SCARECROW ON FIRE!
Show Run Time: 2 Hours
Intermission: 15 Minutes
By Kevin Kling
Produced by Illusion Theatre (Minneapolis)
August 12-15 at 7:30pm
Matinee Performance Thursday August 14 at 1:30pm
In this year of Wicked, the prequel to the Wizard of Oz, storyteller extraordinaire Kevin Kling has penned a laugh-filled and irreverent sequel, entitled SCARECROW ON FIRE! The three Oz amigos, bored in their Oz comfort, respond to a psychological cry from their old pal, Dorothy. Using the ruby slippers she left behind, the boys make the reverse trip to Kansas. The Tin Man, an art-loving mechanical man is enamored of Kansas’ fellow machines. The brave Lion is baffled by the fear his beautiful baritone “roar” seems to elicit. And the Scarecrow again proves that actual brains are highly overrated, at least in Kansas. Their search leads to a desperate Dorothy caught in another kind of whirlwind and a Wizard that uses his prodigious skills of persuasion as a radio DJ on WOOZ.
Performed by a stellar cast, accompanied by the iconic music of the era, and enhanced by cinematic scenes from the silent 1925 Wizard of Oz with nods to the 1939 version we all know and love, SCARECROW ON FIRE! Is both breathtaking and heartwarming.
Cast BIos
Kevin Kling*
Playwright, Scarecrow
Playwright, author and storyteller Kevin Kling is a proud graduate of Osseo High School and Gustavus Adolphus College. His plays have been produced in local and regional theaters including, Illusion Theater, Mixed Blood, Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts, and off Broadway at Westside Arts and Second Stage Theater.
Awards include the Whiting Award, NEA, McKnight, Bush Fellowship, Jerome Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board and two regional Emmy Awards for PBS documentaries Kevin Kling: Lost & Found and Art + Medicine: Disability, Culture and Creativity. Kevin is a frequent performer at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN. He appears often on TPT’s Almanac and was named the Minneapolis Storyteller Laureate by Mayor RT Rybak in 2014 *member Actors’ Equity Association
Bradley Greenwald
Lion, Dry Goods Man, Guy, Man, Wizard, Doctor, Lab Tech
Bradley Greenwald is a singer, actor, writer and director. For over thirty years he has performed with almost every theater, dance company and music ensemble in the Twin Cities. He adapted Madeleine L’Engle’s novel “A Wrinkle in Time” into a libretto for Libby Larsen’s opera; wrote the book and lyrics for “C”. (adaptation of “Cyrano de Bergerac”), and “Johnny Skeeky”, or “The Remedy for Everything”, (adaptation of the Puccini comedy, with Steven Epp), both produced by Theater Latté Da. Bradley has curated and written narratives for innovative spoken word/music concerts for Open Eye Theater, Schubert Club Mix, Music Saint Croix, St. Cloud Symphony, Oratorio Society of Minnesota and Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh. He is the recipient of a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship in music, the McKnight Fellowship for Theater Artists, and the Ivey Award. Bradley is Co-coordinator of MacPhail's Prelude: Singer-Actor Lab for high school students. He is a member of Actors’ Equity Association.
Show Sponsor
Dan Chouinard
Tin Man, Newspaper Man, Toto, Nurse