--- -- - THE MUSICAL, INTO ITHE WOODS Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Book by James Lapine David Hawksworth, Founder /Director of Woking Youth Theatre, describes how he directed their recent production. THE PLOT, -- This whole article could easily be taken up explaining the plot! Suffice to say that Sondheim takes three well-known fairy tales - Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, and The Baker's Wife - and weaves a magical fabric of witches, giants, moonshine and spells in a delightfully melodic and entertaining musical fable. The plot has been described as faultless with "a spiritual resonance superior to anything Sondheim had written before". Critics hailed INTO THE WOODS as Sondheim's finest achievement to date. Sondhejm wanted to write a fairy story and, with his co-writer James Lapine, thought it would be interesting to see how people would react to stories they already know but told from different angles. A couple - a baker and his wife - are childless because of a curse cast by a neig hbouring witch. To reverse the spell, she demands that they bring her four objects - a cape as red as blood, a slipper as pure as gold, a cow as white as milk, and hair as yellow as corn. To obtain them, says Sondheim, they have to go in ilnd mess up everybody else's story. They have to get Little Red Riding Hood's cape, Cinderella's slipper, the cow from Jack and the Beanstalk, and RapW1Zel's hair. By the end of the first Act the witch has obtained her objects (which enables her to regain her 'lost beauty) and the curse is reversed on the Baker and his wife and they all expect to live happily ever after. But, as Sondheim says, in order to get what they wanted they each had to cheat a little, or lie a little. So in the second Act, as the Giant's widow comes down to earth looking for retribution for the death of her husband, the story becomes one of how the characters have to band together and make amend s for what they did. Eventually, the community has to accept responsibility - you can't go and chop down trees, tease princes ilnd pretend that beans are worth more than they are. Everybody has to pay for that - somehow. AUDITIONS AND 'CASTING ' .. This show is not one for the mUSically faint hearted. It requires good singers in most parts and excellent ones in several. In all there are nine male and thirteen female parts but a little doubling is possible in some of the smaller roles. The Witch, Cinderella, Baker, Baker's Wife, Red Riding Hood, Jack and Rapunzel have the bulk of the singing but virtually every character has its moment musically. The script is mainly sung with only a small amount of dialogue. Musically the show is a real challenge, as you would expect from Sondheim. Auditions were held over two days. We first did a movement audition since the show does not really require dancing . We then asked everyone auditioning to bring a prepared song to si.ng to us. Thc final part of the auditioning process was asking each auditionee to have a session with the Musical Director to ascertain vocal range and discuss pr e vious singing experience. A cast list was then drawn up and announced. REHEARSALS Our rehearsal period was about fifteen weeks but th.i s spanned the Christmas and New Year period . Our first get-together was a singing workshop before the auditions proper to get people into a vocal mode and to hand out audition de.tails. We decided that for this production we would allow six weeks for music learning at our twice-weekly rehearsals. As the young cast had virtually never heard of the show, we also arranged a showing of the Channel 4 video of the Broadway version to give the cast a flavour of what they were in for. What gave everyone a more direct idea of the show was a visit to a britIiant professional staging of the show at the Haymarket 111eatre, Leicester. We first taught the ensemble singing numbers which took longer than we antkipated since the part si.nging is particularly demanding . Once learnt, we were able to plot the moves and discuss the staging. After about eight weeks we were ready to spend specific rehearsals plotting the dialogue. For the last four weeks we were able to do whole runs knitting together singing, dialogue and movement. Everyone was required for every rehearsal unless specifically not asked to attend. This meant we could always do more than we anticipated if things went well. It also meant that I could do character work with people not rehearsing and the choreographer could rehearse movement whenever the chance arose. Our Sunday rehearsals even became whole runs and Tuesday nights became poli ;: r up time for music, dialogue movement. In all we h ac rehearsals plus two technkal " rehearsals (one for each Act) a dress rehearsal. piece orchestra including b,r - horns and violin. The theatr< perform in has no proper orc pit and so we are constrain • space as to how many musi. we use. Also, since we alway. professional musicians, we never afford the whole works. Our Musical Director managL produce a brilliant sound piano, keyboard, perCUSSion, trumpet, flute, clarinet, hom bassoon. They had a band separate from our including most of the prine 4
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--- -- -
THE MUSICAL, P'RO,D,U ,C~E"
INTO ITHE WOODS Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Book by James Lapine
David Hawksworth, Founder /Director of Woking Youth Theatre, describes how he directed their recent production.
