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The Wiz

Posted on: January 13th 2017

The Wiz banner imageRehearsal Diary

Friday 23rd September, 2016

As I announced the start of rehearsal and welcomed everybody to the initial script read of The Wiz, the cast of 2016/17 erupted with applause and I felt the buzz of excitement one gets when preparing the annual school musical.

“But what on earth (or Oz!) is The Wiz?” I hear you all cry. In brief it is a funky 1970’s African-American interpretation of L. Frank Baum’s ‘The Wizard of Oz’. It also happens to be Miss Langford's favourite musical of all time and since announcing our intention to perform it in 2017, she has been unable to speak of anything else!

Having established what The Wiz is, the next question on cast members lips was “what accent do they speak with in the land of Oz?” and if this evening's vocal expression is anything to go on, we must assume it is a place of great diversity! Any guidance on this subject would be much appreciated and suggestions should be sent to school c/o Mr Townsend.

As the rehearsal progressed, further confusion ensued when cast members tried to pin down the primary role of the Winkie, Kalidah and Quadling characters – I’m not sure we actually did get to bottom of it. But all these puzzlements however, paled into insignificance when the bewildered Stage Management team of Catherine Sadler and Laura Walsh (Year 12) were asked to add a “wanga” to their props list. This could be a long five months!

So as we “ease on down the road” of rehearsals students must endeavour to use their ‘brains’, show great ‘courage’ but most importantly, learn their lines by ‘heart’!

Good luck everybody!

By Mr Townsend

Friday 30th September, 2016

It’s the third rehearsal in and the show is already taking shape. Charlie ‘Lion’ Culver has been prowling around our new drama studio, flaunting his tail because he’s a “Mean Ole Lion”. Meanwhile, I, Sam ‘Tin Man’ Hey, have been working my metallic charm to try and get Dorothy to “Slide Some Oil to Me”. The beautiful sound of Ella Fitzgerald influencing this musical number, it’ll certainly be one to look out for! But I guess I’m a little biased. Hopefully the Lion will remember his smooth moves!

Over in the hall, Addapearle and the Munchkins welcomed a rather startled Dorothy to the land of Oz. Dorothy hadn’t travelled down the Yellow Brick Road yet so Lion and Tin Man were safe to practice their songs. The cast have decided on a variety of American accents creating a diverse culture in the land of Oz. If we can keep this progress up, it’s going to be one more amazing Sale Grammar School production!

By Sam ‘Tin Man’ Hey

Friday 7th October, 2016

This practice was about us rehearsing the dance called The Funky Monkeys, where we try and capture Dorothy and her friends in order to get the ruby slippers.  This dance is filled with excitement and lots of chaos.  I love doing this dance as you can’t go too over the top on your movements, everything is so bold.  This dance screams CRAZY!

Everyone was so involved in creating the routine with Miss Van-Hoof and Mrs Sallabank, especially Immy ‘Funky Monkey’ Hill-Norris (Year 10).  The Funky Monkey dance seems to work so well with this group of people, Rahul ‘Funky Monkey’ Roy (Year 10) for example he was always embodying a monkey’s character and acting as if he is the leader making loud noise and banging hard on the ground like a gorilla.  The teachers were very enthusiastic about this dance as Miss Van-Hoof kept showing us how to be a ‘real monkey’, the best bit was when she decided to give us a demonstration by running around the hall screaming and swooping low against the floor.  Everyone in the room burst into laughter.

As the rehearsals progressed some of the dance moves got slightly more complicated, so at some points I was slightly confused, however, all of the cast were very understanding and explained to me how to do the moves.  I felt silly at some points doing some of the moves and making some of the noises, but I have now learnt how to embrace my inner monkey with help from Mrs Sallabank.

Once we had finally put together the whole routine we had to start thinking about our facial expressions and the noises we would make throughout the piece.  At one point we all had to make loud monkey noises as if we had seen Dorothy and her friends.  Immy tried to make a monkey noise however, it sounded more like a squealing pig although many of us did sound more like cats being stood on!  I feel a bit sorry for the audience as they will have to listen to our so called monkey noise.

At the end of the rehearsal everyone seemed really impressed with how much we had done in the given amount of time.  The dance had come together so well.  So as we funky monkeys steal some red slippers we will also steal the amazement of the audience with our performance.

By Macy ‘Funky Monkey’ Proud (Year 9)

Friday 4th November, 2016

Two months into rehearsals and the cast have certainly been putting a lot of effort in. The Pit Singers provided beautiful background vocals to this Friday’s shenanigans. This rehearsal we explored Act 2 Scenes 1 and 3. We had visions of Les Mis as the Winkies pulled Sadie ‘Evillene’ Pearson onto the stage with an enormous rope. Mrs Sallabank and Miss Keating managed to direct those on stage by having a go of the scene themselves, much to the amusement of those watching. Evillene had us all cowering with her line “Hang that sucker!”

Charlie ‘Lion’ Culver had great stage presence next to Evillene in Act 2 Scene 3 and Dorothy managed to replicate brilliantly the death of the evil witch. We could practically see this imaginary water melting Evillene before our very eyes.

