Lipscomb’s theatre department nears the opening of its next main-stage musical, bringing the magical world of the Grimm’s fairy tales to the Collins Auditorium stage with Into the Woods.
The story, guided by a side-stage narrator, combines several well-known fairy tales into one cohesive story that follows the Baker and his wife in their quest to have a child.
During this two-and-a-half-hour production, the woods thrusts the audience into the world of Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel, and Little Red Riding Hood.
The first act tells the familiar story: Cinderella marries her prince. Jack and his mother discover riches. Rapunzel finds true love. The Baker and his wife have a child.
The second act takes the happy endings from the first act and gives them a reality check.
“Act two does a number on me each time,” said senior musical theatre major Sarah Zanotti, who plays the Baker’s wife. “I never know how I feel or what’s going to happen. But I think that’s exactly how the characters are.
“They don’t know what’s going to happen; they don’t know how they’re going to feel or what their journey is going to be. It’s a beautiful show and it tricks you into the ending.”
But most of the beauty happened because of the theatrical decision to bring backstage members into the light as part of the storytelling elements.
“We have a very intentionally theatrical production,” director Scott Baker said. “There’s no effort to hide puppeteers, lighting, orchestra and the theatrical elements of the show.”
Instead of placing certain set pieces on stage, a crew member will often step in to be a coat rack and hand someone a hat or a baker’s rack to hand off a rolling pin.
“We have no sound effects in the show; there are no visual effects,” Baker said. “Nothing is piped through the speakers. The magic of the show is on stage.”
The crew members who visibly manipulate set pieces during the show are called supernumeraries. These actors bring stationary objects, such as Jack’s cow Milky White and Cinderella’s birds, to life.
They are just as much a part of the cast as anyone with speaking roles. The supernumeraries perform the wishes of the narrator as the story progresses.
“They’re like the narrator’s minions,” Zanotti said. “They make the woods its own character. The woods come alive because of the supernumeraries.”
Into the Woods was written roughly 30 years ago and remains a contemporary story. Because the tales of Little Red, Cinderella and Jack and the Beanstalk continue to be told, there’s a timeliness to each story.
“These are the stories that shape our collective sense of identity, our collective conscience and our collective childhoods,” Baker said. “These fairy tale characters deal with the same problems we do – they love their children, they love their families, they want to protect each other.”
Into the Woods opens Thursday Oct. 29 and wraps up Sunday, Nov. 7 in Collins Auditorium. With the exception of the Nov. 1 show being at 3:30 p.m., all shows have a 7:30 p.m. downbeat.
Tickets are $17 dollars for individuals, $12 for faculty/alumni and $5 for students. SGA has a limited number of free student tickets available in the student center.
“Coming to see this show, you may not be getting Emily Blunt; you may not be getting Meryl, but the star of the show is Steven Sondheim,” Zanotti said. “You are getting some pieces that you do not see in the film. There are two or three numbers that change the entire view of the show that aren’t in the movie.
“It’s an amazing, magical show. You can learn so much through fairy tales but then there’s so much more to each story. I think that’s the beautiful message in this show.”
Photos by Sarah Johnson