Glinda the Good Witch

For those of you who are still excited to read about The Wizard of Oz (Sarah and Sue Dub) here's little bitty Chloe...

This tiny little sprig of a thing was our Glinda. The kid came to auditions and did a fabulous job reading. She's 62 years old and stuck in an 8 year old body. We had her read for Glinda in the auditions and for some reason, every time she read Glinda, she read it with a British accent. She has this huge mass of curly hair on top of her head and looked and sounded just like Hermione. During auditions I said, "Chloe do you like Harry Potter?" She said yes and I said, "Oh, that's why you sound like Hermione." I must have hurt her feelings because she looked at the floor and wouldn't lift her head up. I said, "That's a good thing kiddo. Most kids your age can't talk with an accent like that." She smiled, but the look on her face made it abundantly clear that she had no idea what I was talking about. So I asked her to read it without an accent. She couldn't do it. For some reason, in her mind, that is what Glinda sounded like, and nothing was going to be able to get her to say those lines any differently. That being said, it fit the part incredibly well and we didn't even question whether or not to give it to her.

The day we passed out parts, she looked incredibly dejected. I was shocked, thinking that most little girls would want the princess role, getting to be all dolled up in a big pink dress. But Chloe was clearly not content. I went over and talked to her and told her about how she had a lot of lines and even a solo and she looked at me and said very seriously, "Oh. I've never sung by myself on stage before." With her extremely matter of fact tone of voice she might as well have closed the script, handed it back to me and walked out of the theatre. I realized that she was already convinced that once she told me that, she wouldn't have the part anymore. So I explained to her that there's a first time for everything and she should be excited that this would be her first solo. To which she said, "But there's going to be people here." I pretty much just laughed and walked away. She continued to look disgruntled though and as we were doing the script read thru we finally were approaching her first line. I said, "Chloe get ready. Your part is coming up." When it was her turn to read her first line she raised her hand and said, "I just need to say something...I really wanted to be a munchkin." We did our best to explain to her that she would probably like this better, but truth be told, at the end of the day I don't think it really mattered to her whether she was a munchkin or the good witch.

Chloe was one of those kids that would get the giggles. I mean out of control, unstoppable, contagious giggles. Most of the time, it was pretty funny. She always had a question and you always had to pay attention to where she was because she'd become a munchkin in a hot second if you didn't keep your eye on her and remind her that she had a pretty important lead role and she needed to play it.

One day I was trying to block one of the munchkin scenes and I had placed every kid exactly where I needed them to be and said, "DON'T MOVE AT ALL." I turned my back for just a couple of minutes to work with Dorothy and by the time I turned back around, munchkins were everywhere and they were all bent crooked, swinging one knee back and forth and Chloe said, "Look Miss Jen...we're doin' the Stanky Leg." If you don't know what that is, youtube it. To look around and see Glinda spearheading a munchkinland rendition of the Stanky Leg was, well...pretty hilarious.

For such a tiny little thing, the girl knew how to make a point. She was tougher than you would have ever guessed and when one of the boys had an issue staying out of the girls' dressing room, Chloe took it upon herself to handle the situation. And I'll just say this...he never went within ten feet of it after that. She was also one of the more dramatic in the group. In her bio in the program she wrote that she "loved camp because it gave her the opportunity to experience the pain and drama of millions."

No better place in the world for that girl to be than on a stage.