EQUITY SHOWCASE THEATRE

URBAN OZ, a hip hop musical written by Cameron Ferguson and performed by young people (6-16) from the Nook Children's Program at the Christie-Ossington Neighbourhood Centre.

It's been said before but it bears repeating: I believe the children are our future...and a child shall lead them...wisdom often comes from the mouths of babes...awwwww, aren't they cute?

This event was all of these things in equal measure.  From Haley Vickers' too perfect Paris-Hiltonesque Wiz to Leslie Anne Nualan's sunny-side-up Dorothy to the waves of energetic munchkins.  The break-dancing Tinman stole the show and crazy props are due for the stage debut of sisters Tiwa & Aanu Akinmolayan, whose moxy made their wicked witches endearingly heartless.  Director Jocelyn Wicket and musical director Kevin Howley did a commendable job.

After first reading this script I knew that this show called for something special.  It had my heart from the first mention of the wicked witches (who kept minimum wage below the poverty line) through the flying monkey sweatshops and the headline hungry Wiz.  Pacifier, the piece I wrote to open the show, tries to lay a practical groundwork for the plight of the protagonists: the role of the media in maintaining the inadequate status quo, the glorification of subsistence living, the hollow dream of the hustle, the distraction factor in trash tv.  We can only hope that the play and the poetry planted some seeds in fertile minds - and that's not limited to the kids.

Pacifier

Don't that wool kinda itch your eyes?

Don't let yourself be pacified.

Don't that wool kinda itch your eyes?

They're telling you lies.