Adventures in OZ

I am not sure why we did a third production my junior year but in May we did The Wizard of Oz.
The play was staged in the Theatre in the then new Junior High.
Before we opened we took scenes to all the elementary schools to advertise and drum up a demand and sell lots of tickets.
It was interesting to see all the stages and lighting equipment in the various schools.
Green Avenue Elementary was the oldest school and had some of the scarcest lighting equipment I have ever seen that was still in use, but it also had some fun features like pop-up footlights.

By contrast the lighting in the Junior High used a newer more state-of-the-art electronic dimmer control board.
It was fun to work in a new stage, but it was far from perfect.
I have worked in many theatres over the years each has it own unique oddities, but some are just poorly designed.
The Junior High stage was designed as a multi-purpose theatre, always a bad idea.
One big problem I remember was that you had to wiggle through the locking rail for the fly system to get off stage right.
You can not get any scenery past the locking rail to the off stage storage space.

They had many rules for us and of course we broke most of them.
The told us not to paint, nail or screw into the stage floor, we did all three.
We painted the Yellow Brick Road right on the stage floor.
I think it was washable paint, but if it was not it must have worn off by now.

We built the sets in the High School stage and they were moved over to the Junior High.
I had an accident that has scared me to this day.
I was working on the house that fell on the Wicked Witch of the West.
I was using a Yankee or ratcheting screw driver, with sharp groves along the shaft, to put in some screws used to hold the wall to the platform.

The Yankee Screw Driver was always hard to use and I am happy that we use drywall screws and screw guns today.

As I was sitting on the platform trying to both hold up the wall and put in the screws the Yankee slipped off and the metal groves cut into my arm.
At the same time the wall falls over on me with only my feet sticking out.
My memory has embellished that I was wearing red sneakers that day, or were they ruby red?
After what seemed like several minutes of laughter, I do not remember if they sang “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead”, the others on the stage crew lifted off the wall.

Using advanced stage crew first aid techniques, I used some paper towels to stop the bleeding.
I have a scar near my left elbow to this today.
I am not sure if the scar to my ego has ever healed.

The rest of the play went without incident.