“The Wizard of Oz” by Italian choreographer Francesco Ventriglia returns to Uruguay

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The classic children’s play “The Wizard of Oz” will come to Uruguay, as Italian choreographer Francesco Ventriglia shows the public, who will attend the first performance since the health emergency was decreed in March 2020, the story of magic, wit, and friendship between Dorothy and the other characters.

Ventriglia explained during the press conference to present this play that although it is a New Zealand production, on this occasion, 95% is developed by Uruguayans, and he remarked on the importance of this title in his personal life after an experience in his childhood when he was hospitalized in a hospital in the north of Italy and was visited by different characters to brighten up the children’s afternoons.

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“In that hospital, I began to dream of being one of them, to be a dancer and an artist, and that’s what I asked my dad when I returned home after 16 months,” he explained.

This is why the adventure begins when Dorothy, who lies in a hospital bed, embarks on a surprising trip to Emerald City. She meets her friends in a ballet that is “as magical as it is real” as she discovers each of the virtues present in the different characters.

“It is a ballet that has a lot of love, and what I focused the dramaturgy on is friendship, which is much more important than love. And what I wanted to tell was this powerful relationship of Dorothy with the friends she meets on this yellow road to return home,” added the Italian choreographer.

As in the beginning, the play ends when Dorothy wakes up from the hospital bed and returns to the real world. Performances will run from September 30 through October 10 at the Adela Reta National Auditorium in Uruguay. This version will feature the direction of Uruguayan María Noel Riccetto and music by Frenchman Francis Poulenc.

Ventriglia has had a close relationship with the South American country between 2018 and 2020. He was deputy artistic director of the National Ballet alongside former Spanish director Igor Yebra.