L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz is a simple, modern fairy tale with a heroic little girl. What’s heroic about her? The fact that she’ a perfectly ordinary, little girl. The story is so ubiquitous that it’s easy to overlook the power of a uniquely American fairy tale with a strong female character. There are deeper angles on the story that are also kind of post-modernist and allegorical. Baum created a popular story that addresses engineering of reality through perception. The title character might a s well be a mascot for the idea that belief deliberately manufactures truth. Nice to know a story like that can survive the decades. It's also nice to know that it's accessible enough that community theaters all over the country continue to produce it.
This weekend, a stage production based on the popular musical version of the story makes it to New Berlin’s West Performing Arts Center courtesy of the WEST Community theatre. The show runs Aug. 5 - 14 on 18695 W Cleveland Ave. in New Berlin. For ticket reservations and more, visit the West PAC online.
