A Day in Oz, or Scraps from Oz is a short play written in 1924 by Ruth Plumly Thompson, and first performed in 1925 as part of the Reilly & Lee promotional efforts for the Oz book series.
The play was designed for child actors. Reilly & Lee supplied scripts and costumes to department stores and bookstores, which would cast local child actors in the play and stage it in their stores. The play came with its own songs, four compositions with lyrics by Thompson and music by Norman Sherrerd — "The Scarecrow's Song," "The Tin Woodman's Song," "The Song of the Wizard of Oz," and "The Song of the Cowardly Lion." (The publisher simultaneously attempted to place the songs with record companies, notably the Victor Talking Machine Company — though this effort was not successful.)
A Day in Oz was not the only play sponsored by Reilly & Lee in this way; there was also Eleanor MacMillan's Schooldays in the Land of Oz.
References[]
- David L. Greene and Dick Martin. The Oz Scrapbook. New York, Random House, 1977.