Not even the Wicked Witch of the West could scare away the crowds at the recent season of the Wizard of Oz, staged at Thomas Hassall Anglican College in Middleton Grange.

Over the course of two weeks, the 28-30 of April and the 5-7 May 2016, Thomas Hassall Anglican College hosted a musical play, called The Wizard of Oz. The energetic and vibrant play was held in the John Lambert Auditorium inside the college. The play consisted of many students from year 3-11, both cast and crew, displaying their varying talents to deliver great performances benefiting of the famous source material in front of up to 2000 guests. This included the last performance being a sell out. Furthermore, The show was staged ‘in-the-round’ which allowed the audience to view the story as in unfolded through the eyes of each of the characters

The stage play was the College’s six musical production and it comprised of a range of Chauvet Professional lighting equipment, hired from Showtime Productions and supplied by Showtools International to enable in illustrating the varying aspects of the Wizard of Oz performance. The equipment utilised included 12 x Chauvet Rogue R1 Spot with it’s rotating 3-facet prism for stunning aerial effects, a motorized iris and focus for beam shaping, as well as two gobo wheels, one of which rotates and has 7 interchangeable gobos for custom looks. The R1 Spot was utilised for its sheer output and eight colour split ability. Other Chauvet products included 12 x COLORdash Par-Hex 12’s, which were used for deeply saturated colours, a variety of whites, and a brilliant ultra-violent, flicker-free and without multicoloured shadows. In addition, the COLOURdash Batten- Hex 8 was used for eight hex-colour output and its UV colour mixing capabilities.

Furthermore, 12 x 1k Fresnels and 1 x Chauvet Vesuvio RGBA were also used for the event. The Vesuvio RGBA brings together high output LED washes to towering fog output with ferocious intensity. This allowed bursts of fog to disperse onto the crowd at various stages of the play. Finally, 1 x Look Solutions hazer was also implemented for the production.

Together these Chauvet Professional products supplied by Showtools International and Showtime Productions aided in The Wizard of Oz play being a colourful and bright presentation in combination with the talented students to bring the iconic movie to life on stage. “We are just thrilled with the show” added Mr Whelan, “I am very proud of our whole College Community and especially our wonderful students”.