Spring Grove School is off to see the Wizard

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“The Wizard of Oz” will come to life in three performances on Nov. 13 and 14 at Spring Grove School. A cast of 60 will portray Dorothy and her companions in a one-hour “youth edition” as they venture down the Yellow Brick Road to Oz in a production filled with Munchkins, flying monkeys and, of course, the Wicked Witch of the West, as portrayed by 11-year-old Axel Fontaine. 

“Sadly, I lose,” Fontaine said. “I feel like the witch could have put up a better fight than she did, because she has spell books, compared to Dorothy, who barely has anything. She just has a dog and three friends, and they’re all cowards.”

Though things don’t work out well for Fontaine’s witch, she said that she has always loved the story, and particularly relishes her role. 

“Her laugh is chilling,” she said, “and she enters and exits with the laugh every time. It’s really memorable in a sense. When I auditioned, I did the laugh to show them that I could do it. I just love how scary and mean she is.” 

This is Fontaine’s fourth Spring Grove production, following her roles in “Annie,” “The Little Mermaid,” and “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” in the school theater program that was co-founded by Superintendent and Principal Jennifer Bernosky in 2002.

“Sue Rocha came to me as a parent,” Bernosky said, “because I was taking my first- and third-grade daughters to do theater in Gilroy. She said, ‘Let’s start it here.’ We found a director who would do it, and I think they gave us a couple thousand dollars, and we ran with it.” 

The school’s first production, Bernosky said, was “Hey Ho, Pinocchio,” a 15-minute-long version of the classic story by Carlo Collodi with a small cast drawn from fourth through eighth graders. With parent participation, she said, the productions grew larger every year, now including students as young as second grade and casts as large as 90. 

“Our families wanted theater because it’s something different,” Bernosky said. “It’s not just sports, it’s not just clubs, it’s not just art. We didn’t have anything else for young children, and it didn’t cost them much money to participate.”

Co-producer Karen Firstbrook said “The Wizard of Oz” is a great show because it has a large cast, which gives more students a chance to have lines and sing solos, and it also teaches the value of working together on a project bigger than the individual parts combined.

“It’s a phenomenal opportunity to learn to do something outside of themselves,” she said. “We always tell everyone that theater is a team sport. Person B can’t say their line if actor A doesn’t say their line. I also think they learn courage, as they stand onstage and try their best.”

For sixth-grader Nora Shores, that meant taking a leap into bigger roles three years ago after first attending theater camp when she was six years old. 

“I just got brave enough to do the play when I was old enough to be a senior,” she said. “The seniors had a bigger part than the juniors, and I wanted the bigger part. I get to play a Jitterbug and a crow and also a flying monkey, which is cool. They get to fly and capture Dorothy.” 

Seventh-grader Roxzen Houser, who plays the Tin Man, said he enjoys being onstage because it gives him a chance to show his singing skills and his ability to remember lines.

“I like doing after-school things,” he said, “so I started doing tech. Once I was backstage, I started to like being part of the play and hanging out more with my friends. Since I’m not really into sports as much, I thought maybe acting would be good. So I tried out, and I liked it.”

Firstbrook said it costs the school between $18,000 and $20,000 to put on a production like “The Wizard of Oz,” including stipends for the directors, renting a stage and lights and the cost of costumes, scripts and sets. 

However, the theater program events are entirely self-funded through donations, a small cast fee, ad sales in the programs, raffle baskets and admission charges. It also depends on what Firstbrook described as “a ton of volunteers.”  

“We don’t take any money from the school,” Firstbrook said. “For the last 10 years, for example, we’ve been building a little bank of money, knowing that we would need to purchase a sound system. And this year, we did it, so that our actors sound the best they can sound.”

There are five shows of “The Wizard of Oz”: three for the general public and two exclusively for the entire student body. Firstbrook said that for some of the students, it might be the only live theater they ever get to see as they grow up. 

“We love that we’re introducing this to our students,” she said. “There’s an amazing opportunity here at this school that every student has the opportunity to either be in a cast or to watch a show put on by their classmates.”

“The Wizard of Oz: Youth Edition” will be performed for the general public on Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. and Nov. 14 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets are available at the door or through Ticketsource and are $12 for adults and $7 for youths.

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