A Heap of Fairy Tales

Cinderella and her slipper, Jack and the beanstalk, Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, Rapunzel with her long tresses, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White without the Seven Dwarfs all got smushed into one musical production this past week at Anderson University.

Professor Rob Homer-Drummond, wearing his director’s hat, assembled a collection of collaborators to stage Stephen Sondheim’s Broadway show, Into the Woods.  

The printed program listed 23 actors, 13 members of an orchestra directed by Dr. Howard Kim, plus 30 other non-duplicated names on the production team.  If my counting of the various categories was correct, 68 people were directly involved in making the show a reality.  Others in the University family probably had a hand in it as well.

Director Rob (aka H. D.) said his association with this show dates back to his own college days when he had a major role, so he has had opportunity to brood over it a decade or two and find all sorts of meaning. 

The production team for this show included choreography by Terrie West-Poore, vocal coaching by Rebecca Yates and Dr. Tommy Watson, and on and on and on you could go.

Lives of characters from the various fairy tales and fables intermeshed as things went from good to bad to worse and all the principals went “into the woods” seeking solutions to what ailed them.  As the title song had it, in the woods, they had to grope, learn to cope, and try to find hope.

The production had so much to commend it: costumes, make-up, sets, lighting, audio, choreography, and certainly the orchestra and the actors-singers.

I’ve watched theater at Anderson College/Anderson University as faithfully as possible for the past 32 years.  Most productions have been good, others better.  As we went from junior college to senior college to university, more and more of them have been outstanding.

So I’m accustomed to good things happening when AU theatre and music students do a show.  But, to me, the most astounding single feature of Into the Woods was the array of able vocal soloists.  I lost count, but it seemed almost every one of the actors had his/her moment or moments in the spotlight as a singer.  I could hardly believe the talent on that stage.

If you missed this show, all I can say is, Keep your eye out for future theatre and music events by the students at Anderson University.  At least seven more are listed at www.andersonuniversity.edu under “Fine Arts.”  And that doesn’t include music recitals by students and professors.

A major dramatic production in the spring is Shakespeare’s As You Like It, April 2-5.