Wonderful Wizard of Oz

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was a mixture of happiness, sadness, and, most importantly, beneficial life lessons. Despite the obstacles imposed throughout the play, the characters had overcome them by realizing that they possessed the resources and skills all along. Overcoming obstacles was present throughout the play by Dorothy being African American, the lion finding his courage, and the use of technology in place of special effects.

Being that the Wizard of Oz was a play, special effects cannot occur right on stage like in a movie. Therefore, the production vouched to use technology and created simulated backgrounds to give the illusion of special effects. It is rather hard to create special effects with technology without it looking tacky or uninteresting which was not the case in this play. For example, when the scene of the Wicked Witch of the East and her army was concluding and the scene with Dorothy, the lion, the tin man, and the scarecrow being in the forest was next, the stairs of the witch’s home spiraled into the trees of the forest. This transition had added to the creativeness of the play and kept the audience interested. This brilliant use of technology had shown that the technician’s of the play used their creativeness and beat the obstacle of not being able to present special effects right on stage.

Besides the obstacles that occurred in production, the characters within the play had obstacles of their own. The lion could not find his courage, the scarecrow wanted a brain, and the tin man wanted a heart. As the characters went on their journey, they could not seem to find their courage, brain, and heart, but they never realized that they had those things in possession all along. The Wizard of Oz, however, had helped them realize this towards the end of the play. For instance, the lion had the courage to continue the journey with the others despite some very scary scenery, such as the forest, and the tin man had a heart because he