director’s notes - whitchurchhs.wales€¦director’s notes ““into the woods” is a musical...
TRANSCRIPT
Director’s Notes
““Into the Woods” is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and
book by James Lapine. The musical cleverly weaves the narrative of a number of
familiar characters from the fairy stories written by the Brothers Grimm and two
new characters, the Baker and his wife. “Into the Woods” is a seamless fusion of
fairy tale characters and what happens after “happily ever after”. The main
characters are taken from “Little Red Riding Hood”, “Jack and the Beanstalk”,
“Rapunzel” and “Cinderella”, as well as several others. “Into the Woods” is tied
together by an original story involving a childless baker and his wife and their
quest to have a family, their relationship with a witch who has placed a curse on
them and their interaction with other storybook characters during their journey.
The musical debuted in San Diego in 1986 and premiered on Broadway a year
later, where it won several Tony Awards, including Best Book and Best Score. With
memorable songs such as “Children Will Listen” and “No One is Alone”, “Into the
Woods” is a “music lover’s delight from start to finish and will forever cement
Stephen Sondheim’s unparalleled position as a giant in the musical world.” (Time
Magazine 1987).
All of the characters in this multi-award winning musical wish for something that
they think will bring them happiness. For the Baker and his wife it is a child, for
Little Red Riding Hood it is adventure, for the two Princes it is the pursuit of new
maidens just out of their reach, for Jack it is fame and fortune, for Jack’s mother it
is money, for Cinderella it is a Prince, for Rapunzel it is freedom, for the Witch it is
to protect her child from the outside world. In pursuit of their dreams the
characters journey independently into the woods, a dark and mysterious place in
which “anything can happen”.
We assume that all fairy stories have a happy ending but in this musical adventure
Sondheim goes to great lengths to remind us that life is full of disappointment and
set-backs, even if we are granted our wishes. He explores what happens after
“happily ever after” and in doing so raises multiple themes: growing up,
parent/child relationships, accepting responsibility and finally, wish fulfilment and
its consequences. As human beings we all have dreams, we all wish for something.
But do we appreciate the consequences? Wishes may not bring what we expect,
things are not always what they seem and people change. “Into the Woods” may
be described as a modern fairy tale and Sondheim’s clever lyrics certainly give an
audience plenty to think about; ”be careful what you wish for”, “to get what you
want, better keep what you have” and again, “best to take the moment present,
as a present for the moment.” These are at the core of “Into the Woods”.
When choosing a school production it is always my intention to involve as many
pupils of all ages as possible and the ensemble nature of “Into the Woods” made it
an ideal choice for this year’s musical. In addition, the themes and issues
Sondheim presents in his lyrics appealed to me. Preparing for a production is
extremely time consuming but it should also be fun and the pantoesque elements
of “Into the Woods” certainly provides this. A musical as well-known and
challenging as “Into the Woods” demands an enthusiastic, committed and
talented cast, crew and creative team and I have been fortunate to work with such
a group of people. I would like to thank each and every one of them. Special
thanks go to my colleagues in the Drama, Music and DT Departments, past and
present, for their unswerving support and hard work. I would also like to thank
James and Jenkins for their sponsorship over the past twenty four years.
Since its premiere, “Into the Woods” has enjoyed international success both as a
piece of musical theatre and now as a film, entertaining audiences world-wide and
earning Sondheim an enviable reputation. I hope, as one theatre critic said of the
original Broadway cast, that our performers “weave their magic spell over you”. I
do hope you enjoy this 2016 Whitchurch High School production of “Into the
Woods”.
Lee Thornton-Phillips.
