San Jose State University’s film and theater department premiered the musical “Into the Woods” on Nov. 11, with a production that ran until Nov. 20 at the Hammer Theater.
The musical, largely displayed by students, is presented as a gritty modern mashup of popular fairy tales, incorporating famous stories like “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Cinderella” and “Jack and the Beanstalk.”
The Artistic Excellence Programming Grant funded the play.
The grant provides $150,000 to increase the participation of students in interacting with a diverse and high end level of programming, catering to culinary, literary, and visual arts, according to the Humanities and Arts in Action page on the SJSU website.
Kirsten Brandt, theatre arts assistant professor and production director of “Into the Woods,” said the story is an intergenerational rollercoaster and puts fairytales into a whole new light from a deeper perspective.
“There's a strong theme about the responsibilities of parents, about how we grow up, when we grow up, what our responsibilities are, but also intergenerational trauma,” Brandt said. “So, throughout the show, there is this massive theme of what it means to be family, what it means to [to] parent, what it is to grow up.”
Brandt said “Into the Woods” is a loose retelling of several fairytales.
The story revolves around a baker and his wife who are attempting to reverse a spell put on them by a witch as they try to have a child.
She also said the musical incorporates fairy tales in a realistic way, focusing on the intensity of these stories and shying away from the sugar-coated Walt Disney-like retellings.
“The Grim versions of the tales are kind of brutal. I mean, sentimental stepsisters cut their toes and their heels off in order to fit into that glass slipper,” Brandt said. “They get their eyes plucked out by birds at Cinderella's wedding. There's a lot of death and destruction and mayhem and darkness to these tales that when we've talked about them, and our brain goes to Disney, they’re sanitized.”
Brandt said these themes are meant to unlock the grim and gritty details of what people hope for and fear.
Barnaby Dallas, Film and Theatre director of production and producer of the play, said the set pieces really made the play pop.
“There's these gigantic trees that we put on wheels and they move around,” Dallas said. “And they sort of form portals that the characters come in and out of and so the trees literally float on the stage and move on the stage.”
Dallas said the trees are just one of many set pieces that really make the play so captivating. Nearly every showing was sold out.
“So, iconic pieces that move in and out that set worlds. In addition to that, everybody's dressed appropriately, you would recognize all the characters. The costumes were built by students in a class, supervised by faculty as well,” he said.
A great deal of planning went into recreating composer Stephen Sondheim ’80’s play “Into the Woods.”
Abby Halper, a senior theater major and stage manager for the event, said this was her first time as a musical stage manager, and she had extensively prepared for the play.
“I did a lot of research, YouTube channels, and reading books about stage management and just reminding myself tips and tricks of things that I should have prepared for rehearsals,” Halper said.
She also said working with fellow students was a joyful experience.
“My cast was fantastic,” Halper said. “They made me laugh on a daily basis with their absolute nonsense, but they were also very kind to each other and very responsible, which was just really awesome.”
“Into The Woods” closed with a sold-out crowd in the Hammer Theatre this past Sunday.
