Way Off Broadway

After advertising and networking, Sarina, who conducted personal interviews with all who applied, brings together the twenty-one amateur musical theater thespians who will be her cast for a community theater production of "The Wizard of Oz". The show will be staged in eight weeks from their first group get together, with two rehearsals per week. Beyond one who does have a community theater background, most of her cast members are novices as adults who have a variety of reasons for wanting to do the show. Sarina wants the group to feel comfortable working with each other in a creative environment, but she also realizes that she has to make decisions on who will be cast in what role by the start of the next rehearsal. The process is unconventional in that no one auditions for specific roles, but rather Sarina puts them all through a series of exercises so that she can gage their overall personalities on and off the stage. Regardless, some, through the way they go through the exercises, are obviously gearing for specific roles. One does have doubts and contemplates quitting before even starting. After the rehearsal, Sarina and Sheila sit down to discuss casting, their decisions which may not always be to choose the best person for the part.

In the lead up to the second rehearsal, many of the cast members tell of their aspirations both for this show and beyond. Some of their friends and family also speculate about what role they will get. At that rehearsal, Sarina makes the cast wait to hear what roles they got as she first wants them to get some more creative work in beforehand. Also before making the announcement, she explains why she chose this show, the overall purpose for doing the show, and her casting process, which is twofold in having the best person for the part but sometimes having a role be a holistic benefit for that person's life. She allows Debi to take over the rehearsal just prior to the announcement of the roles, which she regrets after the fact. As Sarina finally announces who got what role (with all kept to secrecy about Harvey's role, he who is absent), the joy, disappointment, relief and/or fear registers on many of the faces.

With seven weeks until the show, all the cast members have their roles and are now trying to stick to their pledge to Sarina to memorize their lines by looking at them every day. Many use whatever opportunity they have during their regular days to go over their lines. The third rehearsal is their first opportunity to test out their parts in front of the others. Some rise to the challenge, while others, many who have no community theater experience at all, find that it is much more work than they anticipated. Reading through the scenes and singing the songs is nothing compared to what most find the most difficult aspect: adding the choreography. Beyond these issues, Sarina has to deal with who she has decided will be the multitude of Munchkins, that casting process which has its own hurdles. And she has to find a way to engage both Harvey and Taz, the former who is out of sorts for not having the role he wanted and for not having a major singing role, and the latter who is still not sure she can handle the entire experience. Taz's issues are additionally taken in a different direction when she announces that she doesn't know how to ride a bicycle, which she is required to do in her key scene.

By rehearsal number four, many of the cast members are finding it difficult to prepare for the show while attending to their other life commitments, such as school and work. And the addition of an unexpected and fast paced musical number, "The Jitterbug" - which was originally in the 1939 movie, but which was eventually cut from the final version - shows many of the cast members that they are woefully out of shape and that this show will require them to be fitter than they are presently. This issue concerns Sarina, who doesn't want her cast of characters looking uncomfortable to the audience. Michael O., who is fit and active in his life, faces a slightly different issue: he is stiff as a board in all aspects of his being, which is opposite from the light feline movements required to play the Cowardly Lion. Sarina hopes that Aku's uncle may be able to assist in that matter. Meanwhile, Taz still is considering removing herself from her currently cast role, until other cast members come to the rescue. And Sarina still has one more role to cast: Toto, for which she plans on using a real dog. If she can't find an appropriate one, she may have to move onto Plan B. Sarina has yet one more task: to find a venue to stage the show, which may be a problem due to lack of available and affordable space in the city.

With five weeks until the show, Sarina is perhaps now the most stressed of anyone involved with the production as she has to arrange all the technical aspects of the show, including costumes, makeup, sets, lighting, and a venue, all on a very limited budget, which means the help of family and friends who will get paid nothing. Despite having one hundred fifty costumes to produce, Gail, with her team, seem to have issues under control. The sets are another matter, which will be built by Sarina's son and nephew, Quentin and Miles, who seem unmotivated and unsure about what they should do to get the job done. She also has mixed feelings about holding the performance at The Music Hall. She loves the actual theater and its location, but the state of the renovations and lack of back stage change areas scare her. She does manage to hire a stage manager who vows she can handle a cast who will probably be freaking out on performance day. And Sarina brings in former pro wrestler Torpedo Tony to choreograph a fight scene. Sarina has ulterior motives for bringing him in: he is her father, and she, who didn't see him much when she was growing up, has always wanted to work with him and show him what she does for a living. With the cast, Sandra tests her witch impersonation out on unsuspecting children on Halloween. Jodi begins to fall into the Taz camp of feeling overwhelmed and wondering if she should bow out of the production. On the other extreme, Michael M., who wanted a lead role but didn't get one, is relishing his experience as the lead chorister, which perhaps provides him with a greater variety of acting challenges. He, who has no professional actor friends, asks for advice from Sarina about if he has the chops to actually work in the performing arts for a living.

