1    

Character  1:                                  

The  Witch    

Synopsis  

Act  I  "Once  upon  a  time,"  beings  the  Narrator  in  his  Prologue:  Into  the  Woods,  "in  a  far-­‐off  kingdom  lived  a  fair  maiden,  a  sad  young  lad  and  a  childless  baker  with  his  wife."  More  than  anything,  Cinderella  wishes   to   go   to   the  King's   Festival,   Jack  wishes  his   cow,  Milky-­‐White,  would  give  him  some  milk,  the  Baker  and  his  Wife  wish  for  a  child.  But,  scrubbing  in  the   kitchen,   Cinderella   and   her   foolish   reveries   are  mocked   by   her   Stepmother   and   her  Stepsisters;   Jack's  Mother  wants  him  to  sell  Milky-­‐White;  and  the  Baker  and  his  Wife  are  distracted  by  the  arrival  of  Little  Red  Riding  Hood,  in  search  of  a  sticky  bun  to  take  to  her  grandmother   in  the  woods.  The  Witch  next  door  offers   to  end  the  couple's  barrenness   if  the  Baker  can  find  four  crucial   ingredients  for  a  magic  potion:  "the  cow  as  white  as  milk,  the   cape   as   red   as   blood,   the   hair   as   yellow   as   corn,   the   slipper   as   pure   as   gold."  Accompanied  only  by  six  beans  from  his  father's  jacket,  the  Baker  sets  off  into  the  woods;  so  does  Jack,  to  sell  his  cow;  and  Cinderella,  to  visit  her  mother's  grave.    

Cinderella  at  the  Grave  repeats  her  wish  and,  magically,  a  white  and  silver  gown  and  gold  slippers  drop  from  the  hazel  tree.  Elsewhere  in  the  woods,  Red  Riding  Hood  is  surprised  by  a  slavering  Wolf   (Hello,  Little  Girl),  who  persuades  her  to  take  a  short  detour,  while  Jack  sells   Milky-­‐White   to   the   Baker   for   five   beans   and   then   tells   his   cow,   I   Guess   This   Is  Goodbye.  The  Baker  feels  badly  about  taking  advantage  of  a  simpleton,  but  his  Wife  thinks  the  beans  were  a   fair  exchange.  Maybe  They're  Magic,   she   suggests,   and,  anyway,   their  

Play:      Into  The  Woods                Author:            Stephen  Sondheim/James  Lapine  

Web  Links:  http://www.guidetomusicaltheatre.com/shows_i/into_the_woods.htm  jameslapine.com/biography  http://www.victorianopera.com.au/education/education/  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_Woods  

   http://mrklem.com/ITW/characters.htm      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUN_MTChn5M        http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-­‐et-­‐mn-­‐stephen-­‐sondheim-­‐meryl-­‐streep-­‐into-­‐the-­‐woods-­‐20141214-­‐story.html#page=4  The  original  Broadway  production  can  be  viewed  at:  http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL10D54BB6D383DFB5http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL10D54BB6D383DFB5  

 

 

2    

chances  of  children  depend  on  getting  the-­‐  ingredients:  the  end  justifies  the  beans.  But  the  Baker   is   worried   about   Red   Riding   Hood   -­‐   and   with   good   cause.   At   the   cottage,   both  Grandmother  and  the  young  girl  have  been  swallowed  by  the  Wolf.  Rescued  by  the  Baker,  Red  Riding  Hood  savours  her  new  self-­‐awareness  and  realises,  "I  Know  Things  Now."    

