Ping Pong's Puppet Workshop

Our Construction Diary
Page 76

OZ-Page 1 of 3

February 21, 2004

Mardi Gras in OZ

Let's rent a barn and put on a show!!!

The Gresham (Oregon) Little Theatre had the barn, and we had the show. The Theatre, housed in the Multnomah County Grange #71 building is a big, old, slightly leaky, electrically challenged, but available, space large enough to produce our version of Wizard of OZ.

The event was a fundraiser for the GLT, so we, The Olde World Puppet Theatre, transformed the building into a New Orleans-style nightclub, complete with spinning mirror balls, balloons, and fog machines. The evening also featured Cajun food, jugglers, bands, singers, and dancing the night away. The night climaxed with our production of Meco's The Wizard of OZ.

Setup took us a week of evenings prior to the event, and we had a family night performance on Friday before the Gala. (actually it was our dress rehearsal, but the audience had no idea!!)

The pictures below and on the next two pages show some of the transformation, and the people who helped.

The Kansas City Skyline

In our version of OZ, Dorothy is somewhat older than the movie character, reduced to living in a pink Camper on the farm Why a camper??? The Tornado, of course.

The Farm Scene

The farm scene, complete with camper. The OZ mask above is hidden behind a drape at the beginning of the show.

The dragon encircling the building

Geordie Humphrey's Dragon encircles the side of the building

Oden & Frig

Oden & Frig pose on the wall.
Why Oden & Frig?? They're big, colorful, and they were already built!!

The Newspaper publicity shot

This is the picture that the Oregonian newspaper ran publicizing the show. Shown above are Steven M. Overton with the Scarecrow, Justen Rambo with Dorothy, and Elizabeth Tobey with the Tin Woodsman. None of them actually performed those characters in the show, but we needed a quick photo and they were available to pose.

The Yellow Brick Road under construction

It sure takes a lot of pieces of duct tape to make the yellow brick road, shown here under construction.

Marty Richmond, co-owner of The Olde World Puppet Theatre with his new hair

Boy, that witch's hair growth potion really works.
Here's Marty Richmond, co-owner of The Olde World Puppet Theatre, the show's photographer and videographer, as well as your intrepid webmaster.

Steven M. Overton, the other owner of The Olde World Puppet Theatre

Steven M. Overton, co-owner of The Olde World Puppet Theatre , and the show's creator with one of the Munchkins.

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