College Theater’s Into the Woods Opens Nov. 1

Lafayette College Theater will present Into the Woods 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 1-Saturday, Nov. 4 on the main stage of the Williams Center for the Arts.

Tickets cost $2 for Lafayette students, $3 for faculty and staff, and $6 for the public, and can be purchased by calling the box office at (610) 330-5009.

There will be a brown bag preview noon Monday, Oct. 30 on the main stage of the Williams Center. Lunch will be available for $3 or attendees may bring their own. The preview is free.

While most fairy tales end “happily ever after,” Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into the Woods, an award winning musical, explores what takes place beyond the happy ending. The play intertwines the stories of familiar fairy tale characters, including Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and Jack (of “Jack and the Beanstalk”), with brand new stories that examine the consequences of wishes coming true. Using children’s stories as the source, Into the Woods presents the decidedly grown-up themes of love and loss, power and privilege, and survival and triumph in the face of tragedy and adversity.

Director and choreographer Mary Jo Lodge, assistant professor of English, is proud to add a unique twist to College Theater’s production, which she believes will enhance the audience’s enjoyment of the show.

“The Lafayette production is set in a fairy tale museum,” she explains. “As the audience is taken by the ‘curator’ of the Foundation for Artifacts and Information Related to Youth Tales and Literature of Enchantment and Sorcery – F.A.I.R.Y.T.A.L.E.S. for short – around the museum space, the stories magically spring to life. Both the curator and the audience get more than they bargained for when they are drawn deeper into the stories, into the lives of the characters, and finally, into the woods.”

English major Caitlin Ward ’08 (Wallingford, Pa.) portrays what Lodge calls the “pivotal role” of the Witch, made famous on Broadway by Bernadette Peters.

“I would describe the Witch as being the truth of the show,” says Ward, a member of the Marquis Players who has participated in that group’s productions of Anything Goes and Once Upon a Mattress. “She is the character who sees the world for what it is and is not afraid to speak what is on her mind, even if no one else agrees with her. In the end, the naïveté of the other characters is what drives the Witch into insanity and helps to bring the moral of the story into light. My character is the one who pulls the other characters out of their fairy tales and back to reality. She helps them to learn that sometimes wishes can be dangerous, and they are not something to be toyed with.”

Sondheim and Lapine added the Baker and his wife, making them the only characters with a tale created by the authors instead of being pulled from an existing story. Their quest guides the action of the play, and they are portrayed by Paul Sommers ’09 (Wenonah, N.J.), a history major, and Jackie Macri ’09 (Malvern, Pa.), a psychology major.

Sommers, who has previously acted in Once Upon a Mattress, considers his character’s duet “No More” with the Mysterious Man, portrayed by philosophy and economics & business double major Jeff Lininger ’07 (Malvern, Pa.), to be his favorite moment in the musical.

“It is an introspective look at his life and the relations with others throughout the mixing of fairy tales,” he says. “The Baker is a very interesting character, going from fully depending on his wife in all facets of life to caring for his baby by himself at the end of the story. He is forced to grow as the musical progresses, searching for a way to solve numerous problems rather than living a simple life of baking bread.”

Macri, who was a member of the ensemble of College Theater’s Man Who, describes the Baker’s Wife as “normal,” an interesting departure from the quirky characters Macri has played in the past.

“As far as abilities go, she is a pretty capable businesswoman; she knows how to achieve her goals and has a level head,” says Macri. “I think what’s interesting about this character is that for all the obstacles that the magic of the fairy tale world has placed in her way, she holds onto a little obsession with fairy tale romanticism in the back of her head. As much as her goals dictate her behavior, I think a lot of her action comes from a desire for excitement and adventure.”

Production staff:

• Director and choreographer – Mary Jo Lodge, assistant professor of theater
• Musical director/conductor – Tom DiGiovanni ’96
• Stage Manager – Catie Thompson ’08 (Cooper City, Fla.), English
• Assistant Stage Manager – Julie McNeish ’09 (Southbury, Conn.), biology
• Costume design – Polly Kendrick
• Set design – Dick Kendrick
• Lighting design – Vicki Neal

Cast:

• Museum curator – Schuyler Lofberg ’10 (Wellesley Island, N.Y.)
• Witch – Caitlin Ward ’08 (Wallingford, Pa.), English
• Baker – Paul Sommers ’09 (Wenonah, N.J.), history
• Baker’s Wife – Jackie Macri ’09 (Malvern, Pa.), psychology
• Mysterious Man – Jeff Lininger ’07 (Malvern, Pa.), philosophy and economics & business
• Cinderella – Megan Fulmer ’09 (Leola, Pa.), biochemistry
• Cinderella’s Father – Justin Bruce ’09 (Rochester, N.Y.), neuroscience
• Cinderella’s Stepmother – Naomi-Beth Itescu ’10 (Havertown, Pa.)
• Cinderella’s Mother and Giant – Osasumwen Izevbigie ’09 (Springdale, Md.), government and law
• Florinda (Cinderella’s stepsister) – Lindsey Greenfield ’10 (Staten Island, N.Y.)
• Lucinda (Cinderella’s stepsister) – Gina Brewer ’07 (Ann Arbor, Mich.), religion and politics
• Cinderella’s Prince and Wolf – A.J. Ernst ’09 (Lawrenceville, N.J.), biology
• Prince’s Steward – Adam Pie ’09 (Doylestown, Pa.), history
• Prince’s Footman – Matt Lick ’10 (Easton, Pa.)
• Little Red Riding Hood – Elena Dones ’07 (Morristown, N.J.), English
• Rapunzel – Marissa Malcolm ’07 (West Caldwell, N.J.), neuroscience
• Rapunzel’s Prince – Geoffrey Weyl ’09 (Greenwich, Conn.), government and foreign languages
• Jack – Dan Stevenson ’10 (Reisterstown, Md.)
• Jack’s Mother – Kaytlin Henry ’07 (Little Egg Harbor, N.J.), chemical engineering
• Milky White (Jack’s cow) – Bernie Balane ’09 (Princeton, N.J.), psychology
• Granny and Snow White – Kiira Elisabeht Benzing ’07 (Ridgewood, N.J.), French and performance studies
• Sleeping Beauty – LaMika Robinson ’10 (Washington, D.C.)

Orchestra:

• Alto Saxophone – Katie Hamerslag ’08 (Martinsville, N.J.), biology
• Bass – Ashley Jermusyk ’08 (Miller Place, N.Y.), chemical engineering
• Cello – Peter Huntley ’08 (Westport, Conn.), art
• Clarinet – Ben Doremus ’07 (Hopkinton, Mass.), electrical and computer engineering
• Flute – Jen Lutz ’07 (Seaford, N.Y.), psychology
• Keyboards – Alaina Masler ’09 (Cortland, N.Y.), Spanish
• Percussion – T.J. Schick ’08 (Allentown, Pa.), government and law; and Katy Copeland-Walck ’08 (Reading, Pa.), history
• Piano – Pat D. Kelley ’09 (Shillington, Pa.), mathematics
• Trumpet – Max Minckler ’10 (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.); and Cristina Callagy ’09 (Hawthorne, N.Y.), neuroscience
• Viola – Lauren Timpson ’08 (Narvon, Pa.), neuroscience; and Clara Fisher ’10 (San Jose, Calif.)
• Violin – Quinn Taurman ’09 (Potomac, Md.), economics and business; and Dana Bernstein ’08 (Saint James, N.Y.), history and anthropology & sociology