While most eyes were on Dorothy, the scarecrow, tin man and cowardly lion, band and orchestra students worked together to perform in the orchestra pit, supplying the music for “The Wizard of Oz” Thursday through Sunday in the school auditorium.

The actors had a month to practice their lines, but members of the orchestra pit had only two weeks to prepare due to copyright rules.

“We practiced a lot [and] solved a lot of problems,”
sophomore Natalie Brown said.

The pit orchestra had to learn much more than the music.

“We had to plan
getting coordinated with actors,” pit orchestra director Carol Allen said.  “It gets fixed up pretty quickly as we get used to the show.”

Some of the musicians worried about not being able to
do school work while working on play. Others worried about the performances.

“Not
being able to finish homework [is tough]. I wanted to fall asleep in journalism,” Brown said.

Orchestra pit members were confident going before the play.

“I
 guess it all works out in the end. Everyone was ready,” junior Hana Kim said.

Allen said the key is to not panic.

“This is my sixth year doing this, and it always looks like ‘how
 are we going to get this together,’ but it works,” she said.

By 
Samantha Watson