Endeavouring   to   shake   off   A   Very   Nice   Prince,   Cinderella   stumbles   across   a   giant  beanstalk,.  but  it  is  now  the  end  of  the  day  -­‐  the  First  Midnight  -­‐  a  time  to  reflect  on  the  day's  adventures.  Only  Jack  is  curious  enough  to  shin  up  the  beanstalk,  where  he  discovers  gold  -­‐and  Giants  In  the  Sky.  Cinderella's  Prince,  thwarted  in  his  search,  commiserates  with  his  Brother,  who's  in  a  similar  Agony  over  Rapunzel,  a  maiden  confined  to  a  doorless  tower  accessible  only  by  climbing  her  corn-­‐yellow  hair.  For   the  Baker  and  his  Wife,   though,   the  pieces   are   falling   in   place.   They   have   the   cow,   a   strand   of   Rapunzel's   hair,   Red   Riding  Hood's  cape  -­‐  all  secured  by  their  sense  of  teamwork:  It  Takes  Two,  they  tell  each  other.    

Unfortunately,  the  cow  dies.  The  Witch,  furious  that  her  daughter  Rapunzel  is  seeing  a  Prince,  ends  up  chopping  off  her  hair.  On  the  Steps  of  the  Palace,  Cinderella  mulls  things  over:  the  Prince  has  spread  pitch  on  the  stairs  and  trapped  her.  Jack  is  being  pursued  by  a  giant  -­‐  until,  thinking  quickly,  the  lad  chops  down  the  beanstalk  and  begs  her  to  "Stay  With  Me"  but  with  a  dull  thud,  the  ogre  lands  dead  in  the  yard.    

Everything  has  turned  out  for  the  best:  the  Baker  produces  the  ingredients,  the  ugly  old  Witch  mixes  her  potions  and  restores  her  beauty,  the  Baker's  Wife  becomes  pregnant,  Jack  -­‐  laden  with  gold  -­‐  and  his  cow  (restored  to  life)  resume  their  friendship.  Cinderella  and  Rapunzel  marry  their  Princes.  With  the  exception  of  Cinderella's  stepsisters,  blinded  by  pigeons,  everyone  lives  happy  Ever  After.    

Act  II  Once  upon  a  time  -­‐  later  ...  As  the  Narrator  explains  in  another  Prologue:  So  Happy,  despite  one  or  two  quibbles  everyone  is  content  -­‐  until,  suddenly,  the  Baker's  house  is  reduced  to  rubble.  The  only  clue:  a  huge  footprint.    

Back  into  the  woods  they  go  -­‐  except  Cinderella's  and  Rapunzel's  Princes  who,  marital  bliss  notwithstanding,  have  come  across  Sleeping  Beauty  and  the  equally  unwakeable  Snow  White,  two  new  maidens  who  again  have  them  in  Agony.  But,  for  one  of  them,  there'll  be  no  need  for  a  messy  divorce.  A  Giant  -­‐  actually,  a  giantess  -­‐  is  on  the  rampage,  eager  to  avenge  her  husband's  death,  and  she  carelessly  tramples  Rapunzel  to  death.  The  Witch  begins  a  Lament  for  her  daughter  and  turns  on  the  Narrator  because  she  doesn't  like  the  way  he's  telling  the  story.  Only  after  she's  tossed  him  to  the  Giantess  does  it  dawn  on  them  that  the  story  is  now  out  of  control:  the  Prince's  Steward  kills  Jack's  Mother,  Any  Moment  now  they  could  be  dead,  says  Cinderella's  Prince  before  seducing  the  Baker's  Wife;  after  a  few  brief  Moments  In  the  Woods,  she  is,  indeed,  crushed  to  death  by  falling  timber.  "It's  Your  Fault,"  everyone  tells  each  other.  It's  the  Last  Midnight:  the  Witch  scatters  a  few  beans  and  disappears  in  a  puff  of  smoke.  No  More,  decides  the  Baker.  It's  time  to  take  responsibility.    

 

3    

Devising  a  plan  to  slay  the  Giantess,  the  Baker,  Cinderella,  Red  Riding  Hood  and  the  others  comfort  each  other  with  the  thought  that  No  One  Is  Alone.  When  peace  is  restored  to  the  woods,  the  Baker  begins  to  tell  his  son  the  story  -­‐  "Once  upon  a  time,  and  share  what  he  has  learned.  (Finale:  Children  Will  Listen).    

