The Hackers of Oz

10-year-old computer geek Elizabeth Gale Callahan is fully in control of her nice, tidy, life. Fully, thank you. Until...the Scarecrow and Scraps appear in her bedroom and refuse to go back home-to Oz. The Scarecrow looked solemnly at Elizabeth. "You see, little girl, mistakes might have been made. When a witch is destroyed, that energy sometimes doesn't go away. Like Einstein said, it's sometimes...transformed." "You mean it goes somewhere else?" said Elizabeth. The Scarecrow nodded. "Somewhere like here?" said Elizabeth. The Scarecrow nodded again. Hackers of Oz is a gift for mothers and daughters, a valentine to the city of Chicago, and a celebration of all of us who wore ruby slippers or a pointy black hat on Halloween! Tom Mula has been an award-winning Chicago actor, director, and playwright for far, far, far too long. Audiences have tolerated his performances in a good deal of Shakespeare, as Koko in Hot Mikado, and in solo turns in The Circus of Dr. Lao and Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol. Tom also spent seven grueling seasons at the Goodman Theatre playing Scrooge. Mula's plays include Almighty Bob, The Golem, Nicole Hollander's Sylvia's Real Good Advice, and adaptations of John Gardner's In the Suicide Mountains and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In 1995, Adams Media published Tom's book Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol; it was a Chicago Tribune bestseller. The award-winning play version has had hundreds of productions worldwide. Tom spends most of his summers acting and directing at Peninsula Players in Door County, Wisconsin. He teaches in the Theatre Department at Columbia College Chicago. Tom Mula is a lucky, lucky man. He may be reached at tommula.com.