Center Stage heads to Oz

For Clearwater High School Senior Amanya Keele, the chance to play Dorothy in the upcoming Center Stage production of “Wizard of Oz” is a dream come true both for the show and the production company.

“I’ve always wanted to be in a play here,” she said. “One of my friend’s dad, Bobby Gayle, who’s playing Uncle Henry, sent me the audition information. There was like 80 or 90 people that tried out so I was like ‘I know I won’t get Dorothy, but at least maybe I can be in it.’”

She got the role however.

Dorothy (Amaya Keele) will wear the ruby slippers in the ‘Wizard of Oz’ at the Tinnin Fine Arts Center this weekend.Photos provided

The show starts Friday with a 7 p.m. performance. The weekend continues Saturday, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Performances will be at the same time next weekend. Tickets cost $10.

Keele said she can relate to Dorothy because of her upbringing on a farm and being adopted.

“I can relate to her because she doesn’t have parents, she’s with her uncle and aunt and I’m with my uncle and aunt,” Keele said. “She was my favorite character in childhood.”

Keele said she wrote a backstory for Dorothy to fill in holes left in the script. It helped get her imagination going.

Throughout the rehearsal process, Keele said she’s continued to write journal entries through Dorothy’s perspective.

“My super strong emotions I get in actual life, I’ll channel Dorothy and write a journal entry like she would,” she said.

Keele has about a 30-minute drive to rehearsal, which she said can be a little rough heading home after 10 p.m. some nights. She also takes three classes through Three Rivers College.

“I get a lot of my work done during school and then I come here and get to be myself,” Keele said. “This is my crowd.”

This is Keele’s first time in a Center Stage production, but she said she’s enjoyed the process.

Throughout it, she’s become close with the Tin Man played by Steve Lewis, the Cowardly Lion played by Alex Jameson and the Scarecrow played by Michael Joseph.

“Whenever we’re doing the goodbye scene, I channel when I’m going to have to actually say goodbye to everybody,” she said. “I love them. We’ve bonded so well.”

Lewis said the trio who travels with Dorothy worked on ways to be unique from each other. The goal, he said, is that each is missing something different. They need to have different personalities.

“Together they make this interesting collage that supports Dorothy on her journey through this unreal land,” Lewis said.

The Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion and the Scarecrow work together in some scenes to provide a slapstick-style humor.

“We’re bumbling fools like Dorothy sees in her head,” Jameson said. “She’s the one that leads us forward and that drives us forward. We do kind of come on the wayside as ‘let’s make everybody laugh now.’”

Jameson, who has taken part in several productions since joining the TRC faculty, said the three of them and Keele have grown close over the rehearsals. He’s worked with Lewis and Joseph before.

“We go great together, we’re cards,” he said. “This is my first one with Amanya and she’s an absolute sweetheart. She’s fun to work with and she’s a lot better with the dog than I am, which I respect.”

As the Tin Man, Lewis started rehearsing in costume before the rest of the cast because he needed to get used to the foam costume. He said he needed to learn how to move around, fall over, get back up and dance in it. That proved to be a challenge for him. This is the first show he’s done that involved as much make-up as Tin Man.

“As soon as you put make-up on, you know you can’t touch your face, which immediately means your face itches,” he said.

Lewis said he researched the character while getting ready to play Tin Man, which included re-watching the movie, reading the original novels and going into his psychology.

“What would it actually be like, if I were a human being, but over the course of time a spell on my axe cut my body up — which is the backstory — and I was pieced back together by a tins man,” Lewis said. “I don’t even eat or sleep anymore. Basically, I’m a machine. But I still have a human brain. What does that feel like?

“It feels kind of silly going into the psychology of a fictional character. He’s just so unrealistic.”

Jameson said his lion costume took some time to get used to as well.

“It’s a little like wearing a carpet,” he said. “The most challenging thing about the Lion himself is balancing his fear with his directiveness. He intends to get to the end of his journey. It’s just shaking in his boots the whole way there.”

The choreography, Jameson said, hasn’t proven to be too challenging for he has limited dance moves.

“I parade around the stage like a dinosaur is my craziest thing,” he said. “When we first did that, I was pretty proud of it.”

Jameson said to get into the right mindset for the Lion, he needed to shift his way of thinking away from what he needs to do.

“I get that little bit of fear vibe in me and it gets me just stirred up enough that I’m ready to go out there and shake and think about all the things that could go wrong,” he said.

Lewis, who has performed with Center Stage for several years, said he enjoys taking part with the company because it gets people from all levels of the college and community involved.

“We’ve got so many people who are good at this craft,” he said. “We have good directors, we have good actors, we have good vocal talent, we’ve developed a core of backstage people who know what they’re doing with lighting, make-up, props, all those kinds of things. The further this goes, the better it grows and just the better it is all the way around.”