Tessa Hemphill, Playing The Lead Role of “Dorothy” In The Wizard of Oz

By: Allissa Lozano

Tessa Hemphill ‘22 has been cast as the lead role of Dorothy in the Spring production of The Wizard of Oz. She has a lot of experience performing in musicals.

Judy Garland, the American actress, singer and dancer, played the original Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz (1939), she is also one of Hemphill’s favorite actresses.

To Hemphill, this is a dream to her, “I’ve loved this role forever and I always wanted the chance to play it. I love Dorothy’s wide-eyed and innocent view of the world and how she gives everybody a chance, and I think playing her character alongside some of my best friends is just the coolest thing ever!”

Since the third grade, Hemphill has been participating in Musicals with the Tulare County Office of Education Theater Company (TCOE). TCOE has three shows a year, and holds open auditions for anyone in VUSD.

With TCOE, Hemphill has performed in 16 shows. She has been involved in productions like Frozen, Newsies, The Little Mermaid and many others. Most recently she played Anna in their production of Frozen and she played a newsie in their production of Newsies over the summer.

The TCOE productions are one of Hemphill’s favorites because, “Anyone can do it and it has really given me a family and love for theater.” She describes the process of putting on a production as, “Once the rehearsal process starts for a show, we learn all our vocals, then go to choreography, then start running the show at our TCOE rehearsal room and suddenly we’re in the theater doing a show! It’s always been an awesome way for me to not just improve my abilities but to make new friends outside of just Redwood, because I have so many friends now that I wouldn’t have met if it weren’t for TCOE. I’ll never forget my first show there, it was The Little Mermaid, and I was a fish and a frog.”

“We both care a lot for others and their happiness, so I guess it doesn’t take much prep to have some of her personality traits.”
Tessa Hemphill on her connection to her character

Hemphill feels a deep connection between herself and Dorthy, “We both care a lot for others and their happiness, so I guess it doesn’t take much prep to have some of her personality traits.”

Hemphill tries to channel the perspective of Dorothy by putting herself in those red slippers and walking around in them, “Dorothy and I are in very different situations and time periods from the beginning to end of the show.

As hard as it is, I try to reflect before going onstage on how I would feel and react if it were me in Kansas going through what Dorothy is. I think it helps me to understand more why she says what she says and does what she does throughout the course of the story and makes my acting more genuine.”

Last year in the production of Once Upon a Mattress, Hemphill played the role of Lady Lucille, one of the ladies in waiting. The lead of Dorthy is a major role and Hemphill feels that, “It’s definitely a big change being a lead role this year, but it has been one of the coolest times also. It’s awesome to get to work more with my directors one on one than I did last year, and I’m just ecstatic they gave me the chance to represent Redwood Theater with a role as awesome as Dorothy!”

I’m just ecstatic they gave me the chance to represent Redwood Theater with a role as awesome as Dorothy!
Tessa Hemphill

Photo Credit Abby Miller/Redwood Gigantea

Managing getting an education and being a lead role is a bit tricky. During times Hemphill explains that, “It’s pretty difficult sometimes…especially when I have zero time to do my homework or study, but in the end it all works out just fine.”

Theater wise Hemphill’s two biggest inspiration are Sutton Foster, an American actress, singer and dancer, best known for her work on Broadway and Philipa Soo, also an American actress and singer, who is best known for her role of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton in the Broadway musical Hamilton. But overall Hemphill’s greatest encouragement is her two loving parents.

Hemphill is involved in many curricular activities, she is an avid member of CSF and is a FFA officer. She is also involved in Ranger and Chamber Choir, which to her is, “so much fun!” She wishes to go to either Cal Poly, Pepperdine, or UCLA.

In Hemphill’s life, this musical has been such an amazing moment, “It’s been such an experience and I’m so glad I got the opportunity to do this because I’ve learned so much from my directors and from this cast.”