"The Wizard Of Oz" - Mountain Play Amphitheatre - Mt. Tamalpais

Left: A chilly welcome to Oz on a warm afternoon. Left to right, Glinda (Marcia Pizzo), Toto (Alex the Dog), Dorothy (Sarah Smithton), and the Wicked Witch (Jessica Powell).


On Sunday, I went with Sally Forment to see the Mountain Play in the Amphitheatre at Mt. Tamalpais State Park, high on a ridgetop, in Marin County north of San Francisco.

This is the 95th season of the Mountain Play. There is one more weekend for "The Wizard Of Oz" (closes on Father's Day). Interestingly, Sally also saw "The Wizard Of Oz" the last time the Mountain Play featured it, in 1991. The Mountain Play for the 96th season, in the summer of 2009, will be "Man Of La Mancha".

Left: An a cappella singing group of Marin County high school students, "Till Dawn", warms up the crowd on a warm afternoon.

Left: "Yellow Brick Road". Left to right, Tin Man (David L. Yen), Lion (Bruce Vieira), Dorothy (Sarah Smithton) and Scarecrow (Erik Batz).


Left: "If I Only Had A Brain". Dorothy (Sarah Smithton) and Scarecrow (Erik Batz).

Left: "Merry Old Land Of Oz". The Emerald City is a friendly place to strangers!



Left: Why is this small plane buzzing the Mountain Play Amphitheatre just as the Emerald City welcomes Dorothy and her party?

Left: "Surrender Dorothy" - it's the Wicked Witch, of course!

Left: Wicked Witch (Jessica Powell), Winkie General (Michael Nurge), and the Winkies.

Left: "Jitterbug"

Left: Sally Forment and Mountain Play Artistic Director James Dunn.

In 1965, Sally danced in a production of Garcia de Lorca's "Blood Wedding" directed by James Dunn. Over the rainbow, and forty-three years later, at age 75, James Dunn still directs!