The Wizard Of OZ

In this production of the familiar musical favorite, the choice of a minimal set with projections in lieu of scenery meant that color, as well as texture, played a primary role in distinguishing location. While dusty sepia tones defined Dorothy’s Kansas home, OZ overflowed with color, from the kaleidoscopic hues of Munchkinland to the green jewel tones of the Emerald City. As Dorothy encounters her new friends along the way, I chose golds and greens for the scarecrow field, then layered the shades of green with medium white shining through the trees to create the texture of a forest as they reach the tinman’s cottage. A textured palette of blues, purples and cool white convey the ominous darkness of the cowardly lion’s forest, all the while the yellow brick road - which magically appears and disappears as a series of gobos from moving lights - leads them on towards the Emerald City. As the emotional quality takes on a more sinister tone in the witch’s castle, I layered blue, purple and a saturated gaslight green into the look. The disquieting mood is intermittently pierced by Dorthoy’s hopeful suspensions of reality - warm white light - and her eventual return home becomes an extension of this powerful optimism as I “colorized” the original sepia tones of Kansas by gradually warming the white to yellow, as well as layering in blue to tie all of these locations together at the end.