in Oz, after a ferocious twister uproots her, Dorothy is puzzled by her new surroundings. She encounters a good witch — Glinda, played by Breanna Dees.
"Are you a good witch or a bad witch"" Dees asks. Dressed in a white gown, a crown atop her head, Dees carried a bundle of flowers during Monday’s rehearsal; she helped some of the younger Ozians, many played by middle-schoolers, with their cues.

Once Dorothy arrives at the magical world, the Ozians, all dressed in brightly-colored outfits, fill the stage, some with flowers sprouting from their hats. Some are dressed in leotards, others in dress clothes and top hats.

They are puzzled by Dorothy’s appearance and amazed when they discover that the house Dorothy arrived in has landed on a wicked witch. Each munchkin has his own voice, some deep and course, others a higher-pitched squeal.

They celebrate by skipping and dancing around the stage. But not so fast.
The munchkins, lollipop kids, and Ozians, however, need assurances that the bad witch under the house is "morally, ethically, spiritually, physically, positively, absolutely, undeniably, and reliably dead."
Enter the coroner, played by a dutiful Elizabeth Harvey, who, after examining the body, gives the nod. The witch under Dorothy’s house, she confirms, is "really dead." Celebration continues.

Dorothy sets off down the yellow brick road to find the wizard, who, Glinda says, will help her get back to Kansas. The road to Oz, however, is filled with a host of unknowns — flying monkeys, singing trees and crows, a rusted tin man, and a confused lion. Not to mention the wizard, played by Bobbi Patrick, who reveals much to Dorothy and her friends by not giving them what they seek.

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The Wizard of Oz is playing this weekend at the Berne-Knox-Westerlo secondary school on Helderberg Trail in Berne. Friday and Saturday performances are at 7:30 p.m., and a Sunday matinee will be at 3:00 p.m. Tickets will be sold at the door. Prices are: $8 for adults, with a dollar discount for seniors and students, and $6 for children 12 and under. For more information, call 872-5155.