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The Tony Award-winning musical intricately blends the plots of Brothers Grimm fairy tales, following Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Jack (of the Beanstalk). Tying the musical together are the Baker and his Wife, who want to start a family but have been cursed by the Witch. To lift the curse, they have three days to bring the Witch Red Riding Hood\u2019s cape, a lock of Rapunzel\u2019s hair, Cinderella\u2019s golden slippers and Jack\u2019s cow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first act wraps up nicely \u2013 curse lifted, storybook characters\u2019 wishes fulfilled \u2013 happily ever after achieved. But there is a whole second act to stage \u2013 full of deceit, infidelity, a rampaging giant, and death. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s like two different musicals in tone,\u201d says director Tracy Liz Miller, assistant teacher professor in theatre. \u201cIn the second act, we\u2019re reintroduced to the same characters. It\u2019s happily ever after \u2013 but is it? It\u2019s fascinating. We\u2019ve all grown up with these stories and what happens at the end of the book. Happily ever after isn\u2019t really reality. No one is immortal, no one is without sickness or hardship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOne of the things that makes this show so popular is its enchanting nature,\u201d says Naomi Tyler \u201923, of Warwick, who plays the Witch. \u201cThe mystical qualities of each character and their stories make it so easy for the audience to fall into that world. However, underneath the gorgeous voices and costumes remains a story of love, loss, chosen family, deception and pain. I believe there is a lesson in the show for absolutely everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think \u2018Into The Woods\u2019 is so popular because it shows well-known characters, but in a way we haven’t seen them,\u201d adds Giulia Russo \u201923, an education and theatre major. \u201cAfter the happily ever after we see in act one and the endings we are all familiar with, the characters find themselves going down a path that is unfamiliar to them and the audience. They have to work together to figure out the end of the story. I think that really resonates with people.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zoe Pepin \u201923, a theatre major from Maynard, Massachusetts, who plays Cinderella, says she wanted to be in the musical because it encompasses all the things she grew up loving \u2013 music, singing and the fairy tales she was raised on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCinderella is definitely a dream role for me,\u201d she says. \u201cMy favorite thing about her is her development over the course of the story. She starts the musical naive and indecisive, but grows to be determined and responsible. The role challenges me to fully embody both a clumsy wanna-be-princess and a resolute survivor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russo, of Caldwell, New Jersey, always wanted to play a princess and found that role in Rapunzel. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely a dream role and one I\u2019ve had a lot of fun playing. It\u2019s been a challenge to really dig into her story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The role of the Witch, says Tyler, is a lot less simple than it might seem. \u201cThe damage from her past causes her to love Rapunzel so deeply, and in turn causes the same damage she suffered. What could be a very fun or \u2018evil\u2019 role is actually filled with so much passion and pain.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The nearly three-hour play itself \u2013 like the giant and his mother, who wreak havoc \u2013 is a beast to produce, Miller says. The play has about 35 actors, a production team of about 35 designers, technicians, managers, artists, and more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere\u2019s 18 lead actors and another 15 or 16 understudies,\u201d Miller says. \u201cThere are lots of props, lots of costumes, lots of scenery, and we\u2019re probably going to have one of the more complicated lighting designs that we\u2019ve done in a long time. Thank goodness for all the brains to keep it organized.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Along with the production team, Miller has gotten help from theatre professor Paula McGlasson, who directed 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s 2003 production of \u201cInto The Woods,\u201d and many other Sondheim musicals. Also, visiting artist Esther Zabinski, a professional musician and conductor based in Rhode Island, has played an important role as music director. The show has music front to back \u2013 with about 90 \u201cdistinct musical starting points\u201d and a 12-piece orchestra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSteven Sondheim\u2019s work is the Shakespeare of musicals,\u201d said Miller. \u201cIt takes a very talented, skilled music director to not only teach the music to the actors but also conduct the orchestra alongside the show.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the play has captured the hearts of millions, it is full of marginalized characters, socioeconomic and gender bias, ableism, and some very nasty deeds \u2013 all common in the Brothers Grimm fairy tales that serve as its source material, Miller says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In exploring their own characters, the actors have been focusing on the stories of those marginalized characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re tasked with training our next professional actors to enter the world and we\u2019re dealing with questions we don\u2019t know the answers to,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re asking who deserves to be living, who deserves to have safety. Those are the conversations we\u2019re having.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe honor the playwrights\u2019 work,\u201d she adds. \u201cAnd if we honor it, we should allow the audience to ask the questions themselves. Our work allows the audience to come to their own conclusions and how they feel about that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pardon our appearance: <\/strong>With the Fine Arts Center undergoing construction, patrons must use the theater entrance in the back of the building, accessed from the parking lot on Bills Road. Look for the marked entrance to the right of the fenced off construction area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cInto The Woods\u201d<\/strong> runs April 21-22 and 27-28 at 7:30 p.m. and on April 23 and 30 at 2 p.m. in Will Theatre at the Fine Arts Center, 105 Upper College Road, Kingston Campus. Tickets are $20 for the general public and $18 for senior citizens and 溏心vlog免费B站 students, faculty and staff. Tickets can be purchased online<\/a> or by calling (401) 874-5843. For more information on tickets and the University\u2019s COVID-19 policy, go to the ticket website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cInto The Woods\u201d cast<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Character, actor, hometown<\/em> KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 12, 2023 \u2013 Ever wonder what happens after \u201chappily ever after\u201d in your favorite fairy tales? It might not be pretty. You can get an entertaining take on the aftermath when the 溏心vlog免费B站 Theatre Department stages the popular \u201cInto The Woods,\u201d Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine\u2019s modern classic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":85175,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85174"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85222,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85174\/revisions\/85222"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Stepmother, Haven Hardie, North Kingstown
Florinda, Daniel Coffey, Rockaway, New Jersey
Baker\u2019s Wife, Syd Davey, Sturbridge, Massachusetts
Rapunzel\u2019s prince, Ella Kenny, Los Angeles
Wolf, Kalif Madriaga, Providence
Narrator\/Mysterious Man, Manny Maldonado, Newport
Steward, Anthony Miller, East Providence
Lucinda, Riley Nedder, Attleboro, Massachusetts
Cinderella, Zoe Pepin, Maynard, Massachusetts
Baker, Ben Pereira, Danbury, Connecticut
Cinderella\u2019s Father\/Granny, Liam Roberts, Warwick
Rapunzel, Giulia Russo, Caldwell, New Jersey
Cinderella\u2019s Prince, David Santana, Providence
Jack, Kyle Smith, Barnegat, New Jersey
Narrator\/Cinderella\u2019s Mother\/Milky White, Sarah Taylor, Providence
Little Red Riding Hood, Julia Thelen, Haddam, Connecticut
Jack\u2019s Mother, Lauren Todd, Carver, Massachusetts
Witch, Naomi Tyler, Warwick<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"