Into the Woods is a musical based off of classic Grimms Brothers’ characters and their fairytales. The production explores the consequences of their wishes and the quests that they fulfill and take on. In writing this play, it seems as though Sondheim and Lapine were attempting to bring to life the classic fairytales of their youth with a twist of reality. Through this portrayal of classic tales, the audience is also taken back into their childhood for the entire two hours and forty-five minutes. At the beginning of the production, there were three separate spots on the stage with a house in the background of each, all slightly a different style of house. These houses helped represent that there were three separate families being represented in the musical; Cinderella, Jack and his Mother, and the baker and his wife. The opening scene with the houses helped identify and separate the purposes of each distinctive family. For instance, Cinderella is seen tirelessly cleaning the floor, eluding to her tireless participation later on in the story. The baker and his wife are not only providing little red riding hood with …show more content…
The actors struggled with playing adjacent to actors in animal costumes. The head of the animal costumes was placed on top of the actor’s head, seemingly connected to a bike helmet. Thus, the actor’s faces were showing, distracting the actors playing adjacent to them who would make direct eye contact with the actor instead of the costume’s eyes. Though a small detail, this somewhat took away from the scenes. A costume that really stuck out as aiding in the development of the world was the witch’s costume when she regains her beauty. Her dress was an emerald green with black lace covering most of it. The green resembled the brightened mood in the ending of the first act while the black overlay of lace eluded to the dark future that was coming in the second
Clothing that is worn by the actors during the play can be a reflection of the characters personalities. Nick, Lucy, Lewis and Julie all seem to be in normal clothing, reflecting the fact they are relatively normal, and don’t show signs of extreme ‘Madness.’ Ruth wears simple, old, and neat clothes that reflect her OCD, and the colours and patterns that Roy wears reflect his crazy and upbeat personality. Meanwhile, Henry wears business-like outfits that you would expect to see a lawyer wear. This helps to inf...
A significant aspect of the play is the acting and wardrobe, because it helps demonstrate the personalities of the characters.
Big hair, bright colors, and denim helped to establish the time period the play was set in. Each actress’ outfit gave the audience an idea of her character’s personality. For instance, Clairee wore pant suits and looked the part of a sophisticated, classy former mayor’s wife. On the other hand, Ouiser wore comfortable clothes; often sporting a pair of jeans and a flannel shirt over a t-shirt showing her practical and simple lifestyle. The use of jackets and scarves portrayed the change in season and helped establish the different time frames from scene to scene. The costumes reflected each character well and were fitting for the time in which the play was portrayed.
There are several events in the play which at one point or the other take a tragic turn which constantly undercut back into the play by speeches. What is set out in the play is a festive mood where people were engaged in activities of ‘Maying’ where people get together to sing and dance in the woods, activities that led to the maids’ belief that the pursuit if true love can be scored only through divination dreams (Barber 18). The fairy’s existence is conceptualized from the act of fusing pageantry together with popular games in a menacing way bring out their actual image of a relaxed
The costumes, like Elizabethan clothing, were very intricate and probably took more time than that of modern fashions. Everything appears to be tied up or pinned together and to a modern onlooker it could appear as overdone and overdressed. In the movie, actresses Gweneth Paltrow and Judi Dench reveals that the feminine garments normally consisted of at least two parts: bodice and skirt, along with the undergarments.
Almost everyone knows this story: two children taken into the forest by their father and left alone. The children are tricked and trapped by the witch in the gingerbread house. Using their wits, they defeat the witch, escape and return to their happy home. This original story is a narrative circle. It begins and ends at the same place with the children happy with their father in their home in the woods. It is the narrative circle that underlies the whole film, and the audience is always conscious of this. The main narrative circle of the film unfolds after Hansel and Gretel have grown up, but it really begins where the first circle
1. Maple Leaf Rag I find this piece very interesting, because it has such a joyful tone. This could further imply that many of the notes used where major chords. If a person where to dance to this song, which is what people of that time did, I would imagine a bouncy motion because of its wave-like contour.
The sitar and tabla drum performance, by Dr. John Protopapas was a very interesting look into the music of India and Africa. Dr. Protopapas also discussed his musical journey of becoming a sitar master. He showcased his mastery in both of the sitar and the tabla, as well as his ability to move people with his music, and deliver well-stated stories of his journey through life. Dr. Protopapas is a gifted sitar player. He had been taught how to play the sitar by a master sitar player in India, and had studied under him for 10 years.
