CharlOz — UNC Charlotte’s Oz Festival September 26-29

Charl-Oz Schedule

Thursday, September 26

At Knight Theater

• 7 to 9:30 p.m.: Talk and book signing reception by Gregory Maquire. Get free tickets here.

At Popp Martin Student Union Art Gallery

• All day: Student art exhibition “Oz Illustrations”

At Halton Reading Room at Atkins Library

• 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.: UNC Charlotte’s English Learning Community Oz themed poetry reading

Thursday’s detailed schedule.

Friday, September 27

At J. Murrey Atkins Library

• 10 a.m to 4 p.m.: Talks, demos, tutorials, and more. Also The Wiz VR Experience, and Oz game play

Visualization Lab at Atkins Library

• 10:10 AM-11:05 AM: Brady Schwind talks about The Wiz and Tom H. John.
• 11:10 AM-12:05 PM: Eric Shanower talks about how he found a career in Oz.
• 12:10 PM-1:05 PM: Brady Schwind talks about The Wiz and Tom John.
• 1:10 PM-4:00 PM: The Wiz VR Experience.

Makerspace at Atkins Library

• 12:40 PM-2:40 PM: Drew Allison offers a hands-on tutorial.
• 3:00 PM-4:00 PM: Janet K. Lee demonstrates how to draw Oz Characters.

T3 at Atkins Library

• 10:10 AM-10:30 AM: T. Craft talks about work as the artistic director at Offsite Connecticut Theatre.
• 10:35 AM-11:05 AM: Eric Gjovaag talks about the process of creating a definitive The Wizard of Oz website.
• 11:10 AM-11:35 AM: Ryan Bunch talks about his Oz and the Musical book.
• 11:40 AM-11:50 AM: Carlee Macaluso talks about fate and free will in Wicked.
• 11:50 AM-12:00 PM: Sierra Johnson talks about the character of Dorothy in many adaptations, including Dorothy Must Die.
• 12:05 PM-12:35 PM: Atticus Gannaway talks about Baum, and the illustrators and publishers involved during the process of creating the original Oz series.

Halton Reading Room at Atkins Library

• 10:10 AM-11:10 AM: Janet K. Lee, Eric Shanower, and others discuss the process of creating Oz Characters in a panel moderated by Jessica Burke.
• 11:15 AM-12:15 PM: Heather Greene talks about the story of the Wicked Witch and Glinda through cinematic history.
• 12:20 PM-1:20 PM: Angelica Shirley Carpenter talks about Matilda Joslyn Gage, a major leader in the early women’s movement and L. Frank Baum’s mother-in-law.
• 1:25 PM-2:15 PM: Mark West, Katharine Kittredge, J.L. Bell, Walter Squire, Paige Gray, Angelica Shirley Carpenter, Gita Dorothy Morena, and Dina Massachi talk about their book, The Characters of Oz in a panel moderated by Jane Albright.
• 2:20 PM-2:50 PM: Jason Black and Jeff Walker unpack scenes from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and The Wizard of Oz concerning the promise of discovering one’s “fantastical home” and “chosen family” as equipment for living in an uncertain and hazardous world.
• 3:00 PM-3:30 PM: Megan Lynn Isaac talks about the intersection of public authority and gender across the fourteen Oz novels.
• 3:30 PM-4:00 PM: J.L Bell talks about governmental authority and the long line of literary scholarship about Oz as a utopia, to indicate patterns and show the meaning of monarchy in Baum’s Oz.

At Popp Martin Student Union Art Gallery

• All day: Student art exhibition “Oz Illustrations”

Area 49’s Gaming Lab at Atkins Library

• All day: Oz gameplay

Projective Eye Gallery

• All day: Land of Oz exhibition

Friday’s detailed schedule.

Sunday, September 29

The Dubois Center at UNC Charlotte Center City Auditorium 1

• 10:05 a.m. to 12:05 p.m.: Watch the premiere of His Majesty, The Scarecrow of Oz, with music provided by Ethan Uslan, and stay for Nate Barlow’s talk about his restoring process
• 12:10 to 1:05 p.m.: Virginia Kantra talks about what it means for Dorothy Gale to be one of the first American heroines.
• 1:10 to 2:10 p.m.: Shundra Allison, Elizabeth Cochrane, Jashonai Payne, Marian Myers, and Lynne Wiesecke discuss creating and implementing Oz curriculum in a panel moderated by Scott Gartlan.
• 2:15 to 3:15 p.m.: Gita Dorothy Morena, the great-granddaughter of L. Frank Baum, the great-granddaughter of Matilda Gage shares personal stories about the impact of this powerful lineage.
• 3:20 to 3:50 p.m.: Dina Massachi and Mark West talk about their new Oz publication.

The Dubois Center at UNC Charlotte Center City Auditorium 2

• 10:05 to 10:35 a.m.: Hiroe Suzuki talks about male characters in the Oz series who show care capability.
• 10:40 to 11:10 a.m.: Judy Bieber analyzes representations of protective and nurturing father figures, and examines depictions of heteronormative marriage, which are infrequent and none too flattering
• 11:15 to 11:45 a.m.: Laurence Brenner explores the movie Return to Oz as a treatise on trauma, memory, and mental health.
• 11:50 a.m. to 12:20 p.m.: Holly Humes and Vibiana Cvetkovic talk about the adaptation of the original The Wonderful Wizard of Oz into the novel The Hunger Games and the adaptation of the 1939 MGM Oz film into the 2012 film The Hunger Games.
• 12:25 to 12:55 p.m.: Eric Gjovaag looks at how math shows up in Oz, and also how Oz can be used to teach math.
• 1 to 1:55 p.m.: UNC Charlotte Musical Theatre Students Ezra DeVane, Reem Nour, Caitlin O’Hagan, Izzy Oyler, and Trinity Turner perform a set of Oz songs.
• 2 to 4 p.m.: Walter Squire introduces The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz film, which will be subsequently shown.

Projective Eye Gallery

• All day: Land of Oz exhibition

Sunday’s Detailed Schedule.

Presenters of Festival

The festival is hosted in collaboration with:

• J. Murrey Atkins Library at UNC Charlotte
• UNC Charlotte — The Dubois Center
• UNC Charlotte College of Humanities & Earth and Social Sciences
• Land of Oz — North Carolina
• ImaginOn
• Project Eye Gallery at UNC Charlotte
• Area 49
• The Oz Club
• UNC Charlotte Interdisciplinary Studies