The  Playwright(s)  

Stephen  Sondheim  was  born  on  22  March  1930,  the  son  of  a  wealthy  New  York  dress  manufacturer.  When  his  parents  divorced,  his  mother  moved  to  Bucks  County,  Pennsylvania  and  young  Stephen  found  himself  in  the  right  place  at  the  right  time.  A  neighbour  of  his  mother's,  Oscar  Hammerstein  II,  was  working  on  a  new  musical  called  Oklahoma!    and  it  didn't  take  long  for  the  adolescent  boy  to  realise  that  he,  too,  was  intrigued  by  musical  

theatre.  

His  initial  success  came  as  a  somewhat  reluctant  lyricist  to  Leonard  Bernstein  on  West  Side  Story  (1957)  and  Jule  Styne  on  Gypsy  (1959).  Exciting  and  adventurous  as  those  shows  were  

in  their  day,  and  for  all  their  enduring  popularity,  Sondheim's  philosophy  since  is  encapsulated  in  one  of  his  song  titles:  "I  Never  Do  Anything  Twice".  His  first  score  as  

composer-­‐lyricist  was  A  Funny  Thing  Happened  On  The  Way  To  The  Forum  (1962)  -­‐  a  show  so  funny  few  people  spotted  how  experimental  it  was:  it's  still  the  only  successful  musical  farce.  In  the  following  three  decades,  critics  detected  a  Sondheim  style  -­‐  a  fondness  for  the  harmonic  language  of  Ravel  and  Debussy;  a  reliance  on  vamps  and  skewed  harmonies  to  destabilise  the  melody;  a  tendency  to  densely  literate  lyrics.  But,  all  that  said,  it's  the  

versatility  that  still  impresses:  you  couldn't  swap  a  song  from  the  exuberantly  explosive  pit-­‐band  score  of  Anyone  Can  Whistle  (1964)  with  an  Oriental  influenced  musical  scenes  in  

Pacific  Overtures  (1976);  you  couldn't  mistake  the  neurotic  pop  score  of  Company  (1970)  for  the  elegantly  ever-­‐waltzing  A  Little  Night  Music  (1973).  

Sondheim  hit  his  stride  in  the  Seventies,  forming  a  unique  partnership  with  Hal  Prince:  a  composer-­‐lyricist  and  a  producer-­‐director  working  together  to  re-­‐invent  the  musical.  Some  were  plotless  (Company),  some  characterless  (Pacific  Overtures),  one  went  backwards  

(Merrily  We  Roll  Along)  and  Follies  (1971)  

With  Sweeney  Todd  (1979),  the  Prince/Sondheim  collaboration  reached  its  climax  blurring  the  distinctions  between  lyrics  and  dialogue,  songs  and  underscoring,  and  combining  a  complex  plot  with  operatic  emotions  to  create  a  unique  musical  thriller.  Their  next  show,  

Merrily  We  Roll  Along  (1981),  flopped,  and  the  two  men  went  their  separate  ways.  

Sondheim  turned  to  the  author  and  director  James  Lapine  for  Sunday  In  The  Park  With  George  (1984),  a  work  that  seemed  at  times  an  autobiographical  reflection  on  the  

problems  of  making  art  in  a  commercial  environment.  Into  The  Woods  (1987),  he  gave  such  familiar  nursery  figures  as  Cinderella  and  Red  Riding  Hood  complex  extended  

numbers;  for  the  eponymous  anti-­‐heroes  of  Assassins  (1990),  he  wrote  some  of  his  most  affecting,  straightforward  music,  reaching  back  beyond  Berlin  to  barbershop  and  Stephen  

Foster.  

 

4    

James  Lapine  was  born  in  1949  in  Mansfield,  Ohio  and  lived  there  until  his  early  teens  when  his  family  moved  to  Stamford,  Connecticut.  He  attended  public  schools  before  entering  Franklin  and  Marshall  College  in  Lancaster,  Pennsylvania  where  he  majored  in  History.  He  

went  on  to  get  an  MFA  in  Design  from  the  California  Institute  of  the  Arts  in  Valencia,  California.  

