BECKLEY, WV (LOOTPRESS) – Indecisive weather acted as little deterrent Friday to the residents of Raleigh County in making their way out to Word Park for the latest installment of Friday in the Park.
If the humidity of the day alone was not enough, attendees would have no trouble working up a sweat in attempting to keep pace with the entertainment lined up by the Beckley Events Committee.
The Mercer County Council on Aging got the groove going with their Swinging Senior Line Dancers.
They were followed by the Raleigh County Commission on Aging Line Dancers, who showed off their moves to some classic tunes, including John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” – More on the history of the iconic anthem can be found here.
The dance floor fun concluded with a presentation from the Just for Fun line dancing group.
Theatre West Virginia General Manager Scott Hill then stepped up to address the crowd and present the organization’s very own Dorothy Gale, from their upcoming production of Wizard of Oz.
“When we decided to have Wizard of Oz last year, I had one Dorothy in mind, only one,” Hill declared from the gazebo stage. “And here she is with us today, Ms. Rebekah New, come on up!”
New then takes the stage in full performance garb, as if having just stepped out of a house which itself had just been fortuitously relinquished in Downtown Beckley by a passing tornado.
What followed was a delicately stunning rendition of one of film’s most iconic ballads, “Over the Rainbow,” which notably featured little in the way of artificial amplification.
This would ultimately serve to benefit the performance, as the general volume of the crowd quickly dwindled, allowing the nuances of New’s subtle interactions with the timeless melody to intertwine with the soft afternoon breeze – enveloping listeners in the moment itself, and striking the balance between art and community upon which many of the most significant facets of American culture have been built.
Offstage, New touches on the excitement of welcoming Theatre West Virginia audiences to the wonderful world of Oz in a series of productions set to begin on Sunday.
“We try to make it very immersive,” says the genial New, who took time to speak to LOOTPRESS about the upcoming stage production. “We’re trying to make people feel like they are fully in Oz, and I think people will really enjoy that.”
Theatre West Virginia’s production of Wizard of Oz is set to open this Sunday, July 31, 2022 at Grandview’s Cliffside Amphitheatre, and run until Saturday, August 6, 2022. Tickets, along with more information, are available at the Theatre West Virginia website, and LOOTPRESS coverage on previous Theatre West Virginia events can be seen here.