Wizards Most Wonderful

Blue Ridge Community Theater has put on a most magical production of the Wizard of Oz. Filled with giant bronze steam-punk puppets, color-changing sets, and invisible people that slip around between scenes to carefully arrange dead witches beneath houses.

As a magician, I love to watch how a theater crew works to create illusions that immerse us in the story. I also appreciate how easily they can roll with minor disasters and give a wink and an improvised line to the audience to let them know not to worry, the show will go on.

Magic-folk don’t seem to have as much lee-way with mistakes and failures, since our goal is (generally) to astonish. If it ain’t the right card or if the rabbit don’t want to come out of the hat, the performance may be in serious trouble. But we can learn a lot from the excellent work of our local theater. They don’t get to excuse themselves and walk down the street to the next group of tourists or drop part of a parlor set without the audience knowing. They get it done, start to finish, and are upfront letting the audience in on the fact that this is live and unedited entertainment.

I’m going to try to fool you, but I’m really there to entertain. I’m not perfect, and the wind blows away cards sometimes. But if we have a good time, then we were both successful. And if you see a fella behind the curtain…. no you didn’t.