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Showing posts from November, 2012

The Gospel According to the Wizard of Oz

As requested, here is a version of my 'Wizard of Oz' address delivered in services at Newcastle-under-Lyme, Macclesfield and Chester. Part 1: There's No Place Like Home Many years ago I wrote a play based on The Wizard of Oz and with a group of university friends I took it to the Edinburgh Fringe festival which was very exciting for everyone except the poor audiences that sat through it. It was not a play that deserves to be remembered but the process of researching that play developed an interest in the Wizard of Oz that remains strong to this day. The Wizard of Oz is really America's only successful fairy tale. It was the first feature film ever shown on American television and for many years on public holidays normal programming was suspended so the film could be enjoyed again. The only other films TV networks did that with were religious films. In writing a play about The Wizard of Oz one of the questions in my mind was why it was so successful.   So