After  graduate  school,  he  moved  to  New  York  City  where  he  worked  part-­‐time  as  a  waiter;  a  page  and  tour  guide  at  NBC;  a  free-­‐lance  photographer  and  graphic  designer;  and  an  

architectural  preservationist  for  the  Architectural  League  of  NY.  One  of  his  free-­‐lance  jobs  was  designing  the  magazine  of  the  Yale  School  of  Drama,  Yale/Theater.  The  dean  of  the  School  of  Drama,  subsequently  offered  Lapine  a  full-­‐time  job  designing  all  of  the  printed  materials  for  the  School  of  Drama  and  the  Yale  Repertory  Theatre  as  well  as  a  faculty  

position  teaching  a  course  in  advertising  design.  

While  at  Yale,  his  students  urged  him  to  direct  a  play  during  the  annual  January  period  when  both  faculty  and  students  undertook  a  project  outside  of  their  areas  of  study  or  expertise.  At  their  suggestion  Lapine  directed  a  Gertrude  Stein  play,  Photograph.  The  play  was  five  acts,  and  just  three  pages  in  length.  Assembling  students  and  friends,  it  was  presented  in  New  Haven  and  came  to  the  attention  of  director  Lee  Breuer,  who  helped  arrange  for  a  small  performance  space  in  Soho  to  produce  the  work  for  three  weeks.  The  production  was  

enthusiastically  received  and  won  Lapine  an  Obie  award.  

Lapine  was  then  approached  to  create  a  new  piece  for  the  Music-­‐Theatre  Group.  He  wrote  and  directed  a  workshop  version  of  Twelve  Dreams,  a  work  inspired  by  a  Jungian  case  

history.  The  play  was  later  presented  at  the  Public  Theatre  and  revived  by  Lincoln  Center  Theatre.  Lapine  eventually  left  the  visual  arts  for  a  career  in  the  theatre  where  he  has  also  written  and  directed  plays  such  as  Table  Settings;    Luck,  Pluck  and  Virtue.  On  Broadway  he  has  written  the  book  for  and  directed  Stephen  Sondheim’s  Sunday  in  the  park  with  George;  

Into  the  Woods;  Passion;  and  the  multi-­‐media  revue  Sondheim  on  Sondheim.  He  also  directed  Merrily  we  roll  Along  as  part  of  encores  series  at  New  York  City  Center.  He  co-­‐produced  and  directed  the  HBO  documentary  Six  by  Sondheim,  for  which  he  received  an  

Emmy  nomination  and  has  also  directed  three  feature  films.  Lapine  wrote  the  screenplay  for  the  film  version  of  Into  the  Woods  directed  by  Rob  Marshall  released  Christmas  2014.  He  has  been  nominated  for  twelve  Tony  Awards  winning  on  three  occasions  and  has  received  

five  Drama  Desk  Awards,  the  Peabody  Award  and  the  Pulitzer  Prize.  In  2011,  he  was  inducted  into  the  Theater  Hall  of  Fame.  

 

 

 

 

                 Sondheim  and  Lapine  

 

5    

                                   Source:  Google  images  

 

 

 

 

 

 

6    

Character  Study  

The  show  covers  multiple  themes:  growing  up,  parents  and  children,  accepting  responsibility,  morality,  and  finally,  wish  fulfilment  and  its  consequences.    The  Time  Magazine  reviewers  wrote  that  the  play's  "basic  insight  ...  is  at  heart,  most  fairy  tales  are  about  the  loving  yet  embattled  relationship  between  parents  and  children.  Almost  everything  that  goes  wrong  —  which  is  to  say,  almost  everything  that  can  —  arises  from  a  failure  of  parental  or  filial  duty,  despite  the  best  intentions”.      

