INUVIK
As opening night approaches, the flurry of activity going on backstage at East Three Secondary School's production of Wizard of Oz is kicking into high gear.

Kirsten Fleuty, centre, leads a crew of students in making props and set design for the high school's production of The Wizard of Oz next week. - photo courtesy of Abe Drennan

"It's always lots of fun," said costume co-ordinator Denise Lipscombe. "We bring the magic - our

job is to make sure everything goes well and you don't ever see us."

The school will be presenting the popular tale as adapted for the stage April 28 and 29, and there are a few final concerns to hammer out before then.

Lipscombe said there are a dozen main costumes, plus half a dozen munchkins, monkeys, trees, and flowers to account for.

"That comes out to a lot of costumes," she laughed. "A lot of them, this is their first time on stage. Having a costume really helps them step out of their own skin and into someone else's."

Cassidy Lennie Ipana is helping with that, having been impressed as an audience member with last year's production of Alice In Wonderland.

"I wanted to help, to do something with the play," she said. "I like making the costumes and helping to come up with ideas for them."

Although nervous about how everything will turn out, Lennie Ipana said she is looking forward to the first curtain rise.

Responsible for that curtain, and essentially everything else that happens backstage, is stage manager Rosalind Crump.

"Come show night, I'll be running things backstage," Crump said. "We'll have a whole army of volunteers making sure everything goes smoothly and the audience can focus on the performances."

Crump also talked about how the students involved are slowly starting to realize exactly what they had gotten themselves into as the performance looms in the near future, becoming more real with each passing day.

"It's been really wonderful to see the kids getting excited," she said. "We're at the stage where it's all coming together. It's going to be great."