Toto
Dorothy's beloved dog. We plan to build two separate Toto puppets that can be manipulated by actors - one hand puppet, which will be operated by Dorothy and another rod-puppet which will be operated by the actor cast as Toto. This actor will need excellent coordination and will also have some half-barked, half-spoken lines of dialogue to master. Please note that auditionees for the role of Toto will have a puppeteering task in place of the monologue. See below for details.
PUPPETEERING TASK
Prepare the following for the role of Toto.
Toto has a very special role in The Wizard of Oz. Instead of speaking in full sentences, Toto communicates through barks, sounds, and half-spoken words, brought to life through movement and puppetry. Instead of a monologue, you will find a short section from the script in below. In your audition, we will give you a small soft toy to represent Toto. We are not looking for you to “play with” the toy—we are looking for you to bring it to life. You should learn Toto’s lines, but don’t worry about getting the rrufs, gruffs and growls precisely accurate. We are more interested in seeing how you communicate what Toto is thinking and feeling using a combination of your voice (whether barking, growling or speaking in doggy-English) and your puppet. The panel will read the lines that other characters speak so you should also think about how your puppet reacts to dialogue from other characters when Toto is not ‘speaking’.
SCENE 4
Munchkinland
DOROTHY
Toto? Toto, where are you?
TOTO
Rruf-rruf-rruf-rruf grrr!
DOROTHY
Oh Toto!
TOTO
Gruff!
DOROTHY
Toto! I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.
TOTO
(Somewhat singing “Over the Rainbow”)
Rrrrome, rhere! Rover ra rrrrainrow!
TOTO gestures, indicating they must be over the rainbow.
DOROTHY
You're right, Toto! We must be over the rainbow!
GLINDA enters magically.
Now I know we're not in Kansas.
GLINDA
Are you a good witch, or a bad witch?
DOROTHY
Who, me? Why, I'm not a witch at all. I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas.
GLINDA
Oh! Well... is that the witch?
DOROTHY
Who, Toto?
TOTO
(Growling at GLINDA)
Grrrr.
SONG
There is a ‘Guide Vocal’ track for you to learn the song and an ‘Accompaniment’ track without vocals for you to sing with. We would like to hear you sing with the ‘Accompaniment’ track for the audition.
The merry old land of oz (performance accompaniment)
The Merry old land of oz (guide vocals)
Lyrics
Ha - ha - ha, ho - ho - ho - And a couple of tra - la - las
That's how we laugh the day away, in the Merry Old Land of Oz!
Bzz - bzz - bzz, chirp - chirp - chirp - and a couple of la - di - das
That's how the crickets crick all day, in the Merry Old Land of Oz!
We get up at twelve and start to work at one.
Take an hour for lunch and then at two we're done.
Jolly good fun!
Ha - ha - ha, ho - ho - ho - And a couple of tra - la - las
That's how we laugh the day away, In the Merry Old Land of Oz!