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Girls looking to fulfill lifetime desires to fill Dorothy’s iconic slippers and theater aficionados with a hankering for performance are both in luck this autumn.Students aged 6-19 will have a shot at auditioning for the Pasadena Junior Theater fall production of ‘The Wiz.’

The auditions call applicants to sing a one minute contemporary song not from the show. Auditioners should also be prepared to sing 16 bars of a musical theater song similar in style to the music of ‘The Wiz.’ It is reccommended that everyone bring a pair of dance shoes in case they’re asked to stay.

Seven weeks of rehearsal will begin on October 2, in preparation for a December theater run.

‘The Wiz’ comes from a long lineage of source material. It’s an adaptation of Frank L. Baum’s classic novel ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.’ which was brought to Technicolor life in the 1939 Judy Garland classic.

Decades later, The Wiz took Broadway by storm when it debuted in 1975, winning seven Tonys and paving the way for a number of musicals featuring predominately black casts. Motown adapted The Wiz for the big screen in 1978, with star turns by Diana Ross as Dorothy and a young Michael Jackson as The Scarecrow.

Production numbers from ‘The Wiz’ include ‘Ease On Down the Road,’ ‘Don’t Nobody Bring Me No Bad News’ and ‘Home.’

Pasadena Junior Theatre told of the group’s goal to incorporate both book and play in its production of The Wiz. “Each student involved will be given the opportunity to study comparisons between movie and book characters as well as creating their own unique characterizations.”

Artistic Director Devon Yates said the staging of ‘The Wiz’ is another installment in the theater’s “commitment to this year’s season inspired by literary sources.” Founded in 1999, the Pasadena Junior Theatre is in its sixth season and has produced more than 23 productions.

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