Stills from the Into the Woods production.
SADIE FOX / COURTESY
Mary Haley, Senior Writer
After four long months of rehearsals and work, the Manhattan University Players had their spring main stage musical: “Into the Woods.”
Adapted from Stephen Sondheim’s music and the book by James Lapine, “Into the Woods” is a musical that follows the intertwined stories of many classic fairytale characters made up by the Brothers Grimm. Through the childhood favorites of Jack [from the beanstock], Cinderella and the Little Red Riding Hood, the musical presents themes of sonder and responsibility — especially when it comes to getting your wish granted.
Rehearsals for the show started last semester, and the cast and crew were assigned their scripts and roles over the winter break, so that they could start production for the show as soon as the spring semester began. The first meeting of the semester was a table read, then, as the semester went on, three rehearsals a week, then upwards of 12-hour rehearsal days for tech week that started two weeks ahead of the show’s Friday night debut.
“Into the Woods” is by nature, a particularly complex show, as it includes more than six main characters with all of their own arcs. Logan Kappes-Sommer, a sophomore English major, took on the role of the “narrator,” who is in almost every single scene of the production. Being that this was his first performance in a musical on stage, he had many thoughts going into the live show.
“I feel very comfortable when I’m on stage, it’s one of the places that I just love to be,” Kappes-Sommer said. “Throughout the whole day leading up to it, I had butterflies, and especially in those couple of moments right before going on stage. But the second that I got on stage, it felt like ‘I know this. We’ve done it so many times. I got it’.”
SADIE FOX / COURTESY
The whole weekend of shows went well for the Manhattan University Players, with one exception — finding someone to play Rapunzel after the original cast member got sick, 24 hours before the show debuted.
Giada Dougherty, the show’s last-minute Rapunzel, was in class with Olivia Bailey, producer of Players, and Mary Calden, secretary of Players, when the two of them received a call that the original Rapunzel was ill and unable to perform that weekend. Dougherty joked that she could step in, but then the morning after [Thursday before the show], she was formally offered the role. Within 24 hours, Dougherty had learned her lines, songs, choreography and had tried on her long blonde wig.
Although she was nervous for her stage time, Dougherty, who is vice president of Scatterbomb, the university’s improv club, felt as though her experience in Scatterbomb helped her to have the confidence to take on this unexpected role. It led her to revisit a side of theater she hadn’t participated in since before high school.
“Scatterbomb is a theater group at the end of the day, and I feel as though that broke me out of my shell,” Dougherty said. “It reconnected me with theater and acting, because I stopped in high school, and then I came here, and I started picking up theater again. Then you just have connections throughout the performing arts and you kind of want to dip your toe in everything.”
Although Rapunzel is a smaller role in comparison to the other characters, she is integral to the show, as her scenes trigger the storylines of other major characters. Dougherty was motivated to do the show to support the story, but also to make this possible for the seniors performing in this show, as this was the last Players performance for most of them.
“I’m just happy that I could do that for these people, and especially for the seniors too, since this was their last show,” Dougherty said. “So it’s just like, it’s a very rewarding feeling… Just thank you to the whole entire cast for helping me and truly believing in me.”
Just as the narrator and Rapunzel were crucial pieces to telling the story of “Into the Woods,” the people who set the stage up were cornerstones of immersing the crowd, especially in an often crammed stage such as The Black Box.
Kristina Bopp, stage manager of the show, designed and managed the set, which encompassed everything from coordinating with the sound and lighting crew, all the way to painting and building the set that the actors used to play their characters.
“The set generally was definitely a team effort,” Bopp said. “It took a lot of work and long days to make the set look as good as it did, but I am so proud of our cast and tech team pulling through.”
Being the stage manager for the past year, Bopp explained to The Quadrangle what her favorite part of each production is.
“I love whenever tech is done, and we get to see everything come together with lights and sound and all of that,” Bopp said. “I think one thing that made this show stand out was just how reassuring and kind everyone was. We all get busy and things go wrong, but if anybody needed support or just a second with their friend rather than their castmate, they got it. It was cool.”
“Into the Woods” was Players’ last show of this academic year, but you can follow their Instagram: @playersmu for updates about their future productions.