Show rehearsals involve actors, tech, and the live TJ band. photo by Daniella Prime-Morales
Actors and the tech crew got creative working on the musical this semester.
The latest show in the works from Thomas Jefferson High School’s theater department is the 1987 musical Into The Woods. Since early January, the cast and crew have worked tirelessly to bring this production to life. The show’s large ensemble has given many TJ students the chance to participate, and the musical’s mystical nature leaves lots of room for creativity in the costume, set, and hair designs. The tech crew has poured love into the visual pieces of the set and props, and the live pit orchestra captivates audiences and intensifies the emotional performances of the extremely talented actors.
The show follows classic Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale characters such as Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and Jack (Jack and the Beanstalk), along with the addition of new characters such as the Baker and the Baker’s Wife. The Baker is sent on a journey through the woods to collect certain fairy tale items in the hopes to reverse a curse placed upon his family by a witch that left them unable to bear a child. In the woods, the Baker meets said fantasy characters and the end of the first act leaves them all as we know them, with Cinderella and the prince getting married and Jack cutting down the beanstalk. However, during the second act, a vengeful giantess ravages their kingdom and each character faces the consequences of their actions in the first act. The musical teaches the valuable lesson of “be careful what you wish for” and the value behind pursuing one’s goals in a principled sense, accompanied by music composed by Stephen Sondheim.
Director and TJ theater teacher Andre Moss was particularly excited for TJ to take on this production. Since Into the Woods is his favorite musical, Moss was nervous about selecting it for the spring musical. He was saving it until it felt right and the department had the adequate resources to do the show justice. During his eighth year directing for TJ, he finally felt like “everything came together,” with more talent this year than ever, gaining a sense of directing style, and a new tech lead, Gabby Lentini. With this newfound stability, Moss felt it was the perfect time to try Into The Woods.
One of the other reasons he believed this was the perfect production for this group of high schoolers was because of the large ensemble. He explained, “A lot of shows have maybe four or five people that do most of the heavy lifting for the show and then everybody else is a supporting character or even a cameo and comes in for just a moment. We specifically wanted to do the show because we wanted to highlight more voices and because of that ensemble, a lot more people get a chance to shine than shows that we’ve done in the past.” Moss hopes that the show will transport the audience back to the childlike wonder they might’ve experienced when hearing these stories for the first time. Moss commented that the audience “might have a problem in their life or might be wondering how they can make changes in their life, and these lyrics and these characters that hopefully they’re going to be invested in, could give them that little spark of inspiration or that little aha moment to do that.”
A big challenge of this particular production was creating an atmosphere that could make the audience feel a part of this deeply intricate, magical kingdom. This took effort on all fronts, from the set design, the costumes, props, and everything in between. Senior Celeste Escobar, stage manager, and senior Amelia Danielson, costume, makeup, and hair lead, started pouring passion into the show during winter break. Both leads faced many challenges trying to make a “set heavy” musical under time and budget constraints, but were both thankful to be able to do this production during their senior year, and were able to accomplish many great things. One of the greatest accomplishments was designing parts of the set to be wheelchair accessible for another student to be able to participate in the show.
The creativity doesn’t end with those two. Senior Orion Nguyen, prop master, was challenged with a show that required props with functionality. Nguyen faced that challenge head on, and designed Milky White, the cow companion of one character. Taking inspiration from their Vietnamese heritage, Nguyen designed the puppet off of the lion puppets used in Lunar new year celebrations. Junior Harper Skurky-Thomas, makeup and hair designer, created a wig that could be used as both Rapunzel’s long hair and her short hair by adding velcro to individual wig sections attached to the wig cap, so length could be easily added or removed.
Every member of the cast and crew have worked very hard to make the production as magical as possible. Their creativity will be showcased on the opening night of the show, Thursday, March 19th, at 7:00 p.m. The three other shows are on Friday the 20th at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday the 21st at both noon and 5 p.m. Tickets are $10 for general admission and $5 for students and seniors. Everyone is encouraged to support the theater staff involved in the production!
