Set, costumes and art deco

We wanted to avoid the big panto and a literal interpretation of the characters, like the lion being an actual lion and the tin man with face pain dressed as an actual man made of tin. We wanted to use the history of the book and the truth behind the story. This leads us to the idea of art deco and representing the people of the time if the book. For me, this was a lot more interesting to be a part of and to at in rather than a literal interpretation. The Scarecrow became a homeless man, the tin man in a striped suit and the lion as an American mobster and the witches flapper girls. This made our charters more real and as actors, we could relate to them a lot more, especially with myself I find panto and acting for children very difficult so I’m very happy I had a lot of freedom to experiment with my character.

Personally, myself and Jade shore who played the wicked witch discussed how we would have our costumes with the suggestion of flapper girls we both wore flapper dresses hers being green mine being a light gray. We also wanted to be hints of green and pink to add to the classic interpretation of a green witch and pink ball gown from the film, I chose not to get a pink dress as i didnt want Galinda to be very girly and this was a conscious decision by me not to play her that way. The wicked witch wore green tights instead of literally being green.

The set also had the aspects of the art deco vibe with lots of shapes and block colours, with the yellow brick road being painted on the floor. A way to get around having to do a lot of set hages as there were a lot of locations was to use projection on a screen at the back. Used by Brecht this gave the audience the place where the harters where next with having to be literal about it.