By Sam ‘Tin Man’ Hey

Friday 11th November 2016

We started off rehearsing Act 1 Scene 6 and did so for the majority of the rehearsal.  Me, Sam ‘Tinman’ Hey (Year 12), Imogen ‘Field Mice’ Hill Norris (Year 10) and Holly ‘Field Mice’ Turner (Year 12) were all available to be involved in the scene. Tiya ‘Scarecrow’ Raithatha (Year 10) was rehearsing one of her songs for the majority of this scene but we luckily got to practice the full scene with her once! She caught on straight away and acted wonderfully, as usual.

Unfortunately, Charlie ‘Lion’ Culver (Year 12) was sick so he couldn’t come to rehearsal. However, Lucy ‘Yellow Brick’ Johnson (Year 9) filled in for him and was excellent! She played the part with enthusiasm, effort and talent; sounding just like the character.

We also rehearsed Act 1 Scene 3 and all the actors who were supposed to be in the scene were available except Charlie ‘Lion’ Culver of course! Me and Scarecrow practiced multiple times how we moved around and entered the stage whilst Tinman practiced his movements and voice, adapting to his role.

By Alina ‘Dorothy’ Hussain (Year 10)

Friday 25th November, 2016

As everyone made their way into the drama studio, a brief notice from Mr Townsend meant that the Citizens of Oz were not needed, as Miss Langford couldn’t make it to today’s rehearsal. As people filed out, only 6 of us remained: Alina ‘Dorothy’ Hussain, Charlie ‘Lion’ Culver, Sam’ Tinman’ Hey, Ava, Jess, Eve, our amazing Pit Singers and me of course, the Scarecrow!

As we started, we needed a reminder of the song we were dancing to, Who Do You Think You Are. Mrs Van Hoof pressed play, and we watched a rather slow version of the song, however, Miss Illingworth forgot to press pause, and before anyone knew what was happening, a Swedish version came on of the song, with (who we thought was) the Wiz sporting a rather marvellous beard – we have made it our mission to find one in time for the show for Peter‘Wiz’ Palmer!

As the song made its way back into our heads, Charlie ‘Lion’ Culver and Alina ‘Dorothy’ Hussain and I, along with Miss Illingworth and Mrs Van Hoof, started choreographing the dance. As none of us actors were dancers, never mind choreographers, we started to come up with some ideas. When Mr Morgan arrived, he played the Wiz (momentarily), as Mr Townsend had made a teeny mistake – he hadn’t asked Peter ‘Wiz’ Palmer to come!

However, despite this tiny setback, we didn’t let that stop us. We all contributed, and after a bit of blue sky thinking, a little heel tapping and some prowling around, we had a half of a fairly good dance put together! That was until we tried with the music! We had just been saying the lines and dancing, but when it came to practising with the music, we couldn’t remember the words! After many more tries, we got up to the final verse.  We were so close now to finishing! Mrs Van Hoof played the Wiz as Mr Morgan had left, and we can all agree that she played it very well… thanks Mrs! At one stage of the dance, I promise I won’t ruin it, the Wiz is spinning around, and after one go, Mrs Van Hoof exclaimed- “I wouldn’t mind playing the Wiz, that’s so fun!” So Peter, you have something to look forward to!

See you next time!

By Tiya ‘Scarecrow’ Raithatha (Year 10)

Friday 6th January, 2017

Today’s rehearsal kicked off with a famous ‘Townsend Warm-Up’ before having a full sing through of the uplifting song “Everybody Rejoice” which included the whole cast. Dorothy picked up a bucket of water and threw it over Evillene, who melts. Her spell on the Winkies is lifted, and they show their thanks by restoring the Scarecrow and Tin Man to top condition.  This reunites the four friends and everyone breaks out into song.

After singing, we tried adding the dance. I have to admit, the first attempt did not go perfectly, but after a reminder from Miss Langford we were back on track. In the next hour the whole group rejoiced, box-stepped, body-rolled and ‘swung our partner’s round and round’.

During the rehearsal, the Munchkins also had a sneaky peek at their costumes which look fabulous thanks to Miss Walsh’s design skills. Hopefully this has helped them embrace their inner Munchkin for upcoming rehearsals before the performances (which are getting closer and closer very quickly!).

Finally, after lots of hard work from the whole cast, the dance came together and looked brilliant by the end! From the start of September, I knew the show was going to be good; but now I know it is going to be amazing and I can’t wait until the real thing!

Ava ‘Pit Singer’ O’Driscoll (Year 9)

Friday 13th January, 2017

Friday the 13th may be unlucky for some, but for the Sale Grammar School cast of the Wiz it's another day of fun and effective rehearsal. As usual, we gathered round the piano to talk over scenes with Mr Townsend and found that out for this rehearsal, no scripts were allowed – time to test Dorothy and her friends! For this scene, we needed some extra performers so I was called up along with five others. We arrived on stage to be told we were now 'Kalidahs’ – no, I don't know what they are either! All I can reveal is that they are not very pleasant creatures and mysteriously ghost-like. We crawled, morphed and danced our way through a fight scene, until we realised, after all this choreography, the rehearsal had flown by. I would just like to say, as we gather ever more momentum towards the performance dates, we are all as excited as can be. The buzz is growing ever more palpable during our rehearsals and very soon, you'll be able to be a part of this magical, up-beat and exhilarating journey and dance along with us all!

By Maygen 'Emerald City Citizen' Senior (Year 10)