Left to Right: Kienan Holash as Uncle Henry, Shania Cabilao as Aunt Em, and Zoe Mortimer as Dorothy in the opening scene of The Wizard of Oz. (Photo by: Nick Nielsen.)

By Nick Nielsen

Shows Open This Thursday

Broadway North Theatre Company raising money for Ronald McDonald House with ‘Wizard of Oz’

Aug 14, 2024 | 12:48 PM

The Broadway North Theatre Company is opening its first showing of The Wizard of Oz this coming Thursday. Casting took place back in May and the production company is excited to not only entertain the public, but also to raise some money for a great cause.

The show has partnered with the Malcolm J. Jenkins Family Foundation which will donate $10 for every ticket sold to the show to the Ronald McDonald House being built in Prince Albert.

“That’s for the entire run of the show, and it’s incredibly generous,” said Roxanne Dicke, the General Manager at the EA Rawlinson Centre. “It’s a win-win. You come see a great show and you also get to donate to a really important facility that we need in our city.”

Seventeen-year-old Zoe Mortimer is playing the lead role of Dorothy in her first foray with the senior production company, and said she’s excited to be part of such a timeless story. The production has a large age range with some folks on the production crew nearing their 70s, and Mortimer said that having those mentors to learn from has been amazing.

“It’s so much fun seeing all the different ages of people who still all come here and love to do theatre and there’s so many people who do it professionally and some it’s just a hobby, some have full time jobs. It’s just really inspiring to see everyone still take the time to do this thing they love and to entertain others.”

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For Mortimer, this isn’t her first time playing a role in the Wizard of Oz. Mortimer goes to St. Mary School, and in their production of the same show, Mortimer was tasked with playing Dorothy’s dog Toto.

Zoe Mortimer as Dorothy holding her dog Toto, the role Mortimer played in her high school’s production of the same play. (Photo By: Nick Nielsen.)

“I got to bark, but it was just so much fun. Everyone just seemed so old and I was like ‘ohh you guys are so cool and talented’, and now it’s like I’m that age now.”

Directing the show is Jason Van Otterloo, who teaches drama at the St. Mary High School. From the first read with the crew, Van Otterloo knew they were putting something special together despite a lot of actors never singing and dancing in a production before.

“Stephanie, our choreographer, does a wonderful job working with the full skill level we have. Because you come in and if you’ve never done that before, that could be a big step. It’s turned out wonderful.”

With the sanctions put on during the Saskatchewan Teacher’s Federation strikes, the high school play had been canceled this year, so Van Otterloo is happy he’ll still be able to put a show together this year.

“Over the summer as a teacher, I do have a bit of time over the summer. I’m usually fairly busy with baseball, but we sat down as a family and said, ‘this seems like a thing we could work into our schedule’ and I was fairly well rested and not tired from the school year without doing a show and it just kind of worked out really well to put this one together.”

For those that haven’t seen a live show before, Van Otterloo urges the public to come see the show for an experience you won’t find in many other places in today’s world.

“In this case, I think art’s meant to take us away from some of the negativity we have surrounding us in the world a bit. Yes, there’s a story here of a young girl who learns a wonderful lesson about cherishing the things she has around her, but there’s also that moment for us as an audience, where for three hours we can go, ‘Oz is just a wonderful place to be’. It’s joyful. It’s fun. It’s got scary people. We learn how to deal with them, and for three hours, there’s no noise. There’s no socials noise. There’s no politics noise. There’s no news noise. It’s just live in the moment with other people doing something that’s just enjoyable to watch.”

The Wizard of Oz premieres at the EA Rawlinson Centre Thursday, August 15 at 7:30 p.m. For more show times, visit the EA Rawlinson Centre’s website by clicking here.