Shawnee Mission South Theatre will present their annual winter musical with a rendition of Wizard of Oz. With over two months of rehearsal the cast has been hard at work practicing the dance routines and delivering lines to put on the best show possible.

However, the cast isn’t the only part of Shawnee Mission South Theatre hard at work. Crews like Set and Props crew, just to name a few, create pieces for the show for visual effects. Giant pieces are constructed during work days like the tornado or an upside-down house. The act of building and creating pieces for the show can be one of the most rewarding parts about theatre.

“You go from seeing rehearsal where there’s nothing, just the actors and they look funny because they are walking around with nothing then you add props and it not only changes the show it adds to people’s character,” Props Co-Crew head Tamera Thornton said.

This satisfaction with your work doesn’t always come so easily. A lot of challenges and obstacles crew members face are not so easy to overcome.  Things like malfunctioning set pieces can prove to be a nuisance and without being detail orientated prop and set creation can be difficult.

“There’s a lot of unsaid things that are needed. You can go through the script any amount of times and you will miss things. Once you start seeing and being in rehearsals things will start to pop up at you,” Thornton said.

Cast and crew spend time during class and after school rehearsals to put on the best possible showing of Wizard of Oz. Show dates are next week  Feb 17 – 20 at 7:30 pm. Students get in free with ID, adult tickets are $10 and children under 12 are $7.