Wizard of Oz ballet with a twist premieres in Edmonton with a ‘big surprise’

The story of the Wizard of Oz will be performed with a twist in Edmonton over the weekend. CTV News Edmonton's Amanda Anderson explains.

A familiar tale featuring flying monkeys, witches and a yellow brick road is making its debut in Edmonton, but with an added twist.

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The Alberta Ballet is set to perform Francesco Ventriglia’s rendition of The Wizard of Oz at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium this weekend.

Ventriglia added a personal touch to the famed story by including a unique perspective taken from his youth.

“When I was six years old … I spent a few months in a child hospital, and every afternoon I went (with my mom) to visit another little girl (who) was in intensive care,” Ventriglia told CTV News Edmonton on Friday.

“One day we went there and this little girl was not there anymore. I was only six. So then my mom told me that the little girl was Dorothy and she was on the yellow brick road with her friends going to Emerald City,” he added.

This gave the artistic director a new idea on how to adapt the story.

He changed the Dorothy we all grew up with into the Dorothy he met at the hospital and changed the setting to a children’s hospital.

“Dorothy is a little girl in a coma … ‘There’s no place like home’ for her is the journey to wake up from the coma and come back to life,” he added.

“This production is … very close to my heart,” Ventriglia said. “It’s probably the only production as a choreographer where I put lots of my real life in.”

The show will still feature prominent characters from its source material, including Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, munchkins, the witches and the wizard. Unfortunately, no Toto.

“We don’t have a live animal on stage for Wizard of Oz, but we have a big surprise for the upcoming show, so stay tuned," Ventriglia said.

The show wrapped up in Calgary last week. As of Friday, there was no news of any other shows after finishing in Edmonton, with Ventriglia saying “there are no plans yet, but big dreams and lots of conversations” are in the works.

Tickets for The Wizard of Oz are available on Ticketmaster or at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium’s box office.

Showtimes are Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.