On a cold, dreary Saturday morning, little girls clustered together on the carpeted ground, waiting to be transported to a make-believe world.

Once the Stewart Hall classroom was filled to its seams, the Little Princess Playhouse artistic director, Gretchen Leitner, came on stage to introduce the double feature show of “Wizard of Oz” and “Rapunzel.” Leitner explained how the show was the final exam for Shippensburg University students in the Children’s Theatre class.

“They are looking forward to getting up in front of children and teaching literature,” Leitner said.

The show opened with Toto, played by Amanda Kemmerling, running out in front of the children.

“I'm Dorothy's dog Toto and I can talk. In the theatre anything is possible, like talking dogs, flying monkeys and storm-like tornados,” Kemmerling said.

Toto then broke into a narration about her adventure with Dorothy, who was played by Nicole Kmiec.

The famous “Wizard of Oz” tornado scene was electrified through the use of lighting and rain sound effects. In addition, Lauren Ody and Alyson Poorbaugh dressed in black and swished a blanket around to symbolize the tornado while also swaying a dollhouse back and forth.

Though the stage had limited space, the cast utilized it well by walking in place to get from one scene to the next. A disco ball was also used to show Toto and Dorothy traveling between Kansas and Oz.

Since the audience was mainly composed of parents,, the characters incorporated political jokes, which received a few chuckles.

For instance, when the Wicked Witch of the East, played by Lexi Haines, came on stage, she said, “Just got back from the witch convention. Hillary Clinton was the guest speaker.”

“Rapunzel” put a modern twist on the traditional fairy tale by performing the “Tangled” rendition, and it even included Star Wars characters. The little girls erupted in excitement when the cast announced that they were going to start “Rapunzel,” since many of them have seen Disney’s 2010 film.

For the lantern scene, of “Rapunzel,” the room lit up as Queen Beatrix, played by Kayla Luckenbach, and King Alexander, played by Sam Govan, released the lanterns into the make-believe sky. The couple looked off into space, leaving it up to the children to paint a picture of what was occurring.

The scene that received the most giggles from the children was when Maximus, who was played by Lauryn King, chased Flynn Rider, who was played by Nathaniel Wachsmuth. The children were engrossed in the goofiness of both characters.

Since there were minimum props, the audience was left to use their own imagination. However, both plays had excellent make-up and costumes, making the characters believable.

The plays were performed on April 23 and 30, with a show time at 10 a.m., and one at 11:30 a.m. In the past, the Little Princess Playhouse performed Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and many other classical tales.

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