First Rehearsal

Conner was walking to school with his sister Jessica. “So are you ready for the first rehearsal?” Conner asked his sister.

“I’m looking forward to it, I want to meet the other members of the cast. Did you read the play?” Jessica questioned him.

Conner had read over the play many times, except for a few, Toto was in every scene that Dorothy was in, this meant that he would have almost as much stage time as his sister. In this version of the play Toto did have some actions to take, however they were pretty simple. “Yeah, I read it over a couple of times. We will probably be at rehearsal together for most of the term.” Conner said.

The two of them got to school and went to their individual classes, Conner went inside and sat next to Brian.

“Hey Toto, today is your first rehearsal, hopefully you don’t mess up any lines.” Brian teased Conner. Conner faced flushed red, he hadn’t planned on telling Brian that he was Toto but his teacher had announced it to the class. His classmates had taken to calling him Toto instead of Conner.

“Yeah, that’s today after school, and don’t call me Toto.” Conner said quietly.

“Let me know how it goes, I am interested in what lines you have to remember.” Brian giggled to himself. Conner just rolled his eyes and started pulling out supplies he would need for the first class.

The rest of the day flew by as the rehearsal got closer Conner got more nervous, he knew it was just the first of many and there weren’t really any expectations but he would still be the youngest one there. The bell rang and Conner packed up his homework, he now realized he would need to do rehearsal, then homework all in the same day.

Conner walked to the drama room, there were already many people there including his sister. Some of them were reading through the play, he just grabbed a chair and sat down. Mrs Bell, Ms Gray and Mr Farley walked into the room together, Ms Gray was carrying a clipboard.

“Attention everyone, I think some introductions are in order.” Ms Gray announced. “I’m going to go through the cast list, please stand up and wave when your name is called.

Everyone sat in a chair and waited for their name.

“Starting with the main cast Jessica Reid will be Dorothy.” Jessica stood up. “Jamie Booth will be the Scarecrow” Jamie stood up. “The Tin Man will be played by Tom Foley” Tom Stood up and waved, “The Lion will be played by Madison Grant” Madison stood up and waved, “The Wicked Witch will be Rayna Barnes” Rayna stood up, “Last in the main cast will be Conner Reid who will be playing Toto” Conner stood up and waved to everyone, his cheeks blushing red. “For supporting cast we have Sara Fox as Glinda” Sara stood up, “Harvey Barret as Oz” Harvey waved to everyone, “The Flying Monkey will be Billy Lee” Billy stood up, “Liam Walsh will be playing the talking tree” Liam stood up. Mrs Gray then went through many more names around secondary cast members. “That just leaves the Munchkins of Muchnkinland which will be played by Mr. Farley’s first grade class.” Everyone sat down again.

“Thank you Ms Gray. The first graders will be practicing separately during class, every so often we will pull some students out of class to join us in rehearsing.” Mr. Farley told the students.

Conner was having trouble remembering the flurry of names he had just been told, many of these students take classes together and were already familiar with each other.

“Now then let’s start with some scenes since we have everyone here.” Mrs Bell announced. “We will be going through a few scenes today, Please bring your scripts up and we will practice. Remember this is an opportunity to not only memorize your lines, which you need to practice at home, but also get a feel for being on stage and acting the scenes out.”

Eventually the scenes that were chosen were all the introductory scenes of the characters, Conner was in all of them.

“Okay, can Jessica, Jamie and Conner come up, we will do the first scarecrow scene” Mrs Bell said.

Conner stepped onto the stage with the other two. “This scene opens with Toto scaring away the crows on the scarecrow’s head. Please start there.” Mrs Bell instructed.

Nervously Conner stepped in the center stage with the script in his hand, the room had all the cast members and teachers all watching him, he hadn’t expected to be the first person to act today.” He read over the section of script, it read “Toto notices birds on the scarecrow’s head and barks to chase them away”.

Conner acted like he noticed something on top of Jamie, stepped closer and tried his best, however nerves got the best of him and let out a little “arf”. The audience giggled a little and the scene continued as normal, there wasn’t much else for him to do in the scene. Conner's face was red from his performance. Most instructions in the play for Toto were to follow Dorothy, so he just walked behind Jessica on stage.

“Jessica and Jaime, that was pretty good, but remember this is supposed to be a funny scene so it’s okay to over act a little” Ms Gray said, then looked at Conner. “You will need to convince the audience you are Toto, it may be better to be on your hands and knees when on stage, a dog doesn’t walk on two feet.” Ms Gray instructed him.