Following the latest rehearsal - when Sarina publicly provided each adult cast member with a critique and a report card letter grade - many take the information to heart and take appropriate action. On the upper side of the grade scale, "A" Michael M. takes what he sees as the next logical step to see if he really is ready to make the leap to performing as a career. And "B+" LeeAnne goes to her old university vocal coach, who she's always trusted, to see if she can help LeeAnne coalesce all the advice she's received thus far in how to sing "Over the Rainbow". On the other end of the spectrum, "C-" Bernie calls in his own professional help - an acting coach - to see if he can get a different perspective on what he's doing wrong, despite he and many of the other cast having received one-on-one sessions with Sarina previously. At the next rehearsal - which marks three weeks until show time - there is one conspicuous absence, that of "D+" Taz, who received the lowest grade of all twenty-one adult cast members, and who has not returned telephone calls, emails or texts from Sarina since. As such, Sarina scrambles to find an alternate "Miss Minch" at least for this rehearsal if not permanently. Also at this rehearsal, LeeAnne and Bernie want to show that their homework with their professional help has paid off. Sarina faces yet another crisis when Jon announces that he can't make it to the one and only full dress rehearsal. What irks Sarina is that Jon has known about the conflict for weeks. Although Sarina does not downgrade the importance of Jon's other commitment that day - a Christmas concert where he is performing with a disadvantaged youth, Marcus, who he has tutored and mentored for two years - Sarina gives Jon an ultimatum: Marcus or the Scarecrow.

It's two and a half weeks until show time. Sarina has to conclude the problem issues with two of the cast members. Although Jon makes his decision of whether to attend or miss the dress rehearsal and Sarina responds to Jon's decision, Sheila thinks she's come up with the perfect solution for Jon to be able to attend the rehearsal, keep his part as the Scarecrow, and be with Marcus that day. That solution may be the reason why Jon shows a new lightness in his performance which has not yet been evident to date. And Taz returns stating that she had no idea her absence at the last rehearsal, which she never meant to be a sign that she wouldn't be returning, was an issue. She has to face Sarina, who can choose to accept or not accept Taz's explanation, especially in light of the fact that Clare stepped up to the plate as Miss Minch at the last rehearsal. If Sarina does welcome Taz back, she has to lay down the law with Taz. As this rehearsal progresses, problems with more cast members arise. The first is with Sandra, who seems not quite herself, which she attributes to a medical issue. And although Sarina sees no problem, the second is with Natalie in the eyes of Sheila, who believes that her five year old daughter cannot separate her role as "musical director" from "Mom". This rehearsal also marks the first time the cast will perform with costumes. Some issues arise in this area, especially with the flying monkeys who may not be able to sing or dance let alone fly if they can't breathe under their monkey masks.

It's two days before show time, and the cast moves from the comfort of their church basement to the 1,100 seat Danforth Music Hall, where the show will be performed. While Sarina and her volunteer crew move the equipment, sets and costumes from the church to the theater, an ill Bailey, who has come down with the flu, takes the cast to Rick's house to do a speed reading, just to ensure that everyone knows their lines. They then move to the theater for a quick run through of certain scenes, this experience which will be their first on the actual stage, which is much smaller than they anticipated and much smaller than the sprawling church basement to which they are used. The stage size may pose a challenge when all fifty-one cast members are on stage at the same time, most specifically during the munchkin scene. With one day left to go, even one more task has to be accomplished, namely the design and printing of the playbill, the former task which has fallen on the shoulders of Siobhan, Michael M. and Matt, the latter who also comes up with a signature cocktail for the post-cast party. This evening, the cast and crew go through their one and only full dress rehearsal at the theater. But what can go wrong, does. What is a two hour show takes over four hours to run through. Among the many problems is that the dressing room tent, which is located outside, is leaking in the pouring rain, getting the cast and costumes wet. And as nerves start to fray, comments, especially ones by Sandra and Michael O., make Sarina even more on edge. They all just hope that the old adage of a bad dress rehearsal leading to a great performance will be true. But Sarina is concerned that these frayed nerves will lead to the cast not connecting with each other, and thus losing the magic at tomorrow night's performance.

It's show time, the culmination of eight weeks of hard work by the cast and creative team. The theater is sold out, resulting in $25,000 toward Sarina's charity, Big Little Caravan of Joy, which provides creative arts camps to Canadian aboriginal children and orphaned children in Africa. The cast and creative team have a mixed bag of emotions just before the curtain goes up from excitement to fear to nervousness. Sarina and Sheila designed the show so that all the cast members would have their moment in the spotlight. As the show progresses, each cast member does get their moment, the reaction from their respective friends and family at that time which are shown, some of who had no idea what that moment in the spotlight was going to be. The cast members are also shown reflecting on their own personal eight week journey associated with the show.