The lights dim and the crowd’s dull roar turns to a quiet murmur as the curtain begins to open revealing an innocent looking girl in braids and a soft blue dress. She rushes across the stage carrying her dog, and a resounding aw can be heard from the crowd as they realize that the dog is in fact real.

The first scene then commences with a young girl fretting about a mean neighbor coming to take away her beloved dog.

“She wants to take Toto away!” The girl cries to her family’s farmhands. “We can’t let her.”

At this point it becomes completely obvious to anyone who might not have known the title, that this is in fact Fraser High’s version of The Wizard of Oz.

The infamous Cowardly Lion, Tinman, and Scarecrow are played by FHS students Matt Wrightman, Ian LoPiccolo, and Nathaniel Zook, while both the mean neighbor and the Wicked Witch are played by the talented Lauren Cichocki. It is also worth noting that Jonah Woods, the son of two of our very own teachers, Mr. and Mrs. Woods, is in the Lollypop Guild.

One of the most awe-inspiring songs of the play is “Over the Rainbow.” All eyes are on the passionate girl as she brakes out into the melodious verses of this well-known song using vocals that seem to well exceed her age. That is in fact because this fantastic rendition of Dorothy Gale is played by Fraser High School senior Cammie McGillis.

The play is both dramatic and filled to the brim with a new kind of comedy. At one point when the cowardly lion is explaining just how he became so cowardly, Wrightman raises his arms toward the ceiling and with conviction tells the audience that when he was a cub his father had held him off the edge of a cliff to introduce him to the world. This Lion King reference earned a tumult of laughter from the crowd.

This was yet another Fraser Performing Arts success. Some were not even a fan of the movie The Wizard of Oz, yet they still found themselves greatly enjoying this production. Fraser definitely added an entertaining spin that kept things lively and the audience engaged.

Make sure to come out for Fraser Performing Art’s spring production, Charlie Brown!