SUBMITTED NEWS RELEASE
Student actress plays Dorothy once again as her last high school role
They say that what goes around, comes around; and it seems that the Yellow Brick Road of Oz is no exception. On May 19 and 21, Barbara Rugg reprises her role as Dorothy in the classic production of “The Wizard of Oz,” at Sage Ridge School, a part that she also played several years ago in for the Get in the Act Youth Theatre Company as a student at Zephyr Cove Elementary School at Stateline, Nev., on the south shore of Lake Tahoe.
As a graduating high school senior, Rugg has a performance resume that includes screenwork for Reno-area film companies, voiceover work for an off-Broadway puppetry performance in New York and Atlanta, and stage experience with the Nevada Civic Light Opera Company, the D.G. Menchetti Youth Shakespeare program, and the Nevada Shakespeare Company. For the past two summers, she has organized a troupe of elementary-school students to perform shows for local senior citizens and nursing homes. In August, she will begin studying drama at Brandeis University in Massachusetts.
Her role as Dorothy at Sage Ridge School is the culmination of many seasons of performance at the independent, college-preparatory school in south Reno. Over the past several years, under the direction of Cameron Crain (who serves as both the drama instructor at Sage Ridge School and the President/ Managing Artistic Director of the Nevada Shakespeare Company), she has appeared in roles such as Lady Macbeth, Puck, Fagin, and Juliette, among others.
But her role as Dorothy— twice— is not the limit of Barbara Rugg’s involvement with the magical land of Oz. When Frank L. Baum’s American fairytale centennial was celebrated by author Edward Einhorn and Hungry Tiger Press in 1999, she served as the model for the character of Princess Ayala in the novel “Paradox in Oz,” and returned in the 2005 sequel, “The Living House of Oz.”
In addition to the May performances of “The Wizard of Oz,” Rugg will appear as a character at the KNPB “Afternoon Tea & Lawn Party,” on June 26 as Reno’s local public television station recreates the Britain of the early 1900s in a fundraiser to support British drama and comedy on KNPB.
Reserved tickets for the Sage Ridge School production of “The Wizard of Oz” are $20 and selling fast. General Admission tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students and seniors and will be sold at the door. For tickets and information, contact Mr. Cameron Crain, 775.852.6222 x525, [email protected].
