BWW Interview - Shanice Williams' HS Drama Teacher Shares Details on THE WIZ LIVE Rehearsals & More

Since casting for NBC's THE WIZ LIVE was announced this summer, New Jersey's Rahway High School has been celebrating the success of its recent graduate Shanice Williams, who was chosen to take on the iconic role of Dorothy in NBC's upcoming live broadcast. The 18-year-old will star opposite such luminaries as Grammy and Golden Globe-winner Queen Latifah as the Wizard, nine-time Grammy-winner Mary J. Blige as Evillene, original Dorothy, Stephanie Mills, as Auntie Em and David Alan Grier as the Cowardly Lion.

The New Jersey native, who was trained in musical theater at Rahway High School, was selected out of hundreds of applicants nationwide who had auditioned to portray the Kansas farm girl who gets swept up in a tornado and is sent to the mysterious land of Oz.

Today, BWW catches up with Alison Dooley, Williams' Rahway High drama teacher who has been in close contact with her former student since rehearsals for the production got underway.

How have things been going for Shanice so far in the rehearsal process?

Right now she's just really enjoying the work. Each day is exciting, it's hard, but she's loving every minute of it. Everyone's been very supportive and has an excellent work ethic. She has nothing but positive things to say about everyone she's working with and how amazing they are and their willingness to treat her as an equal.

That's wonderful to hear.

Yes. As you can imagine, as a teacher I was concerned for her about that, wondering is everyone going to be nice to her, are they going to treat her like a kid. But up to now, all the feedback that I'm getting is that she's very comfortable in her place there and knows what she needs to get done. And she's getting the same vibe from everybody else - they know the job they have to do, and they're getting it done.

Is she thinking ahead to the actual broadcast or is she just very focused on rehearsals right now?

She's taking it one day at a time, which I think is a very mature approach. You know, take the task at hand today, do the best you can in this moment and the rest will take care of itself. I know a lot of people have been questioning her, asking things like, 'what are you going to do after?' And she answers, 'I can't think about that now, I have to enjoy today's blessings.' So she is taking one day at a time, one week at a time, so I'm really proud of that very mature attitude she has as she gets closer to "Game Day," as we call it.

What does the High School have planned for the night of December 3rd when the show airs live?

We're going to have a big event in the auditorium. We actually got Comcast to drop a cable line into our auditorium so that we can show it on the large screen. We're going to have a presentation before the eight o'clock hour which will be made up of clips of her performing at the high school and commentary about awards that she received throughout high school as well as some clips which have already been shown on TV about her hometown. There will be our mayor and local dignitaries and Board of Education members and school faculty, some students, some community members, so we're anticipating a fun night to cheer her on collectively, as a community.

Yes, it truly is a community celebration.

It is. As much as it is Shanice's success and certainly her talent, we're very proud of the school community, and the Board of Education is very proud that they believed in arts programming, and continued to support it by providing resources for students like Shanice so that they can get everything they need in their study of musical theater in school. You know Shanice didn't study privately, these were classes she took in school every day. And wouldn't it be nice if every kid in America could say they took musical theater in school every day. So we're really proud of our collective efforts in programming and curricular offerings and performance opportunities that we created for her. It was a stepping stone to where she is today.

Are you working on a production right now?

Yes, I'm directing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, that will go up on December 18th and then our all-school musical will be Mary Poppins, that will go up in March.

Have the theater kids expressed that Shanice has been an inspiration for them?

Oh absolutely. She was actually back recently, for what we call "Rahway's Own". It's a local town initiative to recognize Rahway residents that have acquired some success, not only in the arts, for example Carl Sagan was from Rahway, different athletes who have achieved acclaim. So the town started this initiative where they produce posters of Rahway's Own and place them in the downtown area. They feature a quote about Rahway and how their journey started in the town. So Shanice was the most recent inductee and she had a poster, so we did a program at the high school which she came back for and spoke to the students about having a dream and believing that it could happen and working hard and never giving up on your dream and never forgetting where you came from. It was very inspirational to the students and to the faculty as well. It was refreshing to hear that she hasn't forgotten her humble beginnings.

Sounds like it was a special day.

It was a great day, as I'm sure December 3rd will also be a great day for us to celebrate, even though she won't be there, she'll be with us in spirit and heart for sure. And you can't help but think that even though she's so young, it's just the beginning of so many wonderful opportunities to come.

Absolutely, a star is born as they say.

Yes, a star is born!

THE WIZ LIVE! will air Thursday, December 3 on NBC (live). The network will air a reprise telecast on Saturday, Dec. 19 (8-11 p.m. ET). NBC continues its latest musical holiday tradition with a live television production of the groundbreaking Tony Award-winning Broadway show that gave a new voice to the vivid world of Oz in a fresh, funky, sing-a-long journey down the yellow brick road. Craig Zadan and Neil Meron serve as executive producers. Kenny Leon will direct with Harvey Fierstein providing new written material. "The Wiz Live!" is produced by Universal Television in association with Cirque Du Soleil Theatrical.

Photo by: Paul Gilmore/NBC

Photo by: Jeff Riedel/NBC