NORTHFIELD — “Wizard of Oz,” which starts performances Friday, is in some ways a bigger production than most of Pioneer Valley Regional School’s plays. There are more set pieces than can easily fit backstage, munchkins played by elementary schoolers and a real dog as Toto. (His name is Magnus.)
The show runs this weekend and next weekend. Show times are 7 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. on Sundays.
The show has 70 students in it, compared to about 25 or 35 in most school musicals, said Kimberly Rose, who co-directs the school plays with Mandy Oliver.
There are also two alternating casts. All 70 students in the show are in both casts, but many alternate between two or three roles. “They’re able to learn from each other by watching each other,” Rose said.
Tenth -grader Tony Benedetti plays the Tin Man and the Lion. “Lion is a very out-there character. He has a whole singing part,” he said. “Tin Man is just there … He’s the most under-appreciated character.”
“I like to think of the Tin Man as like the middle child in a family, which I am,” said eighth-grader Jonathan Bodenstein, the other Tin Man. “They aren’t being babied because there’s a baby, but they’re not the favorite because they’re not the oldest. They’re just there. But I love this role.”
“I like scaring kids,” said 11th-grader Rachael Abbey, the Wicked Witch of the West.
“I am the worst character,” said 12th-grader Kiana McGraw, who plays Glinda the Good Witch.
“Glinda is kind of awful,” Rose said. “She could have told Dorothy how to get home to begin with. Instead she sent her to potentially go off herself.”
“I wouldn’t call (Dorothy) a hero, but I would call her the protagonist,” said eighth-grader Anna Baskowski, who plays Dorothy. “She’s kind of a damsel in distress.”
“She’s a very moody person,” said eighth-grader Ella Rowen-Decker, the other Dorothy. “I thought she was like a young, naive child and there wasn’t much else to her than that. But as I kept reading the script, I realized she gets really protective over Toto, she yells at the Wicked Witch, she protects the Lion. She’s a really brave person. … She does a lot of things that take guts to do. I didn’t realize she was that kind of character until I started playing her.”
“She’s naive and all she cares about is her dog,” Baskowski said. “The whole thing revolves around Toto. It’s not about her getting back to Kansas. It’s all about her saving her dog. That’s all she wanted to do in the first place. She wanted to get somewhere else because she wanted to be safe with Toto. Then she got to be safe with Toto and she didn’t like that either.”
“She just wants to keep busy,” Rowen-Decker said.
“She confuses me,” Baskowski said.
Reach Max Marcus at mmarcus@recorder.com or at 413-772-0261, ext. 261.