The play I went to see was The Music Man performed by the Mesa Encore Theatre at the Mesa Community College. I saw this performance on November 20th. The main performers in this play were Zac Bushman as Harold Hill and Lauren Koeritzer as Marian Paroo. Alongside them, a mix of both adults and children as young as 8 acted in this production. The cast and crew used appropriate clothing to match the time and place. Lights were utilized scarcely, with not much more than spotlights or front and back lights. The set was extravagant, cute, and fitting for the setting and time. Overall, this musical was vibrantly performed and left me with positive impressions regarding presentation and production.
“I was raised to be charming not sincere.” Into The Woods by Stephen Sondheim is about a witch that gives a childless baker and his wife a list of magical items they have to find from classic fairy tales to reverse the curse put on their family tree, Into The Woods is a play as well as a movie; which are different in ways but they are also similar. In the movie there are things that are more fitting than in the play. However the play is more entertaining to watch then the movie because it's funnier, it does not leave senecs out like the movie, and how the performers acted.
When you first enter the theater, you are immediately in awe of the strongest aspect of this production: the set. The stage features a life-sized enchanted forest with “tress” as tall as the ceiling and a lit-up backdrop of a twilight sky. The tress would move around throughout the performance to make way for different scenes. In front of your very eyes, an enchanted forest would turn into the outside of a charming house with a lit porch and a well. The twilight sky would turn to a starlit sky and a soft spotlight simulating moonlight would compliment the faint sound of crickets. Suddenly the house and tress move around and you’re in a town with a little cart selling baguettes, or a lush dining room with Victorian wallpaper, a chandelier, and china displayed on the walls. The world shakes once again and now you’re in, inevitably, a ballroom. A white Victorian gate opens up to become the walls of the ballroom, and a white marble bridge and staircase appear for the outside of the castle. Adults and children alike were in awe of the craftsmanship and technology.
The song Out of the Woods is full of anxiety, heartache, and disillusion. In the chorus of the song, "Are we out of the woods yet?" is repeated multiple times at quick speed, which could easily be interpreted as desperate or anxious. She asks if they're in the clear yet, and it's quite obvious that this song is about a high-profiled relationship that Swift was in. She feels trapped, knowing that the relationship could easily come to an end. She highlights the good times in the relationship, with references to a paper airplane necklace that was given to her, as they danced around her living room. However, the song takes a drastic turn during the bridge, when their skiing trip turns sour and ends with an accident. "Remember when you hit the
In society there is a longing for a story to have a nice and neat happy ending. Broadway and the theater originally would give this to their audience, especially in America. Give the audience what the want! They want happy endings that mirror their own values and interpretations of how the world should be and at the end of it should be, “and they all lived happily ever after.” The fairy tale ending is something society hopes, dreams, and strives for since we could listen to our parents read us fairy tales with these sweet stories of finding true love and having to fight the odds to be the Prince or Princess you deserve to be. With Into the Woods, Lapine and Sondheim sought out to explore what could go wrong with “happily ever after.” Effectively leaving the audience with the adage, “be careful what you ask for…”
In the film Luhrman uses costume and makeup to portray characters’ personalities. Such as Shirley Hastings. Shirley’s costume and makeup shows the audience a great deal about her personality. Shirley always wears pink, puts ‘over the top’ makeup on and wears a lot of jewellery. This tells the audience that she is ‘over the top’ and maybe insecure about herself or her past. Liz Holt is another character whose personality could not have been portrayed if it wasn’t for the costume and makeup used. Liz is a drama queen and exaggerates everything including her costume and makeup. She nearly always wears yellow and also exaggerates her makeup with bright colours even when she’s not dancing. Luhrman also used costume and makeup to show the development of one of the main characters, Fran. At the start of the film, Fran is introduced with acne, glasses and baggy clothes, which shows the audience that she is not comfortable with herself and not confident. But when Fran starts dancing she slowly becomes more confident and her costume and makeup changes. Fr...
We were really close to the actors so we didn’t have to fully rely on the emotion in their voice, because we could see their face. The lighting was dark most of the time, but when one character was announcing something important the spotlight would shine on them. The cast also didn’t wear any shoes. Most of the characters weren’t that finically well off and couldn’t afford shoes. Great detail that was added in this story. There is also a lack of music. Music helps you feel what the writer or director wants you to feel, but I think in this play, the control was given to the audience. There were only two times music was used in the play and it was during the trails of the “witches”, it stopped when they were hung and also at the end when Alice and Susan were removing the noose off of Joan and the Cunning women. They didn’t use a big cast for this play, they had about 8 or 9 cast members. A few of them would play another character. I’m not sure as to why this was done, but it could be, because of the small space that was on the