WAS, a new musical based on the novel by Geoff Ryman, with book and lyrics by Barry Kleinbort, music by Joseph Thalken and direction by Tina Landau, premiered at Northwestern University’s Ethel M. Barber Theatre Oct. 28. WAS is the initial production from the American Music Theatre Project (AMTP) and it weaves the intersecting stories of two unlikely heroes living a century apart. The first story follows Dorothy Gael, an orphan sent to live in Kansas in the 1870s, who becomes the inspiration for the main character of L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The second story follows Jonathan Wood, an actor in the 1980s whose lifelong obsession with The Wizard of Oz leads him to Kansas hoping to find proof of Dorothy’s existence. Call (847) 491-7282.