Sondheim - the name be-speaks theatrical excitement and applause. He is one of the singularly gifted within the ranks of the Broadway musical elite, a man who has spent his entire career making wonderful music. While Stephen Sondheim may be best known in the public view as a Broadway composer, his musical skills actually go far beyond that rather limited sphere. Sondheim has written prolifically and profusely for motion pictures, television dramas, and background songs and scores for legitimate theater, in addition to his extensive catalog of Broadway scores. In fact, Sondheim is one of the very few tunesmiths to have garnered both Tony
awards and Oscars for his multi-directional output, not to mention literally countless other accolades for his unique talents. Stephen Sondheim was born in 1930 and raised in New York City. He graduated from Williams College in Williamstown, MA, where he began a lifetime of award winning, taking down the renowned Hutchinson Prize for Music Composition, following which he studied theory and composition with Milton Babbitt. Sondheim's creativity came into play soon after departing from college when he wrote lyrics for such highly skilled composers as Leonard Bernstein ("West Side Story") and Jule Styne ("Gypsy") within the two year span of 1957 to 1959. Soon thereafter, in 1962, came one of Sondheim's most notable successes, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," in which he created both the music and lyrics. Two years later, a virtually unending series of successful musicals featuring both music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, began their collective run extending well into the 1990s. Beginning in 1964 with "Anyone Can Whistle," the list includes "Follies," "A Little Night Music," "The Frogs," "Pacific Overtures," "Sweeney Todd," "Merrily We Roll Along," "Sunday in the Park with George," "Into the Woods," "Assassins," "Passion" and "Company." During the 30-year run, which features a major Broadway entry approximately once every three years, he was also the lyricist for "Do I Hear a Waltz" and "Candide" and organized revue-style anthologies of his works for such Broadway presentations as “Side by Side by Sondheim”, “Marry Me a Little”, “You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow” and “Putting it Together”. Again, during the same immensely productive 30-year span, Sondheim addressed the motion picture field, composing scores for "Stavisky" and "Reds" and songs for "Dick Tracy," one of which, "Sooner or Later" won the Academy Award in 1990 for Best Song. For television, he wrote songs for "Evening Primrose," co-authored the film, "The Last of Sheila" and provided incidental music for the plays "The Girls of Summer," "Invitation to a March" and "Twigs." Sondheim is the owner of five Tony Awards (Best Score for a Musical) for "Into the Woods,” Sweeney Todd," "A Little Night Music," "Follies" and "Company." All these shows also won New York Drama Critics Circle Awards, as did "Pacific Overtures" and "Sunday in the Park with George," the latter also receiving the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1985, with music and lyrics by Sondheim and book by James Lapine. Stephen Sondheim has served on the CounciI of the Dramatists Guild, the National Association of Playwrights, Composers and Lyricists, and served as its president from 1973 to 1981. In 1983, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 1990, he was appointed the first visiting professor of Contemporary Theater at Oxford University. In 1993, he was the recipient of the prestigious Kennedy Center honors. Source ttp://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/bio/C75
JAMES LAPINE was born 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, Robert Brustein 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 the plays TABLE SETTINGS; LUCK, PLUCK
and VIRTUE; THE MOMENT WHEN; FRAN’S BED; MRS. MILLER DOES HER THING; and ACT ONE, a
stage adaptation of the famous Moss Hart autobiography.
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. With William Finn
he has collaborated on MARCH OF THE FALSETTOS and FALSETTOLAND, later presented on Broadway as
FALSETTOS; A NEW BRAIN; MUSCLE; and LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE. He has also directed on Broadway
David Henry Hwang’s GOLDEN CHILD; THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK; Michel Legrand’s AMOUR; THE 25th
ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE; and the 2012 revival of ANNIE. Among his many off-Broadway
offerings were three Shakespeare productions for the Public Theatre.
When the one thing you want is
the only thing out of your reach
You’ll just leave him a clue for example a shoe
and then see what he’ll do
The Cast IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
CHORUS
Narrator
Cinderella
Jack
Milky White
