The humidity outdoors bothered no one on the premises of Hawa Mahal. The audience sat enchanted as the Helen O Grady troupe transported them to the magical land of Oz at the recently- held Vizag Junior Lit Fest. Presented in a Broadway theatre style, L Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz cast its spell through music and dance and a power packed performance by 12 children aged between seven and 13 years.
The play revolves around Dorothy and her pet dog Toto who are swept away in a tornado from a farm in Kansas to the land of Oz. In a desperate attempt to get back to the farm, Dorothy seeks the help of the Wizard of Oz and so begins an adventure-filled journey. Dorothy played by 13-year-old Dhanya Vikram, was a delight to watch on stage as she sang and danced her way through it.
Speaking about preparing for the play, Dhanya said, “We practised for over a month and we had lessons on voice modulation and body language. It was not just dialogues, but I also had to learn the songs that were a part of the play. It was challenging yet a fun-filled experience.”
The Wizard himself was played by Spoorthi Ramesh. With her deep bass voice and perfect timing, she had the audience giggling in no time . “As a team, we watched The Wizard of Oz a number of times. But I ensured that I did not copy the actor on the screen. I portrayed my version of the wizard and I am glad people liked it,” she said.
The work of directing the show was cut out for Tapobrati Das Samaddar, creative director of Helen O’ Grady, Tamil Nadu and Visakhapatnam.
“While I was writing an adaptation of the play for this performance, I had a clear idea about how my characters would look. Also, we chose to have a Broadway theatre style performance because we wanted to havesongs and dance as it was a play for children and by the children. Just dialogues would not have appealed to kids,” she explains.
Apart from The Wizard of Oz , Jungle Book was staged on the first day of the fest by Helen O’ Grady. It was fun too but struggled with some technical glitches.
