INTERVIEW: Oz is rebuilt by The Builders in new multimedia theater experience
Photo: Elements of Oz features Moe Angelos as Dorothy. Photo courtesy of Gennadi Novash, courtesy of Peak Performances @Montclair State University / Provided by Helene Davis PR with permission.
Tornado, Technicolor, poppies. With those three words, does anyone not understand the reference to The Wizard of Oz? How about scarecrow, tin man and lion? Witch, dog, flying monkeys? Kansas, ruby slippers, munchkins?
The Wizard of Oz is so well known to audiences — and has been for decades — that the film has entered the collective memory of moviegoers across many generations. Watching the classic movie is as much a rite of passage as anything else in the history of Hollywood.
Now, The Builders Association, a unique theatrical company built on the theme of collaboration, are bringing their unique mashup of Oz to New York University’s Skirball Center. Elements of Oz is set to run at the Village theater complex Dec. 7-8.
“This show started because we were looking at escapist entertainment and the idea that in troubled times people turn to great stories to get away from where they are,” said director Marianne Weems. “Of course, The Wizard of Oz is at the apex of the definition of escapist entertainment and was actually written during the Depression of the 1890s, and then, of course, the MGM musical was a huge part of the Depression of the 1930s. So it seemed like a shoo-in to start with that material.”
Three performers re-create different scenes from the Judy Garland epic, all while a narrator offers up juicy details on the making of the film, according to press notes. The original novel comes into play, and audience members are even asked to take out their smartphones and take part in some augmented reality. Throw in YouTube testimonials, critical studies and fan theories, and the work is both a celebration and dissection of the most famous movie of all time.
“There are lots of ways to enjoy the show, lots of things rolling out so that you can get into it in several different ways, but the main elements are the audience gets to see us making or remaking our version of the film,” the director said. “So it’s certainly not the film. It is more like a very rough homage to the film, but you get to see a camera crew and actors in front of the camera. And the whole thing about shooting is that the shooting script is out of order, and then when you reassemble it to play it back in order, obviously it’s a very different experience. So the audience gets to see all that, and it’s quite fun to see it all being created and then have it played back as if it were the movies.”
The augmented reality part deals with an app that audience members are encouraged to download before the evening begins. This technology is unique to The Builders Association, and Elements of Oz represents the first time it has been used in a real theater.
“At key moments in the show, they lift their phones up and look through them, and they look all over the theater,” Weems said. “And they get to see the flying monkeys and the poppies growing and snow falling. People love it because they get to have their phones out, and they have this very contemporary window into Oz, which is our smartphones.”
Another method of enjoying Elements of Oz is through YouTube clips. Weems was so surprised to find the great number of social-media clips that feature critical interpretations and conspiracy theorists expounding on the film and its themes. These are actually incorporated into the narrative structure of the show.
“Everybody feels like the story belongs to them,” she said. “Everybody has an interpretation. Every crackpot on YouTube has something to say about The Wizard of Oz, so we sort of culled some of those YouTube testimonials from the internet. They also get played back in the show, so that’s why it’s a mashup. It’s filmmaking, YouTube scraping and this augmented reality experience, and it’s all focused around the story of The Wizard of Oz.”
The reaction to Elements of Oz in other cities has been tremendous, Weems said. People have enjoyed the experience of dissecting and diving deep, and the downloading of the app has only heightened the experience. And for technophobes, there are staff members present to help everyone get ready for the play.
“We have a help desk in the theater,” she said. “So it’s a very user-friendly thing. It’s not like you need to know a lot, but also you don’t need to have it to enjoy the show at all. The show is what it is, and this is just an augmented layer. So I think that’s really important, too. This is the kind of theater that you [can] have your device. This is more the kind of theater where you can have fun either way.”
Much of The Wizard of Oz is covered in the new theatrical show. Weems said they cover the highlights, including the tornado scene, the switch to Technicolor and the appearance of the Wizard at the end of the story.
“There are many big high points with a lot of sound and video and energy and visual impact,” the director said. “[James Gibbs] and Moe Angelos, who is also billed as a co-writer, helped construct the script, but the script is only one part of the show. So it’s not as if James wrote it, and then we all decided to do it. It’s like we all created this thing, and then James wrote it down. That’s a better way of looking at it.”
Weems added: “It has been about creating it together. We don’t begin with the writer. We begin with all the collaborators.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Elements of Oz, produced by The Builders Association and directed by Marianne Weems, plays Dec. 7-8 at NYU’s Skirball Center. Click here for more information and tickets.
