Wicked Witch Kidnaps NEN Mascot in Unsuccessful Effort to Regain Slippers

The hunt for the Red Slippers took a scary turn at Northeast Nodaway, but it all ended well as around 125 people watched the drama unfold.

Everyone thought that the Wicked Witch of the West was killed when Dorothy doused her with the water bucket back in 1939 before returning to Kansas. But the red slippers, which held Oz’s magical powers, left the land when Dorothy went back home and were lost for many years.

For many years, the Wicked Witch (Brittany Moran) secretly reconstituted her powers and reassembled her notorious flying army (Kolby Sybert, A.J. Adwell, Brendon Deardorff, Casey Briney). Finally, after many devious means, she found out that the slippers were somewhere near Ravenwood (MO). So she kidnapped the Northeast Nodaway mascot, the Bluejay, brought it back to her castle, and demanded the return of the slippers as ransom, or her winged monkeys would pluck the Bluejay completely apart.

The head cheerleader, Sarah Linville, was teleported to Oz by the Good Witch (Victoria Moran) and tasked with the recovery of the Bluejay mascot and the red slippers. Without the slippers, the power of Oz would slip away and eventually, the Wicked Witch of the West would completely take over.
People are so afraid of the Wicked Witch that they can only speak in clues, because she has eyes everywhere. But like Dorothy, Sarah is sent off with some presents of goodwill by the Munchkins (Paige West, Dana Chandler, Salina Deardorff). She meets up with the Scarecrow (Colton Swalley), the Tin Woodman (Brittany Burns), and the Cowardly Lion (Corby Schmitz).

The Lion is especially angry, because the Witch is usurping what he regards as his forest. But when the Lion wavers, Sarah goes by herself to confront the Witch and demand the return of the Bluejay mascot. Things look to go south for Sarah, but then all of a sudden, out of the blue, the Lion finds his courage and together he, the Woodman, and the Scarecrow along with Sarah defeat the Witch and the Winged Monkeys and rescue the Bluejay mascot.

When Sarah and the Bluejay return home, it turns out that the Wizard of Oz had been hiding with the red slippers in the basement of the Northeast Nodaway school; the Wizard had found the slippers and did not want anything to happen to them with the Witch still alive. But with the Witch dead, he returns to Oz and the magic is restored.

The dinner theater and school play, which was held Saturday, raised money for both the cheerleaders and the band; it was all in good fun. Spaghetti, salad, lemonade, and desserts were served. There has been plenty of magic floating around the community of Northeast Nodaway; while a lot of hard work went into the production of the play, someone still found time to drop a flock of loud, annoying pink flamingos in someone’s yard on the north end of Ravenwood. Administrators Jason McDowell, Brian Grove, and Ken Grow played a role in the play; they agreed to let Oz stay in the NEN school basement despite their concerns about liability to the school.