With the show opening soon, “The Wizard of Oz” cast and crew rehearsals are in full swing. The first performance will be a preview on Oct. 20 and the show runs until Oct. 29 in the newly rennovated Waterman theatre in Tyler Hall.

The cast of 42 includes Oswego State students and children from the local community. The children, while busy with other extracurricular activities, are dedicated to being professional and successful on stage. Although their scenes take place entirely in the beginning of the musical, their participation is impactful both to the story and to the people they are working with.

“They are all so unbelievably talented,” Wyatt Gilbert, who plays the Wizard, said. “It makes me glad to see kids at such a young age already in love with theater.”

“[The children] want to be there and they tend to listen better than adults,” stage manager Nicole Marlowe said.

In addition to these children, the cast and crew are made up of students and faculty from many different fields of study on campus. While some actors are majoring in theatre, several of them are broadcasting students and the crew is largely made up of students concentrating in thearter technology. Director Jonel Langenfeld is a theater department faculty member and the show’s main choreographer, Dexter Jones, is an Oswego State alumnus who commutes to Oswego  from New York City every weekend to work with the students.

Having a background in theatre teaches students skills that are applicable in a variety of fields. Seth Prevratil, who plays the Tin Man, and Anthony Sagrestano, who plays the Scarecrow, are majoring in broadcasting and both are involved with Oswego State’s student run television station, WTOP.

“I feel that participating in this show will help me throughout the college experience and beyond,” Prevratil said. “I hope this experience can assist me in becoming even more comfortable speaking in front of an audience. I think theater helps with both overall confidence and personality.”

Students from any field will benefit from the confidence and comfortability the theater provides them with. Participating in theater is an opportunity to build those types of qualities.

In such a multidisciplinary environment, students have the chance to learn a variety of skills including stage lighting, set building and musicality and dance.

“I’ve learned a little bit of sewing in the costume shop,” Gilbert said. “I think that actors definitely should have at least some skill or knowledge of all aspects of theater.”

The diversity of the children, students and faculty involved in the show only enriches the theatre experience for those involved in “The Wizard of Oz.”

While the show requires a lot of work from the cast and the crew, Langenfeld makes a compelling request of her audience.

“I want people to just think about it after they leave,” Langenfeld said. “Maybe for a day, maybe for a couple of days. I don’t want them to be able to forget about it as soon as they leave the theater.”

Langenfeld explains that musical theater is often “poo-poo’d” for being too simple, which is why she layered a train-hopper motif on top of the original “The Wizard of Oz” theme. Each character has become more complex and their original portrayals have become more symbolic than literal.

“The Tin Man is not literally missing a heart; it’s more of a metaphor,” Prevratil said. “He feels as though he has nothing to live for, but he wants to prove that he can love and care for others, which brings meaning to him wanting a heart.”

Langenfeld’s adaptation of “The Wizard of Oz” promises to be moving and thought-provoking, while maintaining the nostalgia of L. Frank Baum’s original story.

The audience can look forward to steampunk costuming and industrial set designs, a tale about trying to fit in and a live dog onstage playing Toto.