When junior Josie Butler first auditioned to be in the musical, she didn’t think it would involve wearing a wedding dress. However, after receiving her part as Glinda the Good Witch, it became clear that wearing a wedding dress was just one of many intricate details that go into her character.

“Everyone else’s costumes were ordered and like rented from the off Broadway production,” Josie said. “But for Glenda’s dress they decided to buy separately and get a wedding dress. When I tried it on  for the first time, it was an experience. I felt like a bride but not really in character. It was beautiful though.”

It wasn’t until the costume came back from the alterations that Josie knew this was Glinda’s dress. After being dyed various hues of pink and adding poofy sleeves, the dress was undoubtedly made for the good witch. 

However, the beautiful dress was just the start of Josie’s transformation into Glinda. The next part was arguably more difficult; however, the final product was stunning. 

“I have a fear of heights,” Josie said. “And, as we got further into the musical process and further into rehearsals, we found out it was going to be a flying show, and I realized that I would have to be in a bubble. We went to flying training, and I literally just sit down, and I have this little handle to hold onto and that’s it, so I was freaking out. But, after a while, I figured out the right way to sit, and it ended up looking really cool.”

Similar to Josie, junior—and lead of the musical—Paige Harsevoort had to do a lot of preparation to get into her character: Dorthy. 

However, her already beautiful singing voice and experience from other FHC productions made her fit perfectly into the role. In fact, one of the most challenging aspects of her part wasn’t the singing or dancing, but rather her character’s dog Todo.

“I pretty much hold onto Toto the entire time he’s on stage,” Paige said. “Since we have decided to make Toto a real dog this year, we have had instances where he escapes one of our arms and will be running around backstage, given that when he’s on stage, he doesn’t want to be there all that much, but it’s pretty funny.”

With all of the time that Paige and the rest of the cast spend working towards making opening night amazing, Paige has started to get the hang of working with Toto. 

In addition to being incredibly thankful for the role she was given in the play, Paige is also thankful for the rest of the cast that she loves after all the hours they spend together. 

“The community of people that I get to see for five hours a day makes it all worth it,” Paige said. “Everyone that’s in theater is really nice, and they’re all just so willing to have a good time.”

Sophomore Keegan Redmond agrees with his fellow classmates that the relationships he’s built throughout this process is one of his favorite parts about being in the theater program. 

“I have a lot of friends now through the musical,” Keegan said. “Our relationships have gotten stronger, and I even have some relationships now that weren’t there before because of the musical; you’re bound to become closer with these people when you’re with them for seven plus hours a day for two weeks.”

With rehearsing for so many hours, the cast found that there can be a lot of downtime. This is when they catch up on the other real life tasks they have to do despite being extremely busy these past couple of weeks. 

“I have to do homework a lot during the moments I am not actively rehearsing, but a lot of the time, I’m just doing random stuff as well, like walking around the fine arts center and just having fun with my friends.”

Josie agrees that what is going to make the musical so great is the chemistry of the cast. She explained that they can all mess around with each other and have fun while still getting work done to make the production amazing.

“The cast has all been working really hard to make the show great for everyone who comes to watch it,” Josie said. “With the costumes, and it being a flying show I hope everyone loves it as much as we do.”