Stephen  Holden  wrote  that  the  themes  of  the  show  include  parent-­‐child  relationships  and  the  individual's  responsibility  to  the  community.  The  witch  isn't  just  a  scowling  old  hag,  but  a  key  symbol  of  moral  ambivalence.  James  Lapine  said  that  the  most  unpleasant  person  (the  Witch)  would  have  the  truest  things  to  say  and  the  "nicer"  people  would  be  less  honest.  In  the  Witch's  words:  "I'm  not  good;  I'm  not  nice;  I'm  just  right."  

Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_Woods  

Source:  http://mrklem.com/ITW/characters.htm  

"I'm not good, I'm not nice, I'm just right." The  witch  is  a  horrible  old  woman  who  appears  to  the  baker  and  his  wife  with  a  promise  of    a  child.  She  gives  them  a  cryptic  list  of  items  to  obtain  from  the  woods.  This  sets  the  story  going,  but  we  are  left  wondering  about  her  motives.    

She  hints  that  losing  her  special  beans  caused  her  much  heartache,  as  she  had  been  warned  would  happen  by  her  mother.  The  curse  on  the  baker's  family  is  a  product  of  her  vengeance.  She  readily  admits  this,  even  though  she  had  already  taken  his  sister  to  raise  as  her  own  in  exchange  for  some  food.  

The  witch's  relationship  for  Rapunzel  is  her  real  weakness.  She  loves  her,  but  she  keeps  her  locked  in  a  tower.  The  excuse  is  protection,  but  the  real  reason  is  selfishness.  Rapunzel  returns  the  love,  but  keeps  from  the  witch  that  she  has  been  seeing  her  prince.  

The  story  of  the  witch  demonstrates  better  than  any  other  the  words  of  the  baker's  wife:  "You  may  know  what  you  need  but  to  get  what  you  want  better  see  that  you  keep  what  you  have."  

Musically  The  Witch  has  a  larger  musical  presence  than  any  other  character.  She  is  introduced  during  the  Prologue,  in  which  she  performs  Greens,  Greens.  Though  it  wasn't  included  in  the  original  production,  the  number  Our  Little  World  has  since  been  added  as  a  duet  with  Rapunzel.  The  witch  is  later  characterized  perfectly  in  Stay  With  Me,  and  she  later  gets  a  solo  verse  in  Ever  After.  Aside  from  a  brief  poem  trying  to  determine  what  crushed  her  garden  in  the  prologue,  the  witch  first  sings  the  brief  Lament  in  act  two.  She  gets  one  line  in  Your  Fault,  which  is  immediately  followed  by  her  solo  number  Last  Midnight.  The  witch  also  introduces  the  finale:  Children  Will  Listen.  

 

7    

Context  A  fairy  tale  is  a  fictional  story  that  may  feature  folkloric  characters  (such  as  fairies,  goblins,  elves,  trolls,  witches,  giants,  and  talking  animals)  and  enchantments,  often  involving  a  far-­‐fetched  sequence  of  events.  The  term  is  also  used  to  describe  something  blessed  with  unusual  happiness,  as  in  "fairy  tale  ending"  (a  happy  ending)  or  "fairy  tale  romance,"  though  not  all  fairy  tales  end  happily.  Fairy  tales  are  a  genre  in  literature  and  have  their  roots  in  the  oral  tradition.  Fairy  tales  with  very  similar  plots,  characters,  and  motifs  are  found  spread  across  many  different  cultures,  take  on  the  features  of  their  location,  through  the  choice  of  motifs,  the  style  in  which  they  are  told,  and  the  depiction  of  character  and  local  colour.  

