{"id":23368,"date":"2025-02-26T12:42:39","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T19:42:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-middle-school-prepares-to-perform-the-wizard-of-oz-youth-edition\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:34:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:34:20","slug":"cortez-middle-school-prepares-to-perform-the-wizard-of-oz-youth-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-middle-school-prepares-to-perform-the-wizard-of-oz-youth-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez Middle School prepares to perform \u2018The Wizard of Oz: Youth Edition\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The Cortez Middle School drama program will present \u201cThe Wizard of Oz: Youth Edition\u201d starting this Friday. (Angela Gabardi\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

This weekend, follow the yellow brick road to Cortez Middle School for an enchanting, musical rendition of a classic tale retold by the middle school drama program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Wizard of Oz: Youth Edition\u201d will be held at the school, 450 W. Second St., on Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. General admission tickets are $10 and non-CMS students and senior tickets are $6. CMS staff, CMS students, MCHS drama program students and children 2 years old and under may attend for free.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Wizard of Oz: Youth Edition\u201d follows the story of Dorothy Gale as she journeys to the Land of Oz, meeting beloved characters like the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion along the way. Through her desire to go back to Kansas, she learns that there is \u201cno place like home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"From
From left: Macie McDonald (Wicked Witch of the West), Aubriana Trujillo (Dorothy Gale) and Athena Maria Sophia Cabauatan (Glinda the Good Witch). (Angela Gabardi\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

This isn\u2019t the first time choir teacher Marla Sitton and CMS theater teacher and director Angela Gabardi have produced this play. Gabardi played the role of Dorothy her senior year of high school. Sitton was the musical director at that time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my second time directing this play,\u201d Sitton said. \u201cIt is also the second time doing this play with Angela. When she was a senior, she was our Dorothy. Very sentimental for me getting to experience it with her as a student performer and now as a co-director.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis show holds a special place in our hearts, not only as teachers, but as friends,\u201d Gabardi added.<\/p>\n

Seventy-one students are part of the production\u2019s cast and crew.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the best things about our shows here at the middle school are that the show is entirely produced and run by the students,\u201d Sitton said. \u201cWe do not have any adults helping.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the unique aspects of producing this play has been found with the usage of a live dog and the construction of the play\u2019s set.<\/p>\n

\"Munchkins
Munchkins in Munchkin Land. (Angela Gabardi\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The school\u2019s counseling dog, Moxie Preskenis, plays Toto in the three Kansas scenes. Once Dorothy and Toto have been transported via tornado to Oz, Toto is played by cast members Izzy Caciagli and Kamryn Murphy.<\/p>\n

The Emerald City set is composed of various green shades of fabric that are draped over flats to create the city\u2019s buildings. A \u201cmaster flat\u201d was created by students to hide and reveal sets as Dorothy travels through Oz.<\/p>\n

Another aspect of the play\u2019s production came in working to nail the musical numbers and learn a big dance number.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the music is really tricky,\u201d Sitton said. \u201cWe have had to really work on the notes for accuracy and learning how to sing in parts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seventh grade counselor Carrie Schneider choreographed the \u201cbig\u201d Jitterbug number in the musical, and Gabardi shared some students who normally prefer to be behind the scenes chose to join in on the dance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis number is exciting because not only does it have a large portion of the cast, but it has some tech kids who chose to branch out and be behind the scenes and on stage,\u201d Gabardi said.<\/p>\n

Sitton and Gabardi noted their favorite part of working on this play came from seeing the students\u2019 excitement as things came together, as well as seeing their joy behind the scenes while working on the play.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s always exciting for the kids to see things begin to come together,\u201d Sitton said. \u201cSometimes they have a hard time trusting the process and when things just come together, there is truly a sense of wonder and accomplishment among the cast and crew.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the laughter surrounding every moment \u2026 these students adore each other and it just so much fun to watch them create and giggle,\u201d Gabardi said.<\/p>\n

Athena Maria Sophia Cabauatan, who plays Glinda the Good Witch, shared that she was proud of how hard her fellow students have worked during play preparations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI take pride in how much effort everyone has put into the production. Regardless of whether they\u2019re a crew member, actor or a part of leadership, every single person who has worked for this show has added their own piece of positivity, ambition and hard work to create a beautiful piece of art and entertainment for everyone to enjoy,\u201d Cabauatan said.<\/p>\n

Finally, the co-directors shared their hope that the community would come out and support the middle school students and see their hard work come to life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese kids are amazing,\u201d Gabardi said. \u201cTheir ability to create, collaborate and shine is outstanding. These are little humans who are putting large amounts of time, energy and passion, and they are so excited to share it with a great audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe community should comes watch these kids do something great,\u201d Sitton echoed. \u201cWe are one of the few middle schools in the state that actually has a middle school drama program and one that puts on productions to boot. Come support us and see how great these kids really are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tickets are available online and at the door. Tickets can be bought online prior to the start of the show<\/a> at www.mchsdrama.booktix.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

71 students bringing classic tale to life, musical style<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1060,21,147,155,28,60,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-arts-entertainment","tag-cortez","tag-cortez-middle-school","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23368"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78086,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23368\/revisions\/78086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23368"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}