By SUSAN PARK

The lucky viewers of Civic Light Opera's musical stage production of "The Wizard of Oz," are treated to a colorful array of fantastic costumes, modern sets and unusual characters. This is not the "Oz" you grew up with.

CLO's "Wizard" opened Nov. 15 and runs through Dec. 8 at the Jane Addams Theatre Auditorium.

Although the movie came before the stage version, CLO director/choreographer Stephen Terrell says why bother imitating the movie? That's not art, that's imitation.

Instead, Terrell has chosen to model CLO's production after the original 1901 novel by L. Frank Baum. Terrell said he wanted CLO's production to be presented as seen through the eyes of 11-year-old Dorothy: Kansas is gloomier and more oppressing; adults talk down to her; and the world she escapes to is as far-fetched as the audience's imagination will allow.

CLO's stage version opens with a creation of Terrell's creative team: a puppet version of Dorothy's dog Toto, complete with a Japanese-style Bunraku puppeteer dressed in "Kansas gray" overalls and hat. Set designer Edie Whitsett of Licton Springs said the obvious choice would have been a real dog, but well-trained Totos are hard to find.

Instead, Fremont actor James Wirth, who in his other life is a business development director for Martini Design, a software company in Fremont, serves as the puppeteer and voice of Toto. Wirth, whose Toto credit was accidentally omitted from the program, began as a stage runner for CLO last year and was added to the cast as a member of the "ensemble." Two weeks before rehearsal, he was picked to be Toto's puppeteer, which could have been a minor role. However, after painstaking research, in which he studied the movie "Best in Show" (about a dog show) and practiced dog barks in his car while driving, Wirth's performance as Toto is dead on. In CLO's production, Toto metamorphosed into a major role, perhaps due to Terrell's open mindedness as a director. More puppets were added for the Wizard and crows, all built by Puppet Master Doug Paasch.

The show's sets are sparse and non-standard, in part because of CLO's budget constraints as well as creative choices. Whitsett said she envisioned giant poppies in the back of the stage that reach 11 feet in height. To stand them up, she built a rake, or angled stage platform, with holes for inserting various props.

Thus began a theme used throughout the production: hand-held trees, actors running with banners to simulate a tornado and a hand-held set of gates to the Emerald City.

As an Oz aficionado, Whitsett read all of Baum's series as a child and wanted to follow the color-coded maps as described in the books to the letter.

Costume designer and Ballard resident Doris Landolt Black created fantastical Munchkins in blue, the color of Munchkin Land as described in the books. Terrell required that the Munchkins be created as a different race of people complete with adults and children - not dwarves as portrayed in the movie. Faced with a challenge, Black referred to the complex illustrations in the books. She created adults with pot bellies and a spiral girl based on a dress she had seen used by the Ziegfeld Follies. Her Winkies, the wicked witch of the west's slaves, are garbed in bright yellow quilted coats complete with curly tails.

All of the materials used in "building" the costumes were gathered from every Puget Sound fabric store in the area as well as from close-out Halloween costumes and a friend's attic. Some of the Munchkins are designed so that when their plastic rimmed hoop skirts are pulled over their heads they transform into human flowers and exotic plants.

Of course, CLO, as usual, has found a highly skilled and talented group of singing and dancing actors to portray the denizens of Oz. Witch Therese Diekhans and Wizard Frank Joachimstaler are most impressive as they ease into their roles. Perhaps the most brilliant of the many outstanding performances is by 11-year-old Megan Barber, who's pouty childish Dorothy is relaxed and very believable. Get her autograph while you still can. (