This week in the arts

There's no place like home, especially if you're on the road for your career.

But Cassie Okenka, who will star as Dorothy Gale in the Broadway in Columbia production of "The Wizard of Oz" Monday and Tuesday at the Koger Center, doesn't mind being away from home to perform such an indelible role.

"It's pretty intimidating," Okenka said of the heel-tapping Dorothy. "It's also kind of exciting. It's kind of fun that I get the chance to play and invent and pay homage to a role so iconic."

You might have seen "The Wizard of Oz" on TNT last month. Okenka said the stage production is a vibrant tribute to the film.

"I basically look at it as more of a celebration of the movie," she said. "But we add a little more."

Of course the classics - "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," "We're Off to See the Wizard" and "Ding-Dong! The Witch is Dead" - will be performed. At her audition, Okenka, whom intrepid MTV viewers will remember from the cable network's competition "Legally Blonde: The Search for Elle Woods," sang "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

She fits the role so well that even her friends back home have taken to calling her by her stage name.

"I'll totally answer to it," Okenka said. "They'll call me it as joke."

The interaction between Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion and the Tin Man is airy and fun - until the Wicked Witch shows up - but intertwined are life lessons. You need a brain, a heart and courage to survive, especially in bitter times such as these.

What is compelling about the production is "the innocence of the characters and the simplicity of them," Okenka said.

"The simple idea of what those of characters are missing is not 'I need a blue sweater,'" she continued. "There's a beauty in that.

"Even right now, it applies. Twenty years ago, it applied. When kids are going to school for the first time, it applies. It's definitely something you can use from now until forever."

There are some things that can't be done on stage, like a horse changing color. But the stage's transition from Kansas to Munchkin Country is impressive, Okenka said.

There's no place like home for Dorothy, but for Okenka, she gets to see the places other people call home. She gets to find out what makes Baton Rouge different from Pittsburgh - and Columbia.

"There's a part of me that really loves touring," she said. "At the end of the tour, I'll have been to 43 states.

"We have a lot of fun on stage, and we hope you have fun."

Showtime is at 7:30 p.m. both nights. The Koger Center is at 1051 Greene St. $46 to $56; (803) 251-2222

"The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States" opened at the Columbia Museum of Art in October. The 34 works on paper, 10 paintings and six sculptures of minimal and conceptual art have added heft to the museum's permanent collection.

The Vogels donated the art to 50 institutions nationwide through a joint initiative with the National Gallery of Art, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The Columbia Museum of Art was the recipient representing South Carolina.

Brad Collins, associate professor of art at USC, said the 2,500 pieces the Vogels donated capture the breadth of art in the 1960s and 1970s. Collins will lecture on the collection at 3 p.m. today at the museum.

The art gift was applauded, but how the Vogels amassed such a stunning collection is most interesting. For 45 years, the New Yorkers used Dorothy's librarian salary for daily expenses and Herbert's pay as a postman to buy art from then-unknown artists. They built a collection some estimate at more than 4,000 pieces.

"It's an important gift because it's a very large body of work for a concentrated period of time," Collins said. "What's also interesting about it, it gives a broad spectrum of art from that period."

The Vogels bought a lot of drawings, which are comparably inexpensive to paintings or sculptures. The intentions and meanings of the works on paper are, at times, harder to decipher and understand than sculptures or paintings from the period.

"Much of the art they collected is quite difficult," Collins said. "And these works most people have trouble with. It's comprehension that I'm looking for."

The museum is at Main and Hampton streets. Free; (803) 799-2810

"Sticks, Straws, Sleeves and Leaves," an installation by Jonathan Brilliant, will open at McMaster Gallery on Friday.

The title isn't at all misleading. Brilliant creates massive installation pieces using sticks and straws.

According to a gallery release, this exhibition is part of Brilliant's cross-country traveling tour titled "Have Sticks Will Travel," in which he visits various galleries to build pieces from coffee-stirrer sticks.

McMaster Gallery is at 1615 Senate St. The gallery is open 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Free; (803)777-7480

The fourth annual South Carolina Art Teachers Invitational Exhibition opened last week at the Goodall Gallery at Columbia College. The exhibition features art by 10 South Carolina teachers and will be open through Feb. 7. The gallery is in the Spears Music and Art Center at 1301 Columbia College Drive. Gallery hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 1-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For more information, call (803) 786-3899.

AUDITION

The Columbia City Ballet will hold auditions for "The Little Mermaid" at 2 p.m. today at the Columbia Conservatory of Dance, 1545 Main St. "The Little Mermaid" will be performed March 12 and 13 at the Koger Center. There is a $10 audition fee.

For more information and audition requirements, call (803) 799-7605 or (800) 899-7408.

This story was originally published January 10, 2010 at 12:00 AM with the headline "This week in the arts."