Parts of Montgomery are looking a little like the Emerald City in the Wizard of Oz today. The Alabama Shakespeare Festival is presenting the musical based on the classic movie starting this week. The R-S-A Tower in downtown Montgomery is being lit green for the occasion. Shakespeare Festival Spokeswoman Laurie McConnell it didn’t take a lot of convincing for R-S-A to participate.
“We are very grateful to Joe Moore, who is the Deputy Director for Administration at retirement systems of Alabama, who is a former board member here at Alabama Shakespeare Festival. We said, Could you turn the building green? And Joe said, absolutely,” said McConnell.
The children’s classic story by L. Frank Baum is being woven into coverage of the Texas flooding and its growing list of casualties. Eight-year-old Renee Smajstrla is among the fatalities. She had just finished second grade and was one of twenty seven campers and counselors who died at Camp Mystic. Renee had played a role in her school's production of "The Wizard of Oz." As for the version being presented by the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, spokeswoman Laurie McConnell youngsters may be more familiar with the modern musical Wicked, but not the classic version of Oz.
“I have been very thrilled to see young people look for those videos and find them and become interested in the sort of the history of the story and in the history of old time movie making,” she said.
The Shakespeare Festival is also holding an Oz trivia night later this month to promote its show which runs until August 17th.
