Approximately 70 students from elementary through high school are hard at work rehearsing for what will be a large production of the Wizard of Oz musical this November.

   Many of the cast are really enjoying the time they are spending together at rehearsals. 

   Senior Kathryn Lomax, who plays Dorothy, is most excited to make new friends.

   “I’m most excited  to build new relationships with people,” Lomax said. 

   Lomax’s favorite part about the musical is all the memories, 

   “My favorite part is all the memories that I know I’m gonna make,” she expressed. 

   Lomax believes that the hardest part about being the lead is probably memorizing all of her lines,    

   “The hardest thing is probably all the lines I have to memorize. Since I have so many I basically have to memorize the whole book,” Lomax said. 

   Senior Eli Long, who plays Tinman,  is also very excited for the musical.

    “I’m just really excited to make people laugh because I think this is going to be really good and fun for people to watch,” Long said. 

   This will be Long’s second musical in his high school years. 

   “We do musicals every other year and I was in the last musical ‘Once Upon a Mattress,’ I was just a minor part, though. That’s the only other musical I have been in,” Long said. 

   Junior Aleah Minks, who plays West Witch, is excited for the production and is enjoying being a mentor to the younger students involved.

   “What isn’t my favorite part? I think that my current favorite is making at least one person pee themselves every single day. I get so in character that I make sure to terrify at least one person,” Minks said. 

   There will be elementary schoolers joining in the cast, and Minks is very excited to see how it goes.

    “I was a little bit nervous at first because I was like ‘ahh these kids are gonna drive me insane.’ To be honest, I think I have more energy than they do. I have pretty much got my own little army.  They are all coming up to me asking me questions about the show, and I love that. I kinda get to be an older figure for them, get to be weird, and show them that sometimes it’s ok to look a little bit silly. That is one of the best things that I had when I was younger and I like getting to be that for other people,” Minks said. 

   Junior Chloey Brazel, who plays Glinda, really likes her character.

    “I’ve never seen the Wizard of Oz musical actually and Glinda seems to be a very gentle character and I love how she helps out Dorothy,” Brazel said.

 Brazel is very excited to see how proud everyone is afterwards.

 “I think I’m most excited about getting to see how proud family members are and getting to run out into the crowd afterwards,” Brazel said. 

   Directors Deanna Schockmann and Katie Johnson chose this musical theme because they wanted the middle and elementary schoolers to see what it feels like to be in a musical.

   “We, Mrs. Johnson and I, chose it because we could recruit down to middle school and elementary so they can see what they have to look forward to in high school choir,” Schockmann said. 

   Schockmann’s favorite part about directing for the musical is being creative with a  limited budget and space.

    “It really forces you to think outside of the box,” Schockmann said. 

   Johnson is a very experienced director.

 “ I have been directing plays for 32 years, but this is my second musical,” Johnson said. 

  Johnson hopes to see a lot of the community at the showings of the musical.

   “I really hope to see a large part of the community and parents come. It is one of our biggest musicals to date. We have a large cast that ranges from fourth grade through 12th grade. The kids are excited and really into character already. I think it is going to be great!,” Johnson said.