The Set!

One of the most intresting things about the set of The Wizard of OZ is the Proscenium(Frame work around the stage), its look, its representation of different scenes, and the adventure to see the wizard. As you can see on the left the O starts the yellow brick road and its winding path that leads you thru the story as though your following the chapters in the book.

Here are some additional things our tech crew worked on along with the scenes. They actually had a welder come in and cut the spears out of metal.

As you can see there is a picture of Dorothy's house that is ruined by the tornado and is also the same house that falls on the witch!

The Puppets

One of the exciting new features in Carousel's production of The Wizard of Oz, is the introduction of larger-than-life puppetry. Created by Puppet Designer Robin VanLear and Ian Petroni, these incredibly imaginative beings have a life of their own. Each will be manipulated by an actor as you can see in the bottom image of the Gatekeeper. To the far right is the gatekeeper's head in the beginning of the construction process and also some final paint touchups during rehearsal week.

Also adding to the exciting puppetry are the flying monkeys. There are five different versions of the winged monekys being used on stage including small windsocks up to a winged moneky with a 13-foot wingspan. Below are just a couple of the versions. Both are still in construction phase and are not the final version.

As you can see, there are many fantastical elements that all contribute to making Carousel's production of The Wizard of Oz, an all new wildly imaginative version.

Kangaroo Jumps for Monkeys

Here is a demo pair of the Kangaroo Jumps that we may want to use on a couple of the lesser flying monkey's. They are really fun!

Makeup

As you can tell by the number of posts recently that we are ramping up very quickly for OZ!

We are approximately 1 month from the beginning of rehearsals. Yesterday we had the great opportunity to start demo'ing some of the makeup and applique' techniques that we will be using in our production.

We had the chance to work on the Poppies design. In the pictures you will see that we are creating flower petal applique's that will surround the actors eyes. The idea is that the Poppies are actual plants that seduce the Lion and friends to put them to sleep. So we have been looking for an exotic look to the makeup and costume.

It was very important to me that the petals around the eyes look like the are growing out of the skin of the actor. Along with the make up the costume pieces will look similar, where there are flower petal and vines that are growing out the actors skin. The inspiration for this design came from the character of Poison Ivy played by Uma Thurman in Batman. Attached are some of the pictures of the process and the design plate.

As you can see in the original design we have changed the idea of the flower petal head piece which in my opinion was more child like. We wanted to lean more realistic and sensual in the expression of the character.

Check back soon for out posting on casting updates...including our 35 kids and teenagers that have been cast in this production making it the largest in Carousel's 35 year history!

Costumes and Puppets Designs

Dorothy

Scarecrow
Lion
Tinman

Securing The Path

Well the last month has been very challenging (to say the least.) So here are the updates:

Casting: Casting is almost complete. Casting has almost been complete for over a month, however we keep losing cast members to National Tours and Broadway. Such is the price for brining in highly talented artists. We just had one cast member leave our production becuase they have been cast as an immediate replacement in the National Tour of Wicked. To date we are missing 3 cast members. The current cast list is as follows:

Dorothy : Kelsey Crouch Pinter

Scarecrow: Ben Franklin (Ben perviously worked on our acclaimed production of CATS in 2004)

Tin Man: Chad Coudriet (A graduate of the Musical Theatre program at Baldwin Wallace College

Lion: Michael Daly (Michael was seen previously in our production of Singin' In the Rain 2006)

Witch: TBA

Glinda: Mallorie Fletcher

Aunt Em: Jessica Kadamenos (Seen in Singin in the Rain 2006)

Uncle Henry/Wizard: Michael Ianucci (Seen in CATS 2004)

Ensemble: Chip Abbot, Joey Abramowitcz, Paul Aguirre, Michael Dale, Lani Corson, Amber Mack, Katrina Newman and others

We are currently casting 10 Teenage cast members and 30 children for this enourmous production.

The Set: Has been Designed and is currently in the construction phase at our scene shop. I am attaching a picture of Robert Kovach's design (see above)

The Costumes: Wohoah...the costumes. Dale DiBernardo has taken on a huge project. Also attached are some of the prelim designs for the show. We are so excited about the production values of the show.

