The musical “Into the Woods” first debuted on Dec. 4 in 1986 at the Olde Globe theater in San Diego, California. This show was written by James Lapine and the music was written by Stephen Sondheim. The show eventually debuted on Broadway nearly a year later on Nov. 6, 1987.

This show was the first of its kind to have the characters from these famous stories interacting with one another, suggesting that all these stories could take place in the same context.

Though this show is not quite as famous as other Broadway hits, it’s still quite popular. The show even has its own Disney live action movie adaptation with most of the original songs. This adaptation was not very well received by longtime fans of the show, but it did assist in boosting the show’s popularity.

Drury theater’s production of “Into the Woods” was performed on Nov. 16 through Nov. 19. This performance took place in Wilhoit theater and was directed by Paige Rodgers this performance featured a live orchestra that was behind the stage. All aspects of this show including the set design, costumes, lighting, props, and even sound design were run and created by the students in the theater department.

At the end of the performance on Dec. 17, the cast and directors stuck around for a 45-minute Q&A, during which the audience was welcome to ask the cast and crew any question they had about the show. One of these questions was about the unique set design.

“When I direct, I tend to like a lot of movement,” says Rodgers. “I like a lot of people coming in and out, so when I talked to the set designers one of our early inspirations was very Blair, and so based on her work we came up with this.”

Many audience members were also very interested in how certain cast members got into their roles and about the hardest things about playing their characters. One of the cast members that was specifically asked this was Clara Bonstead, who played Milky White,

“The hardest part was probably just filling space without being too filly-spacy,” said Bonstead.

In the show, some cast members would play multiple different characters, and the audience was interested in their experience in doing so. Cast members Gabriel Mercante and Morgan Ivison shared their experience trying to get to know their characters and portray them to their best abilities.

“Having two character is on a different type of vibe. I know for my methods I sat down for a couple of hours and wrote down every possible detail of who the mysterious man was and how he came to be” Mercante said.

“A big part of it is understanding what the characters’ purpose is in the show, for all my characters, they’re mostly comedy and that effects how you portray them” Ivison said.

The show was very well received by the Drury community as well as family and friends, the Friday show was completely sold out. Drury students look forward to what Drury theater has in store for the future.

Photo by M. Colin Years