By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
Coming in April to the Victoria Hall lobby and the Cobourg Public Library – photo ops for you and your friends.
With their production of The Wizard of Oz soon to hit the Concert Hall stage, the VOS is setting up cut-outs of the key characters of this beloved tale as a fun form of advance advertising in these two locations, offering the opportunity to take a selfie with your own face atop one of them. Dorothy, Toto and Glinda the Good Witch are on one, with the Tin Man, Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion on the other.
And if the style of the artwork seems familiar, that’s no surprise. Local artist Katie Flindall gets the credit for these beautiful pieces, rendered in the light and winsome style that has found a significant following throughout North America.
A look at her web page at https://moonhouseart.com/artist/ offers a lengthy and impressive list of accomplishments – not just the exhibitions, magazine work, logo commissions and awards, but also children’s books she has illustrated (and authored – she’s currently at work on her fourth children’s book).
“I do paintings, murals, commissions for people, sell prints and cards with my artwork – I’ve been doing that many, many years,” she said in a recent interview.
In a serendipitous touch, given the show VOS is staging, the Vermont-born artist grew up in Kansas and considers herself a prairie girl. She came to Canada after meeting her husband Sandy in Italy, while they were both buying a slice of pizza.
They are now the parents of four children Luca, Rose, Remi and Lila. Luca is busy with his studies at CCI, but the others are part of the Wizard of Oz team. Rose plays the Mayor of Munchkin City and a Jitterbug. Remi is one of the Munchkins and also a Flying Monkey. And Lila (along with Jackie Nichols and Myranda Leclerc) is part of the set-painting team with her mother.
Flindall gives Wizard of Oz producer Florence Fletcher credit for coming up with the idea.
“I sketched them out and designed the concept and made it happen,” she said.
You can see these works of art at Victoria Hall and the Cobourg Public Library in advance of the show, which opens April 18. There are 7:30 p.m. shows April 18, 19, 20, 25, 26 and 27, with 2 p.m. matinees April 20, 21 and 27.
Tickets are $32.50, available at vostheatre.com and (with service fee) at the Victoria Hall Concert Hall box office (905-372-2210), and group rates are available.
