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.