‘Supportive,’ ‘loving,’ ‘unhinged’: ACT’s refreshing casting choices poised to make ‘Wizard of Oz’ sparkle

Sep 29, 2023

Chanel Tilghman as Dorothy (left), Cathleen Riddley as the Lion and Darryl V. Jones as the Tin Man rehearse "The Wizard of Oz" at American Conservatory Theater.

When American Conservatory Theater announced its cast for "The Wizard of Oz," I kept having the same reaction as my eyes scanned the list:

Oh, yes, Cathleen Riddley truly is the Cowardly Lion! She was made to emit a roar that comes out as a harumph or meow!

And Darryl V. Jones, with his resonant baritone and inborn dignity? What a perfect Tin Man!

Wait, Danny Scheie, who can reveal hidden absurdities and double entendres in any line with just his enunciation, is the Scarecrow?

Director Sam Pinkleton (left) and actors Katrina Lauren McGraw, Cathleen Riddley and Danny Scheie rehearse American Conservatory Theater's "The Wizard of Oz."

And on and on. The ensemble of the show, which begins performances Thursday, June 1, at ACT's Toni Rembe Theater, is a testament to casting as an art form, one distinct from acting and directing. Even if you’ve followed for years the careers of the show's glorious local actors — who also include Katrina Lauren McGraw, El Beh, Courtney Walsh and Beth Wilmurt, among others — "The Wizard of Oz" cast list alone seems to reveal them anew, but for potential they’ve always had.

"The casting process should feel like the city that we’re doing it at," said Director Sam Pinkleton, who held an open-call audition for the show — a rarity at a major theater, since the process is so time-consuming. He’d previously done so for a planned ACT production of "The Rocky Horror Show," which the pandemic foiled.

Director Sam Pinkleton tells actress Danny El-Kurd what to do as she sings at ACT's open audition for its production of "The Rocky Horror Show" at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in October 2019.

"You want to make a room that's going to be really daring and supportive and loving but also, like, unhinged," he went on. "The Wizard of Oz" "is O.G. fantasy, so anything is possible. You want people who are really going to play."

Bay Area hopefuls responded in kind, roller-skating and strip-teasing and playing all kinds of instruments in their auditions, recalled Casting Associate Katie Craddock.

Actors do a group warm-up during ACT's open audition for its production of "The Rocky Horror Show" at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in October 2019.

Pinkleton, she said, "made people feel so safe. When you’re a less experienced actor, and there's like a zillion people in the lobby, and, oh my gosh, the Toni Rembe Theater has 1,000 seats, you have this feeling that you need to show what you can do and make big choices.

"Sam," she continued, "was often asking people to just kind of shake it off and simplify but had really artful ways of saying that and disarming people and getting to that true performer self.

Director Sam Pinkleton oberves actors during ACT's open audition for its production of "The Rocky Horror Show" at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in October 2019. The show was foiled by the pandemic.

"Sometimes performers really limit their own possibilities because casting is often so brutal."

If the stereotypical audition room features a line of tired or sneering power brokers ready to cut off a monologue with a "Next!" mid-sentence, Pinkleton wants his to feel like "a really fun first date": a great experience for all parties no matter where it leads.

For actors who made the cut, many committed to the project as a whole before exact parts were finalized. As Beh, who plays Uncle Henry, explained, "it is casting the room," not the role.

Actors Cathleen Riddley (left), Danny Scheie, Chanel Tilghman and Darryl V. Jones rehearse "The Wizard of Oz" with director Sam Pinkleton (right).

"If you love that actor," said Scheie, "you have the outside-of-the-box thinking that they can play any role."

Director Sam Pinkleton (left) and actors Chanel Tilghman and Ada Westfall rehearse American Conservatory Theater's "The Wizard of Oz."

For Laura Espino, who as part of the 2-year-old company Casting Collective helped cast "The Wizard of Oz," both casting directors and actors must bring particular qualities for a relationship to sparkle. "A really good casting director is a cheerleader who can bring that same cartwheel and level of excitement and energy when person number 242 walks into the room, like, ‘I’m so happy you’re here. I’m rooting for you.’ ‘

She believes the actors who get work all the time aren't necessarily the most polished ones. "It's being able to show your humanity," she said. "The likability factor is the empathy that you’re able to conjure in the room."

"Sometimes they walk in the room, and they can hit the note, but so can a robot," said Keith Carames, another member of the Casting Collective who worked on "The Wizard of Oz." "What do you do when you don't hit the note?"

One audition that every member of the casting team remembered vividly was when McGraw read for Glinda.

"I was reminded of the fact that language is an art," Espino said. "She read the words completely different, like placing an emphasis on ‘ass’ in ‘Kansas’ because ‘Kansas’ is a foreign word to Glinda."

Katrina Lauren McGraw poses at Mill Valley's 142 Throckmorton Theatre, where she played Maria in "The Sound of Music," in 2022.

Her Glinda, recalled Carames, had an all-new vibe, as if her character were saying to Dorothy, "You come here interrupting, and I’ve got things to do today. I’m going to be on the floor. I’m going to be in your face. I’m going to be eating my Snickers bar out of my purse."

"It's not just fairy dust," he went on. "It's like, ‘Let me put my arm around you, kid, and we’re going to walk down the Tenderloin, and watch out for that dog turd on the street.’ "

When McGraw learned she got the part, she was ecstatic.

Katrina Lauren McGraw performs her cabaret act at Martuni's in San Francisco in 2018. She is thrilled to be able to play Glinda in ACT's upcoming production of the "Wizard of Oz."

"I want to be a pretty f—ing princess!" she said. "It's something you’re told that you’re not allowed to be when you’re a 5’10" fat Black girl."

But when she tried on her costume and spun around in her ruffly dress, she realized that from her first "Wizard of Oz" memory, she’d always wanted to be Glinda.

Almost everyone, of any age, has a "Wizard of Oz" memory — a rare phenomenon in a world of increasingly fragmented entertainment options. "For anyone who ever felt out of place," Jones said, the story offered "a dream of going to a place where you could be yourself and you had friends." He recalled being a tormented young Black gay boy who protected himself by isolating himself. "But in Oz there were friends, and you walked down the road together."

Reach Lily Janiak: [email protected]

"The Wizard of Oz": Written by L. Frank Baum. Adapted by John Kane. Music and lyrics by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg. Directed by Sam Pinkleton. Performances begin June 1. Through June 25. $25-$110, subject to change. Toni Rembe Theater, 415 Geary St., S.F. 415-749-2228. www.act-sf.org

Lily Janiak joined the San Francisco Chronicle as theater critic in May 2016. Previously, her writing appeared in Theatre Bay Area, American Theatre, SF Weekly, the Village Voice and HowlRound. She holds a BA in theater studies from Yale and an MA in drama from San Francisco State.

Your weekly guide to Bay Area arts & entertainment.