Jack’s Mother
Baker
Baker’s Wife
Cinderella’s Stepmother
Florinda
Lucinda
Cinderella’s Father
Little Red Riding hood
Witch
Cinderella’s Mother
Mysterious Man
Wolf
Granny
Rapunzel
Rapunzel’s Prince
Cinderella’s Prince
Stewards
Giant
Snow White
Sleeping Beauty
Rhys Battle
Naomi Rich
Michael Triggs
Max Rowlands
Max Vella
Emily Hermon
Jack Shephard
Ella Travers
Gemma Goulbourn
Kathryn Totterdell
Leila Navabi
Ethan Thomas
Kate Shephard
Emma Kaler
Lottie Rees
Daniel Jones
Jack Thomas
Harry Kemp
Tierney Kesterton
Josie Wilton-Jones
Angus Robertson
Tom Auton
Ben Rees, Ben Ryan
Rachel Leonard
Fran Pawar
Ella James
Ruby Aston
Jessica Bright
Georgia Cape
Teresa Delfino
James Evans
Sam Hill
Katie Kirby-Jones
Freya Luscombe
Lydia Notley
Isabel Palmer–Smith
Owen Pearce
Tobias Welch
Tom Whittingham
Thomas Wilcox
Phoebe Young
BIRD OPERATORS
Thomas Clarke
Chloe Howcroft
Alys James
Lydia James
Emily McPhee
Angel Onwudiwe
The Band
Violins Maureen Doig-Davies (Leader)
Morven Graham
Victoria Thomas
Angharad Phillips
Emily Bowen
Ailsa Graham
Violas Naomi Gaffney
Alison Howells
Cellos Jennifer Lloyd
Robert Knowles
Zhiyi Yu
Bass Graham Tuck
Flute/Piccolo Charlotte Manners
Clarinet Joe O’Connell
Bassoon Hannah Towndrow
Horns Tom Griffin
David Wheeler
Trumpet Sian Davis
Percussion Alun Horgan
Piano Lara Jones
Synth Amy Cross
Harp Liberty Welch
Director
Musical Director
Vocal Director
Lee Thornton-Phillips
Eric Phillips
Lara Jones-Price
Technical Director
Lighting Designer
Sound Designer
Projections
Set Construction
Lighting Assistant
Production Manager
Stage Manager
Deputy Stage Manager
Production Consultant
Properties Manager
Assistants
Costume
Wardrobe
Make Up
Phil Hurley
Alan Blakoe
Phil Hurley
Jessica Screen
Bethany Thompson
Mike Williams,
Sam Hotchkiss, Chris Harris
Jamie Holden
William Thomas
David O’Rourke
Eleri Howell
Jessica Screen
Barry Slack
Evie Clarke, Aoife Doherty
Megan Williams
Alys Moores
Rachel Leonard
Charlotte Bertelli
Allaa Abdelgadir
Bethan Casey, Indiana
Thomas, Jessica Walkey, Lucy
Pearce, Maisy McCoy, Sarah
Parker, Tia Warsama &
Anthea Parker
Backstage crew
Runners
Junior Stage Managers
Programme Production
Refreshments
Front of House
Front of House
Managers
Photography & Filming
Ticket Sales
Dan Bushell
Gemma Ceschia
Jack Burnett
Joe Cummings
Mary Palmer-Smith
Thomas Hurley
Tom Clarke
Alfie Stone
Natalie Howell
Phoebe Davies
Lydia Harris
Omar Salman
Callum Nott
Tariq Abufares
Gail PerryShepherd
Sue Vickers
Darryn Havard & GCSE
Business Studies Class
Beatrix Mosey
Bronwen Davies
Charlie Cummings
Euan Brown
Jessica Hayden
Shanan Hamza
Tanisha Fair
Naomi Williams
Grace Burnett
Alun Horgan
Andrew Rooke
Ianthe Nikalaou
Natalia Gomes
Creatives
THE TIME IS NOW WE HAVE TO LIVE …….HE’S THE BEST COW ONCE UPON A TIME
FOOLISHNESS CAN WHERE ARE WE TO GO FOOLISHNESS CAN HAPPEN IN THE WOODS RIGHT AND WRONG DON’T MATTER IN THE WOODS
WHOSE FAULT ? ARE YOU CERTAIN THIS IS THE RIGHT DIRECTION PEOPLE MAKE MISTAKES
Acknowledgements Thanks to:
Stage Sound Services
AB Stage Lighting Services
E.V. ENTZ Percussion Hire
Celtic Prop Hire
Just Fancy Costume Hire
Upper & Lower School Offices
Caretakers: Paul Brown, Heath Spring, Mike Kennedy & Gary O’Brien
Textiles Department
P E Department
Years 11E and 13E for contribution to art work
Staff and students past and present who have contributed to and supported this production of “Into The Woods”
CHARTERED SURVERYORS AND PROPERTY CONSULTANTS
Pheonix House 8 Cathedral Road
Cardiff CF11 9JL
Tel: 029 2064 4519 Email: [email protected]
COMMERCIAL BUILDING MAINTENANCE AND FACADE SPECIALISTS
Past & Recent Productions at Whitchurch High School
1991 OUR DAY OUT WILLY RUSSELL
1992 WEST SIDE STORY LEONARD BERNSTEIN
STEPHEN SONDHEIM
1994 INTO THE WOODS STEPHEN SONDHEIM
JAMES LAPINE
1995 AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE HENRIK IBSEN
1996 CABARET KANDER & EBB
1997 THE FIRE RAISERS MAX FRISCH
1998 COMPANY STEPHEN SONDHEIM &
GEORGE FURTH
1999 GREGORY’S GIRL BILL FORSYTH
2000 MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG STEPHEN SONDHEIM &
GEORGE FURTH
2001 THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR NIKOLAI GOGOL
2002 SOUTH PACIFIC RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN
2003 ROMEO + JULIET WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
2004 SWEET CHARITY COLMAN/SIMON/FIELDS
2005 BLOOD BROTHERS WILLY RUSSELL
2006 CAROUSEL RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN
2007 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
2008 OKLAHOMA! RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN
2009 SWEENEY TODD STEPHEN SONDHEIM
2010 A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE ARTHUR MILLER
2011 FIDDLER ON THE ROOF BROCK AND HARNICK
2012 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
2014 WEST SIDE STORY STEPHEN SONDHEIM & BERSTEIN
2015 FACE BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH