Eastfield’s production staff of “The Great and Terrible Wizard of Oz” invited both the original playwright, Philip C. Klapperich, and the original actor who played the cowardly lion, Jake Minton, to watch the show.

“It was so fun seeing this play,” Minton said. “It brought back so many memories of our production and all those parts, seeing all this made me think, ‘Oh, I remember’ and that’s sweet.”

The play was first produced with a group called The House Theatre of Chicago that was started by several SMU alumni. “We moved to Chicago and started our own company and did all these new plays, wrote a bunch of stuff and this was one of the plays,” he said.

After acting through high school and college, Minton lived in Chicago for about 12 years and later moved back to Dallas. He is now teaching children and young adults how to act. 

“I played this role 20 years ago,” he said. “I haven’t acted on stage for a long time; it has been over a decade. That was our first production in 2005, and the theater did it again about 10 years ago but I was already back in Dallas.” Getting the role of the lion was no issue for Minton as his friends thought he was great for the role. “We all read through the script,” he said. “This was back when we were all friends, we still are but we would sit and read through the roles and they just said ‘Yup, Jake’s the Lion.’ I was excited to get the Lion. I love the Tin Man and the Scarecrow, I thought those were great roles — they are all great roles but I really enjoyed playing the Lion. It was fun.”

Seeing the Eastfield version, Minton reminisced on his favorite things about the show, from the little magical moments of moving the props around and making the tornado to seeing the dance moves the cast performed. 

“I thought Jesse did a great job,” he said. “I thought everyone did a great job, it was fun”

Jesse Rodriguez, the actor who played the Lion in Eastfield’s production, shared his gratitude for his role and the attendance of the original Oz actor. “It truly feels unreal,” Rodriguez said, “So much joy flows in me because knowing an actor liked my performance makes me want to continue acting and inspires me to follow my passion.” 

Minton’s attendance at the play motivated Rodriguez to do the best he could. “I felt like I had to exceed some expectations and push myself beyond my limits to find my true potential,” he said. “I think I did good for not having prior experience.”

This show was the beginning of Rodriguez’s acting career and he would “love to have any opportunity to act” in the future.