Open Arts Alliance is offering a virtual forum featuring Dr. Mimi Winick on Wednesday, March 1 from 7:00pm to 8:30pm. Register Virtually HERE.
The free session, which you can access via Zoom, is titled “Broomsticks to Bubbles: Feminine Power in The Wizard of Oz,” which of course is set to be performed through Open Arts Alliance later this month.
Dr. Winick said she plans to bring her expertise on the history of witches and feminism to talk about the depiction of witches, feminine power, and magic in “The Wizard of Oz.”
Some of the topics she’ll address include how unusual it was, for example, to include a good witch character, and how good power, wicked power, and the wizard’s “humbug power” shape each other.
Also, she said, she’ll address what’s with the magic shoes and what informed author L. Frank Baum’s creation of these characters and these intriguing symbols.
“Baum himself was both a feminist, as we’d call it today, and an adherent of a new religious movement that featured magical practices,” she said. “He supported women’s right to vote and joined the Victorian new age religion Theosophy, which had favorable views of female power—and took magical power very seriously.”
Rocco Natale, the director of OAA said he was excited for the talk on Wednesday.
“It is a pleasure to welcome Dr. Winick to Open Arts Alliance’s virtual space for what we hope will be the first of many community forums,” he said. “This is a chance for our adult community to hear from a leading expert in the field about the intersectionality of pop-culture and academia as it pertains to the art OAA is undertaking with students of all ages.”
Natale said he was particularly excited to welcome Dr. Winick who is both a decorated scholar and a dear friend – not to mention Greenwich High School alumnus.
“Anyone who has heard Mimi speak on this subject knows that her knowledge is deep, far reaching and provocative in the way that cultural conversations demand. We truly are lucky she agreed to pioneer this initiative with us,” Natale said.
“I’m excited for this talk to be a real conversation,” Winick said. “Rocco will bring his own research into the play and experience of it, as well as the knowledge of his actors, who have been developing their original interpretations of their characters. I’m excited to learn from their work, too.”
Register Virtually HERE.
See also:
Open Arts Alliance Presents The Wizard of Oz
Open Arts Alliance is proud to present the beloved family musical, The Wizard of Oz, at Westport Country Playhouse on Saturday, March 18 at 2:00 and 7:00 pm.