THE PLOT, -- '~',
This whole article could easily be taken up explaining the plot! Suffice to say that Sondheim takes three well-known fairy tales - Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, and The Baker's Wife - and weaves a magical fabric of witches, giants, moonshine and spells in a delightfully melodic and entertaining musical fable. The plot has been described as faultless with "a spiritual resonance superior to anything Sondheim had written before". Critics hailed INTO THE WOODS as Sondheim's finest achievement to date.
Sondhejm wanted to write a fairy
story and, with his co-writer James Lapine, thought it would be interesting to see how people would react to stories they already know but told from different angles. A couple - a baker and his wife - are childless because of a curse cast by a neighbouring witch. To reverse the spell, she demands that they bring her four objects - a cape as red as blood, a slipper as pure as gold, a cow as white as milk, and hair as yellow as corn. To obtain them, says Sondheim, they have to go in ilnd mess up everybody else's story. They have to get Little Red Riding Hood's cape, Cinderella's slipper, the cow from Jack and the Beanstalk, and RapW1Zel's hair. By the end of the first Act the witch has obtained her objects (which enables her to regain her 'lost beauty) and the curse is reversed on the Baker and his wife and they all expect to live happily ever after.
But, as Sondheim says, in order to get what they wanted they each
had to cheat a little, or lie a little. So in the second Act, as the Giant's widow com es down to earth looking for retribution for the death of her husband, the story becomes one of how the characters have to band together and make amends for what they did. Eventually, the community has to accept responsibility - you can't go and chop down trees, tease princes ilnd pretend that beans are worth more than they are. Everybody has to pay for that - somehow.
AUDITIONS AND 'CASTING ' .. -~--
This show is not one for the mUSically faint hearted. It requires good singers in most parts and excellent ones in several. In all there are nine male and thirteen female parts but a little doubling is possible in some of the smaller roles. The Witch, Cinderella, Baker, Baker's Wife, Red Riding Hood, Jack and Rapunzel have the bulk of the singing but virtually every character has its moment musically. The script is mainly sung with only a small amount of dialogue. Musically the show is a real challenge, as you would expect from Sondheim.
Auditions were held over two days. We first did a movement audition since the show does not really require dancing. We then asked everyone auditioning to bring a prepared song to si.ng to us. Thc final part of the auditioning process was asking each auditionee to have a session with the Musical Director to ascertain vocal range and discuss previous singing experience. A cast list was then drawn up and announced.
REHEARSALS
Our rehearsal period was about fifteen weeks but th.i s spanned the Christmas and New Year period. Our first get-together was a singing workshop before the auditions proper to get people into a vocal mode and to hand out audition de.tails.
We decided that for this production we would allow six weeks for music learning at our twice-weekly rehearsals. As the young cast had virtually never heard of the show, we also arranged a showing of the Channel 4 video of the Broadway version to give the cast a flavour of what they were in for. What gave everyone a more direct idea of the show was a visit to a britIiant
professional staging of the show at the Haymarket 111eatre, Leicester.
We first taught the ensemble singing numbers which took longer than we antkipated since the part si.nging is particularly demanding. Once learnt, we were able to plot
the moves and discuss the staging. After about eight weeks we were ready to spend specific rehearsals plotting the dialogue. For the last four weeks we were able to do whole runs knitting together singing, dialogue and movement.
Everyone was required for every rehearsal unless specifically not asked to attend. This meant we could always do more than we anticipated if things went well. It also meant that I could do character work with people not rehearsing and the choreographer could rehearse movement whenever the chance arose.