“Yes ma'am,” Conner replied, his face getting redder.

The next scene was the Tinman meeting, Tom joined the stage with the other three. Conner flipped to the page and the scene opened with another gag of Toto finding the Tinman, smelling him and getting scared when he speaks. He looked at Ms Gray who was motioning her hand down as to tell him to get lower. Conner went down to his hands and knees, he crawled towards Tom, and was embarrassed to be crawling around the stage while everyone else was standing.

“I think it would be best if, when scared, run towards Dorothy and behind her.” Ms Gray offered as advice.

“Okay.” Conner replied. He then crawled towards Tom, took an exaggerated sniff, which got a few giggles from the crowd. Tom then moved slightly and he tried to crawl quickly away. Conner wasn’t used to crawling on his hands and feet and it felt like he was shuffling around on the floor. After getting behind his sister he was again done for the scene except to follow her around. He chose to stand up and brush the dust off himself.

Ms Gray once again offered advice to everyone, complimenting Jessica on the performance. “Conner, remember anytime on stage you are acting. Even as a background character” Ms Gray told him.

Conner thought about her comment, he wasn’t sure what she wanted him to do. The scenes changed again and Madison joined them on stage to do the first Lion scene. Conner was nervous about this scene, Toto had a major part in it. He was also getting told off about not acting properly.

The scene started off normally with the Tin Man and Scarecrow having some back and forth. Madison then let out a roar. “Take that! Roar!” She shouted, then pushed Jamie and he fell to the ground. Madison moves quickly to Tom and pretends to scratch his chest. Conner knew this was his cue, he wanted to impress everyone so he tried hard to do the scene right. Conner quickly crawled in between Jessica and Madison and tried to bark at her.

“Arf, arf, arf…” Conner said meekly, to be honest he wasn’t sure how to make a dog noise himself.

The scene pressed on Madison threatening him and Jessica then slaps and scolds the Lion. Jessica decided to do a little improvising by kneeling down and patting his head while delivering the line. “How dare you! A great big beast picking on a poor little puppy like Toto”.

Conner’s face flushed, but at least he felt like he gave an acceptable performance in this scene. All Conner had to do was follow Dorothy around for the rest of it, eventually he stood up again to dust himself off, the stage they were working on was rather dusty.

“Excellent performance from Dorothy, I really felt the character in this scene. I like the additions you made as well, everyone should take note of that and don’t be afraid to experiment a little as we rehearse. Our Lion did well, don’t worry too much about the initial roar, the stage crew should be able to help you with that. Toto in this scene you should be a little more aggressive, I don’t mind the barking style you’ve chosen but please increase the volume, again please remember you are acting for the whole scene. Everyone should remember you are ‘In Character’ whenever on stage” Ms Gray said.

The practice continued for a few more scenes, Conner didn’t have much to do in these scenes except follow his sister around. There were more major scenes for Toto in the play but they didn’t practice them today.

“Great job everyone, thank you for trying so hard. Rehearsals will continue throughout the term, please keep an eye on the board outside the drama room.” Mrs Bell said, dismissing them for the day.

Conner took a deep breath, he was relieved the first practice was over. Jessica walked over to him. “Hey Toto, you did well today!” She complimented him.

Conner’s cheeks flushed a little. “Not you too. My whole class has started calling me Toto” he whined.

“Well I can’t keep calling you Munchkin, can I?” Jessica teased.

“I guess not.” Conner agreed. “You could just call me Conner though.”

“I could, but you are doing so well at being Toto!” Jessica said, she then ruffled his hair. “We should head home, you’re a mess after today’s practice.”

Conner looked at his clothes, all the dirt and dust from the stage floor was on him even after brushing it off. “Yeah let’s do that.” Conner agreed. He grabbed his backpack and followed his sister home.

When they got home their Mother asked all kinds of questions about the performance. Conner thought about what Ms Gray said and asked his mother about it.

“Ms Gray keeps reminding me to stay in character on stage, what am I not doing?” Conner asked his Mom.

“You are probably doing something consistently and she wants you to stop. Think about your character and what they would do when in the background.” Linda offered.

“My character is a Dog, how am I supposed to do that?” Conner asked.

“Well you want to be an actor, this is what you need to figure out. You should go change, your clothes are all dirty.” Linda told her son.

“Okay.” Conner agreed and headed upstairs. When in his room he pulled out the script and his homework and set it on his desk. Conner spent the next hour doing homework.