At university, the awkward Elphaba befriends the popular Galinda and practices sorcery in the hopes of meeting her idol, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00It wasn't enough just to have a piece of choreography.
00:05It needed to show the pain that she was enduring,
00:09but also the surrender to being okay with being alone.
00:13When I move as Elphaba,
00:17I feel free is the first word that comes to mind
00:21because she's consistently defying convention.
00:24It's one of those moments that can't feel choreographed.
00:27This has to look like Elphaba's doing this in real time for the first time.
00:33I love there was a turn where you started to get a little bit frightened by her.
00:37We had to create that language with Cynthia.
00:39So Cynthia finding the sharp edges and finding how her fingers move,
00:43that really informed everything.
00:45So to see that spirit rise inside of her.
00:48She put that hat back on.
00:50She put it on and it wasn't choreographed,
00:54but the dialogue that she's having is,
00:57there's a change in me.
00:59We can look at what she's saying,
01:01but we can't understand until Galinda comes in and validates her.
01:05And now we can all say, okay, I get it.
01:08It's a moment of connecting.
01:11Their instincts are incredible.
01:13They're so deep in those characters
01:15that it really was the easiest part of this piece.
01:19This actually happened in rehearsal.
01:21It was a moment that she thought was never going to happen again,
01:24but they reached across and a tear, like on cue,
01:27poured out of Cynthia's eye and Ari just gave it a little wipe.
01:30It was so powerful.
01:32Everyone in the room felt it with her.
01:36Everyone was just kind of holding space for Elphaba in that room,
01:40and you could hear a pin drop every second of that entire day.
01:46The most special moment to have experienced.
01:50It really does feel like magic.