Bel Aire Elementary set to present musical ‘Wizard of Oz’ next week

Bel Aire Elementary School fifth-graders — from left, Emerald cast members Piper Wein as Dorothy, Liliana Zyakun as the Scarecrow, Kiana Cervantes as Toto and Alexander Davis as the Tin Man, with Eli Etemad (bottom) as the Lion — rehearse March 14 for this year’s school musical, ‘The Wizard of Oz: Youth Edition.’ (Nick Shorten Jr. / For The Ark)

There’s no place like Bel Aire Elementary School for this year’s annual student musical, “The Wizard of Oz: Youth Edition,” where some 162 students across two casts will perform March 20-24.

“I never thought I was going to be here,” says fourth-grader Bradley Mill, who plays the Lion in the Rainbow cast. He’s been in several other plays and says he likes to use his emotions to perform.

Put on by the school’s Parent Teacher Association, the musical has been adapted for young actors from the 1939 classic film, itself derived from L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s book “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.”

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