Cinderella, the baker, his wife, Rapunzel, Jack, and Little Red all have one wish, and so do the members of Staples Players: to be apart of this year’s Spring Musical, “Into the Woods.”
“Into the Woods” is a musical with music and lyrics written by Stephen Sondheim and book written by James Lapine. The plot combines common fairytales into one twisted story. It includes the tale of Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, and Rapunzel, and two original characters, the baker and his wife.
Each one of these characters has a wish: Cinderella wishes to go to the King’s festival; Jack wishes that he could milk his cow; Little Red wishes to get to her grandmother’s house; Rapunzel wishes to be freed of the tower that she is trapped in; the baker and his wife wish to begin a family.
Of course, in every fairytale story, there is a witch. The witch has cursed the baker and his wife to never start a family unless they find four ingredients that the Witch needs for a certain potion — “the cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, and the slipper as pure as gold.”
This complicated plot line has forced Players to go above and beyond in preparation for auditions. “I personally don’t know the show very well so I’m doing my research now,” said Michelle Pauker ’13. Players have been sharing links to various websites that provide information in attempt to help each other out.
Auditions for the show will be Dec. 12 and 13, and the show will be preformed in March of 2012. Although to the average Staples student auditions for “Into the Woods” seem to have come around quite quickly, this is right on schedule Players.
“I think most people who involve themselves in Players really enjoy spending a lot of time there, so I have only heard good things about auditions being soon,” said Vice President and Co-Assistant Director, Gwen Beal ’12.
Given the intricacy of the musical, Players are excited to see the approach that Director, David Roth, will take. “To be honest, I think a lot of people are curious about the different approaches that Mr. Roth might decide to take. He hasn’t told us much about what he’s doing with the show, so we’ll have to wait and see,” said Pauker.
Additionally, many players already performed this show in Bedford Middle School’s production of it a few summers ago. “I was kind of bummed since I just did it, but I do like the show so I’m excited to see what happens with it this time,” said Cara McNiff ’14.
However, Roth says that he did not even consider the fact that Bedford had done it during the summer at all. Bedford produced the Jr. version of the show, which only includes Act I. Players will be doing the full show that includes the second act, which is much more mature and dark.
Staples Players preformed this show 10 years ago in reaction to what happened on Sept. 11. However, none of these factors stopped Roth from producing the musical again.
“It is such a terrific show and I feel that the time is right to do it again because the message is still so relevant – about communities coming together in the face of difficult times,” said Roth.
