WANTED: Part-time high school musical director. Expect a minimum four-month commitment, 20 hours a week during rehearsals. High energy required.

Many high school musical directors are faculty members at their schools, but for part-time directors such as Celeste Beley, directing a musical is the demanding job that begins after she finishes her regular workday.

		PG West preview "The Wiz" Where: Hopewell Area High School, 1215 Longvue Ave. When: 7:30 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday Tickets: $7. Call 724-378-8565, ext. 6120.

Now in her third year of directing at Hopewell, Ms. Beley said, she is busy enough with her marketing communications job that she tried to go one year without directing a musical. But she found, despite the hard work, she missed the "creative outlet" it offered. "I was going crazy."

So she returns this year with "The Wiz." Adapted from L. Frank Baum's children's book, the show came to Broadway in 1975 as a contemporary version of the story of Dorothy's journey to the Emerald City, with funk, soul and spiritual-inspired songs by Charlie Smalls.

It was made into a 1978 film starring Diana Ross and produced the top 40 hit "Ease on Down the Road."

Ms. Beley said her 40-person cast produced "some of the best auditions I've ever seen," although James Hoegerl, as the Lion, and Dewey Musante, as the Tin Man, are new to the stage.

Veteran performers include Sarah Homyk; as Dorothy; Jaron Taylor, as the Scarecrow; and Corey Spinosi, as The Wiz. Jess Kowach plays wicked witch Evillene.

Ms. Beley said she was inspired by the "upbeat music" and sticks more closely to the Broadway version of the "The Wiz" than to the 1978 film.

"I was getting clear pictures of how the production should be." She said audiences should expect a Munchkinland in "eye-searing shades of pink and yellow," an "impressionistic poppy field" and effects that include black lights and fog.

As with most high school musicals, many cast members are also athletes, and so must balance sports practices and rehearsals. But Ms. Beley said "learning to work as a team" was one of the most important things for her students to learn. "I like to think of the cast as a family."

Ms. Beley said cast members supported her through some difficult times.

"They really rallied around me." And although Ms. Beley said her job required hard work, like Dorothy's journey to Oz, "getting there is half the fun."