Courtesy photos.
CAMARILLO — Fairytale favorites like Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk and Rapunzel come together with a witch and two princes in composer Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods,” opening Nov. 14 at CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI).
The curtain opens at 8 p.m. in the Malibu Hall Theater for the Tony Award-winning musical, which is a favorite of Theater Lecturer Laura Covault. Covault is co-directing the show with CSUCI 2023 Performing Arts alumnus Griffin Giboney.
“I thought it would be really great to challenge us to do a Sondheim musical because it’s so nuanced,” Covault said. “The melodies are unique and difficult. If I could expose each one of my theater students to a Sondheim musical, I would.”
The 1986 musical centers on a baker and his wife and their quest to start a family. But a witch has placed a curse on them, which sets off their interaction with characters from several Brothers Grimm fairy tales.
“One of the things I like about the show is the metaphor,” Covault said. “The woods itself is a metaphor about getting lost and how the paths and directions people choose change them in the end. If you trace every character, they come out different in the end.”
Performing Arts/Theater major Claire Winch plays the baker’s wife and is also the student musical co-director for the show. Winch said the show explores the meaning of the old adage: “Be careful what you wish for.”
“Cinderella, for example, is in a horrible situation and she’s idealizing her escape, but when she gets her escape, maybe it’s not what she thought it would be,” Winch said.
Aside from the complex harmonies of a Sondheim musical, Winch said playing the main character of the baker’s wife required her to stretch.
“I’m always up for a musical challenge. I love music and singing,” she said. “The real challenge for me was the intimacy part of it. Being a wife and acting like you’re truly in love with someone. That was hugely out of my comfort zone, but I’m very thankful for the challenge.”
As co-director, the challenge for Giboney was the discipline required of staging a musical rather than a play.
“With plays you have more freedom to go outside the boundaries of what the playwright wrote,” Giboney said. “With a musical, you need to be true to the music and the score. There is choreographed movement. You need to make sure the pacing is correct and make sure performers get the melodies and get the rhythm right.”
Covault has entered the show in the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) regional conference, which takes place in February. The KCACTF is a national theater program involving 18,000 students annually from colleges and universities across the country.
A panel of judges selects the best productions to be featured at the national festival, which is held in Washington D.C. in April. Performers in CSUCI’s production of “Into the Woods” can be nominated in categories such as singing, acting and stage management and more.
“Into the Woods” will run Nov. 14, 15, 16, 21, 22 and 23. Shows are at 8 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays with an additional 2 p.m. matinee on Saturdays.
Admission is free for CSUCI students, $5 for all other students (with student I.D.), $25 for the general public, and $15 for CSUCI faculty and staff.
To purchase tickets, visit: CSUCI “Into the Woods.”
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY CHANNEL ISLANDS
California State University Channel Islands?(CSUCI) is Ventura County’s only public university and opened in 2002 as the 23rd campus in the?CSU system. CSUCI is located between Camarillo and the Oxnard Plain, midway between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles.
The campus is nestled against the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains and is a 10-minute drive from the Pacific Ocean. With more than 5,100 students, 27,500 alumni, and 1,000 employees, CSUCI is poised to grow in size and distinction, while maintaining one of the most student-focused learning environments in public higher education with more than 90 academic degrees, teaching credentials, certificates, and professional and community programs.
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