UPHS Presents the Wizard of Oz this weekend

            The UPHS Drama Club is headed down the yellow brick road–again–with this weekend's production of The Wizard of Oz.

This weekend, the Upper Perkiomen High School Drama Club presents the Wizard of Oz on stage.  Three performances are scheduled.

            The 2025 show will mark the second time the Upper Perk thespians have put on the iconic musical under veteran director Alicia Austin.

            "Everything about this version is different from the 2014 production," said

Senior Autumn Alderfer stars as Dorothy.

Austin, who sees the contrasts as a way to showcase the drama club's growth over the last 11 years.

            Austin drew a parallel between the theme of the play and the hundreds of people, both on stage and behind the scenes, who have contributed to what UPHS Drama is today.

            "In The Wizard of Oz, the whole idea of it's the people that surround you and they bring me back home, it's true. I wouldn't be where I am without the journey and everybody coming together."

            During the planning and rehearsals, Austin said she often contemplated how far the program has come in her 17 years at the helm. "I was thinking about legacy a lot."

            That legacy will be underscored with a reception for the 2014 cast prior to Saturday night's performance, and one of those Oz alums, Emily (Barker) Herron, the Scarecrow in the 2014 rendition, now heads the high school's UPTV. Her studio class conducted a series of interviews with cast members from the 2014 show. (They can be accessed at youtube.com/@upperperkiomennetwork.)

            Even the sets will differ from the 2014 performance, relying more heavily on depictions in the book instead of the movie and other productions.

            Differences also result from the cast putting their spins on the familiar characters.

Dancers form a kick line near the end of the first act during a rehearsal of The Wizard of Oz. This is the second time the club has presented the show.  This presentation relies more heavily on depictions in the book, than movies or other productions.

            Senior Autumn Alderfer, starring as Dorothy, said The Wizard of Oz was her favorite movie for 14 years, especially because, as a youngster, she saw herself as Dorothy, almost losing a dog, having to move from her home, and "always feeling like I wish there was a place where I could never get in trouble."

            "It made it kind of harder to play [the role] because I was her.  I was her for the formative years of my life."

            Alderfer added, "I really had to do a lot of self-seeking to find out who the character is. Defiant but loving and caring."

            Alderfer wants the audience to see Dorothy as "childish and whimsical and brave and determined. She's skeptical at first but only for a second and then she fully believes the world that has been created on the stage by Mrs. Austin."

            Dorothy's nemesis, the Wicked Witch of the West, will be portrayed by senior Abigail Packard who sees the Wicked Witch as a "diva", not, necessarily, evil.

            "She's more of a 'I'm a bad girl; I'm going to get what I want, and you're not going to get in my way,'" Packard explained.

            The Scarecrow, Sean Lao, the Tin Man, Anne Gerstenberg, and the Cowardly Lion, Justin Mizerny, who join Dorothy on the yellow brick road, may act and look a bit differently.

            Lao's Scarecrow is closest to the traditional portrayal. "I interpret him as kind of like a clumsy character, but deep down he is kind of like an intellectual," Lao, a junior, said.

            The role is physically demanding. "I have knee pads because I'm always tumbling and falling down and doing all sorts of rolls on stage, especially with the crows. They kind of push me around."

            Lao benefitted from advice from Mrs. Herron. "It's always exciting to talk to someone that's played the character before and it's even more exciting when it's one of your teachers," Lao said.

            Gerstenberg is participating in her first musical but has been given wide latitude in her interpretation of the Tin Man.

"Obviously I'm a girl and it's a tin 'man' so we're making me a girl in the play. I have a skirt, my hair is going to be down. I am the Tin Woman."

            The senior actress is also looking forward to doing a tap dance routine on the stage, a passion she developed as a child.

            Mizerny's lion will be wearing a sleek suit outlined with fur instead of a full lion suit.

            "I'm really excited about the costumes this year," Mizerny said. "I think they do look really nice."

            The Cowardly Lion will still be cowardly but, "He's scared of trivial things and when it comes to big things that are important not to run from, he's always there to help when he absolutely has to be," Mizerny, a junior, explained.

            Austin said Mizerny's "more intellectual" portrayal will buck the stereotype of what a "manly, courageous lion should be and studious enough to be that lion that he wants to be."

            Toto will be played by Ben, a dog owned by Austin's in-laws.

            During the long course of prepping the play the cast members survived by developing a family-like camaraderie.

            "Wow! I love this experience," Alderfer said. "We all became so incredibly close. I've been in a musical and play for four years and I've never felt this close. The thing I will cherish most from high school."

            While Packard's Wicked Witch is anything but nice on stage, the actress was reluctant to "hurt" her cast mates.  "We definitely are like a little family," the senior actress said, "and every time before I go, or even after, I always go up to them and say, 'I'm so sorry for what I'm about to do, but it's not against you, it's against your character.'"

            "The people that have been involved have been fantastic," Austin said. "It's a lot of new faces that you've never seen before mixed in with some people that you're going to be familiar with."

            Austin was assisted by co-director Colby Phillips; choreographer Jennifer Dancy, Studios on Main; vocal director Nolan Benner; technical director Matt Austin; and Center Stage Lighting and Rigging Inc's Nicholas Culmone.

            This weekend's performances include shows on Friday and Saturday, March 7 and 8, at 7 p.m. and on Sunday, March 9, at 2 p.m. Tickets are available at 24782.recitalticketing.com.