A packed theatre at Revesby Workers Club on June 3 was thrilled by a unique presentation of the ever-popular Wizard of Oz musical, presented by the Children’s Festival to celebrate 20 years promoting multiculturalism.
The Munchkins, Tin Man, the Scarecrow, the Lion, Dorothy and the Wicked Witch of the West all danced and sang along with scores of talented children from more than a dozen cultural communities to create the multicultural Wizard of Oz performance.
The founding President of the Children’s Festival, Thuat Nguyen, praised the producers and performers “for accepting the artistic challenge to create something new to demonstrate the strength of cultural diversity and community harmony.
“We took something of a risk in adapting a highly popular international children’s production to show off the talents of our multicultural community, and it worked!
“Our organisation is indebted to theatrical producer and actor, Mr Brian Laul, who has been an integral part of the Children’s Festival for many years and has brought this wonderful production to the stage.
“The Children’s Festival has always tried to grow and develop and take on new challenges.
“Over the twenty years we have presented thirty different festivals across Sydney, moving from Western Sydney to the Inner West, to the City and to Circular Quay.
“On August 5th we will launch the Children’s Festival in Campbelltown to reflect and showcase the different multicultural mix of South West Sydney.
“On September 16th we will again bring together the wonderfully diverse community of Canterbury-Bankstown for a beautiful festival for the local community”, Mr Nguyen said.