Our Sunday rehearsals even became whole runs and Tuesday nights became poli ;:r up time for music, dialogue movement. In all we hac rehearsals plus two technkal " rehearsals (one for each Act) a dress rehearsal.
piece orchestra including b,r horns and violin. The theatr< perform in has no proper orc pit and so we are constrain • space as to how many musi. we use. Also, since we alway. professional musicians, we never afford the whole works.
Our Musical Director managL produce a brilliant sound piano, keyboard, perCUSSion, ~
trumpet, flute, clarinet, hom bassoon. They had a band separate from our rehearsa~ including most of the prine
4
Each Act s tarts wi th the :1lteriors of Cinderella, Jack,
Baker, and they then get 00 to reveal the woods. As mot fly scenery, we used a
. ..1I1d gauze to open each Act ..llowed us to bleed through
mteriors before removing the The gauze was then used to
scene change.
Property Hire of South Wales. This set included a backcloth of the woods together with forest legs and borders, induding four legs which were set across the stage and gave us plenty of places for characters to hide and appear from . Across the back was a rostrum giving us additional height and entrances. A log strategically placed gave us a seat when needed.
PROPERTIES AND FURNITURE
The show has little in the way of furniture apart from the odd chair and table in the interior scenes. The main important prop is MilkyWllite, Jack's cow. This appears in many Scenes and has to move around, sometimes on its own. It also has to eat things and fall over and die on cue when nO-one is anywhere [lear it. A harp, a hen that lays golden eggs, bags of money, three knives, two clubs, scissors, milk pail and an endless supply of beans complete the props list.
LIGHTING AND SPECIAL EFFECTS
Since the set is s tandard throughout, the show relies heavily on lighting and other effects. A set of gobos enabled the set to have a
leafy dappled look. Some scenes are in sunlight, some in midnight, so the lighting director needs to be creative.
The biggest challenge on lighting and effects is the coming of the Giant. We never see him but a huge shadow falls over half the stage whenever he is near. His effect on wrecking the Baker's house is also a tricky one to achieve effectively.
SOUt-:I~ _ _-.
The script calls for great d emands on the sound man. The plot requ.ires huge giant foots teps, described by Sondheim as shaking the theatre, cows mooing and yelping, people getting killed by the Giant, various splats as victims fall foul of the Giant, and birds tvvittering. An amplified voice of the Giant's wife is also needed.
Since many of the cast are onstage singing together, we could not afford to provide them all with a radio mike. Instead, we used several high quality float mikes around the stage which seemed to do the tric.k.
COSTUMES'-;- ~ ~ WIGS ANDJM~.!iE~U,kJ
The show requires fairy tale, picture book costumes for all its characters. The only character not so dr>ssed is the aerator who we dressed in an ordinary suit and tie. We were lucky to find a set of costumes made for a previous production of the show and they were hired in total and virtually all fitted without many alterations. All wigs that were needed came with the costumes and fi tted perfect! y too.
There are a few character make-ups required. The Witch needs a face make-up to an extent, but this mList
not hinder a qu.ick transformation into a glamorous lady at the end of the first Act. The wolf could Lise a make-up for part of the face not covered by the mask. I never like YOLmgsters playing older people to be plastered with make-up and so all other make-ups were minimal.
CONCLusioN.
INTO THE WOODS is a very challenging piece and perhaps a surprising one to choose for a Youth Theatre. However, in fifteen years running Woking Youth Theatre have never been disappointed with the way casts rise to a challenge, be it acting, singing or dancing.
We had a great deal of fun with rehearsing the show. The satisfaction gained from the stage performances came through total dedication and commitment from a talented cast between the ages of 15 and 23. The company never lost sight of Sondheim's objectives and proved that this was an ensemble piece par excellence.
ALL SCRIPTS, SCORES AND LIBRETTI FEATURED IN
"THE PLAY PRODUCED" AND "THE MUSICAL PRODUCED"
CA TA <F OM
TEL: 0171-837-5655 FAX: 0171-833-0609
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