Romanticism  and  Romantic  Nationalism  in  early  19th  century  revived  an  interest  in  fairy  tales.  The  Grimm  brothers  were  deeply  interested  in  the  fairy  tales  referencing  German  folklore  or  culture.  Charles  Perrault’s  tales  published  in  1697  were  also  highly  influential.  The  brothers  began  collecting  tales  for  the  purpose  of  creating  a  scholarly  treatise  of  traditional  stories  and  of  preserving  the  stories  as  they  had  been  handed  from  generation  to  generation.  They  published  their  collection  as  ‘Children  and  Household  Tales’  –  ‘Kinder  und  Hausmärchen’  –  in  1812.  The  collection  contains  legends  and  folk  stories,  the  vast  majority  of  which  were  not  intended  as  children's  tales.  At  the  time  there  was  deep  concern  about  the  content  of  some  of  the  tales—such  as  those  that  showed  children  being  eaten—  and  it  was  suggested  these  aspects  be  removed.  Instead  the  brothers  added  an  introduction  with  cautionary  advice  that  parents  steer  children  toward  age-­‐appropriate  stories.  None  of  the  tales  were  eliminated  from  the  collection,  in  the  brothers'  belief  that  all  the  tales  were  of  value  and  reflected  inherent  cultural  qualities,  as  well  as  being  didactic  in  nature.    Some  scholars  argue  that  the  Grimms  published  their  collection  as  a  resistance  to  French  occupation.  They  are  indeed  ‘grim’  and  often  violent,  which  some  believe  reflect  their  medieval  beginnings,  or  deeper  Germanic  mythologies.  Interestingly,  during  the  Third  Reich,  the  Grimms’  stories  were  used  to  foster  nationalism  and  the  Nazi  Party  decreed  ‘Kinder-­‐und-­‐Hausmärchen’  was  a  book  each  household  should  own.  Later  in  Allied-­‐occupied  Germany,  the  book  was  actually  banned  for  a  period  of  time.      Source:  Modified  from:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers      

 

 

 

 

 

8    

Sondheim:    The  context  in  which  Sondheim  was  writing  his  work  and  the  drive  to  create  new  work  was  in  reaction  to  more  traditional  Broadway  musical  forms.  He  was  also  writing  during  the  emergence  of  the  postmodern  movement.    

Sondheim’s  career  developed  within  the  context  of  two  overlapping  cultural  moments.              The  first  is  the  end  of  the  Rodgers  and  Hammerstein  aesthetic  of  the  Broadway  musical.    The  second  context  was  the  growing  cultural  presence  of  Postmodernism,  which  by  the  late  1960s  was  clear  in  the  arts.  Postmodernism  is  a  hard  term  to  define  but  put  simply:  Postmodernism  says  that  there  is  no  real  truth.  It  says  that  knowledge  is  always  made  or  invented  and  not  discovered.  Because  knowledge  is  made  by  people,  a  person  cannot  know  something  with  certainty  -­‐  all  ideas  and  facts  are  'believed'  instead  of  'known.'      

Source:  http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism  

 

� In  the  plays  of  the  1980s,  1990s  and  the  first  decade  of  the  twenty-­‐first  century,  Sondheim  and  his  collaborators  continued  to  explore  the  limitations  of  conventional  narrative  and  to  find  new  possibilities  for  meaning  in  unconventional  structures.  Into  the  Woods  (1987)  in  its  first  act  intertwines  the  forward-­‐moving  structure  of  fairy  tales  with  a  backward  looking  desire  to  restore  fragmented  families.  In  its  second  act,  narrative  structure  is  lost  altogether  and  the  characters  try  to  find  meaning  by  taking  responsibility  for  their  actions  and  by  forming  informal  relationships.    

 Selected  from  Source:  Gordon,  Robert  L  (2014),  Sondheim  and  Postmodernism,  Chapter  2,  The  Oxford          Handbook  of  Sondheim  Studies  (pp  25-­‐38),  2014.    

Source:  http://www.momendeavors.com/2015/01/into-­‐the-­‐woods-­‐interview-­‐costume-­‐designer-­‐colleen-­‐atwood.html  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9    

Theatrical  Styles  The  key  theatrical  style  apparent  in  Into  the  Woods  is  musical  theatre,  specifically  chamber  musical  theatre.        Musical  theatre  is  a  form  of  theatre  that  combines  songs,  spoken  dialogue,  acting,  and  dance.  The  story  and  emotional  content  of  the  piece  –  humour,  pathos,  love,  anger,  fear,  denial  –  are  communicated  through  the  words,  music,  movement  and    technical  aspects  of  the  entertainment  as  an  integrated  whole.      

Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_theatre  

 A  key  feature  of  the  musical  is  the  ‘presentational’  nature  that  it  demands.  In  presentational  acting  the  performers  acknowledge  the  audience  by  speaking  or  singing  to  them.  Traditionally  a  ‘presentational  style’  eliminates  the  4th  wall,  or  the  idea  that  the  audience  is  looking  in  on  the  real  world  of  the  characters.  The  audience  is  forced  into  thinking  about  and  listening  carefully  to  both  the  lyrics  and  the  music  in  search  of  the  characters.    

The  effect  can  be  alienating  in  a  Brechtian  sense  

Definition  of  alienation  technique:  

 It  involves  the  use  of  techniques  designed  to  distancethe  audience  from  emotional  involvement  in  the  play  through  jolting  reminders  of  the  artificiality  of  the  theatrical  performance  and  enhances  the  multileveled  implications  of  the  experience.          

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/15423/alienation-­‐effect  

 Into  the  Woods  as  described  by  Sondheim  is  a  musical  –  a  fairy  tale  quest  musical.  There  is  spoken  dialogue  as  well  as  songs  where  Sondheim  uses  these  both  for  more  in  depth  character  interpretation  and  reflection.  Doubling  is  often  used  in  this  musical  and  the  character  of  the  witch  undergoes  transformative  change  from  Act  1  to  Act  2.  

Note:  for  your  stagecraft  examination:  Students  may  choose  to  sing  some  or  all  of  the  song  lyrics  (with  or  without  musical  accompaniment).  If  a  student  chooses  to  sing  some  or  all  of  the  song  lyrics,  the  melody  must  be  consistent  with  the  published  score  of  the  music.  For  Acting  and  Direction  students,  singing  the  song  lyrics  without  enactment  will  not  constitute  a  performance  as  required  by  this  examination                Source:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carey-­‐purcell/into-­‐the-­‐woods-­‐public-­‐theater_b_1777217.html    

 

10    

Interpretations  of  the  character  Interview  with  Streep  and  Sondheim:  

How  do  you  like  playing  a  heightened  character  like  the  Witch?  

Streep:  Gosh,  I  guess  it  is  heightened.  Is  it  heightened?  ...  The  first  scene,  when  I  climb  up  to  Rapunzel  and  I  give  her  blackberries  and  then  I  come  down  and  I  see  that  she's  seeing  this  dreadful  man  ...  all  I'm  doing  is  trying  to  keep  her  safe.  That  was  something  that  ...  didn't  feel  heightened  or  weird  

Sondheim:  That's  interesting  about  fairy-­‐tale  characters  because  fairy-­‐tale  characters  are  heightened,  aren't  they?  They're  ...  "archetypes"  I  guess  is  the  word  

Streep:  Yeah.  But  you  can't  play  an  archetype.  You  have  to  play  something  specific.  And  when  you  say  heightened,  it  makes  me  think  of  the  freedom  of  sort  of  more  abstract  movement  and  things  that  Rob  allowed  us  to  push  ourselves  physically  in  ways  that  normal  movies  would  never  allow  you  to  do.  There's  so  much  room  for  interpretation.  As  indelible  as  Bernadette  [Peters]  was,  in  the  part  there  was  a  way  to  find  my  own  voice  in  this  like  there  is  in  great  plays.  

Source:  http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-­‐et-­‐mn-­‐stephen-­‐sondheim-­‐meryl-­‐streep-­‐into-­‐the-­‐woods-­‐20141214-­‐story.html  

Bernadette  Peters  on  playing  the  Witch:  “[The  Witch]  is  intense,  so  I  think  it  should  be  an  actress  who  can  be  intense,”  Peters  told  Broadway.com.  “I  think  she  has  great  passion  because  she’s  very  passionate  about  her  daughter  and  passionate  about  the  last  midnight,”  the  actress  added.  “So  I  think  [the  right  choice]  is  somebody  who  can  have  a  lot  of  passion.”  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11    

Images