In each issue of D&T, we bring you a page-to-stage focus on a play for performance with your students, written by someone who's directed it themselves. This edition, writer and publishing director of The School Musicals Company, Tom Kirkham, introduces The Wizard of Oz.
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It has, remarkably, been over 80 years since the release of the much-loved film The Wizard Of Oz, and it is still through the film, rather than the book by L. Frank Baum, that most people will know the story. This new musical adaptation looks to the original book for its inspiration – its great heart, its wonderful sense of adventure, its innocence and its magic. These are very much the driving forces in this new version, with a protagonist who is very definitely a girl as opposed to a young woman. Ideally pitched for a cast of 10 to 14-year-olds, the show runs at about 80 minutes excluding interval. It has proved immensely popular since its release in January 2023, and has now been staged by schools and youth theatres in over 30 countries.

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