The Puppets: Robin Van Lear and Ian Petroni are designing and executing some really amazing and fantastic pieces for this production. In the next few days we will post images of the costumes and puppets as designed by Dale, Robin and Ian.

Sean

Re-Imagining Oz Part 2

We are 4 months from Opening Night of our re-imagined production of Wizard of Oz and the pre-production process is begining to get clear.

This past week while our creative team was putting up a production of Damn Yankee's here at the Carousel, we were spending all of our "down town" in meetings about OZ!

We had the priviledge to travel to downtown Cleveland and meet with Puppet Designer's Robin VanLear and Ian Petroni. Also included in that meeting were myself (Artistic Director); Marc Robin (Director/Choreographer); Dale DiBernardo (Costume Designer); Paul Black (Lighting Designer); Robert Kovach (Set Designer); Tony Kovacic (Techinical Coordinator); James O'Conner (Sound Designer/Technician); Amy Earp (Assistant to the Artistic Director); and Mike Stein (Stage Manager/Production Manager).

At this meeting we had the Scenic Designer (Robert Kovach) present his story boards. As the entire team went through each scenic element, each department spoke about the requirments needed to achieve the creative design. Creative idea's were thought about, debated and thrown out. The ones that worked were kept in note format by the Director and Designers to be flushed out furthur.

At this point we have put together a production schedule; have gotten our minds around how we are going to solve certain creative challenges and are inspired and excited our staff to raise the artistic bar higher then ever before here at The Carousel.

Re-imagining OZ (Part 1)

It was over a year ago that we decided to produce The Wizard of Oz on The Carousel stage. For those who may not know this...the Carousel is a "self producing" organization. Which means that we create all aspects of the production our selves. I have the great privilege to put together a team of designers which include Scenic Design, Costume Design, Lighting Design, Sound Design, Props, Furniture and may other aspects of what ultimately ends up on the Carousel stage. In addition to those team members we hire a Director and Choreographer. This "CREATIVE TEAM" all strive to create and realize one unified artistic vision of the production.

"Artistic Vision"
The Wizard of Oz is iconic! We have all seen the beautiful film countless times. Most of us can remember specific lines and moments from that film. Then there are the original books by the masterful Frank L. Baum. Then there are the countless references in pop culture to the film including most recently the Broadway hit production of WICKED. All of these references to the film and story make some sort of impact on you...our audience. We (the creative team) have to understand that when the audience comes to see the show, you are entering with a certain expectation of what you are going to see and experience. THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUES IN DEVELOPING THIS SHOW FOR THE CAROUSEL STAGE.

"Our Goal"
It is the goal of our Creative Team to create a new version of The Wizard of Oz that will meet the expectations of what our audience has grown to love about the story and the film, while at the same time exceeding their expectations in how we experience those moments LIVE ON STAGE.

Over the next 4 months this blog will take you on a journey that tracks the pre-production development of our production of The Wizard of Oz which opens early September. You will be able to be able to see part of the development that takes the show from "page to stage." We will provide sketches of the designs, costumes and puppets. "Did I say puppets?"...yes we will begin to talk about that in the next post. I hope you join us on this fantastic journey of creation and enjoy the end result which will be experienced live on The Carousel stage.

The Wizard of Oz Creative Team
Artistic Director- Sean Cercone
Director/Choreographer - Marc Robin
Scenic Designer - Robert Kovach
Costume Designer - Dale DiBernardo
Lighting Designer - Paul Black
Puppetry Designer - Robin Van Lear
Sound Designer - James O'Conner

Carousel's Monumental Wizard of Oz

As Carousel's artistic team ventures into exciting and unchartered territories with the monumental understaking of a completely original version of the musical, The Wizard of Oz, Carousel Artistic Director Sean Cercone will bring you into the creativity and development of what is sure to become the groundwork for many regional, national tours and even international versions of this classic masterpiece.

Imagination is more important than knowledge ~Albert Einstein