Katy Hawley The Wizard of Oz!

            For my Link Project I volunteered at home at a low-income middle school, St. Vincent’s. They are doing The Wizard of Oz , and I have known the director for years. He has been directing for these kids for a few years now. Every show has had individual challenges and this year it was costumes and make-up. I have a BA in Theater and the areas that I excel in are Stage Make-up and Costuming. He asked if I would be able to come and put in hours on their all day rehearsal on Saturday, April, 16, 2011. He wanted me to look at the costumes and show them how to do make-up.

            I first started out on teaching a parent how to put on the Stage Make-up for the Witch, Lion, Tin Man, and Scarecrow. This took quite a bit of time. Through this I got to talk to the actors. They were all very excited because none of them had seen anything like this make-up done before. In fact, the young man playing the Scarecrow looked at me and said “this is so cool, last year we barely had any costumes or make-up.” This made me feel good about what I was doing, because it made the students feel special. I brought along and donated some old brushes to use for their make-up for the run of the show as well. Once the make-up was done, these thought Broadway couldn’t do it any better. 

            After I showed them make-up, I went to costumes. The students needed help making things fit, and I taught them some tricks and we had a great time getting each student a costume they enjoy and are proud to wear. After everyone had a costume it was time to run the show. I watched the show with the director and I helped him look through to see what costumes worked and other solutions to problems that were happening onstage.

            The best part about this day was that I was able to help students see how much fun Theater can be. I also loved showing them all of the different tings you can do in Theater. It isn’t just about being onstage. There are so many different things you can do as well. I know a lot of these students do not get to experience going to a professional musical or anything like that, but I now feel like I was able to give them a taste of what real professional Theater can entail! The students were awesome and were so excited about everything I showed them. The musical isn’t until May, so hopefully I will be able to returned and see how they are doing!