Students will venture Into the Woods for musical
By Steve Van Kooten
While Wauzeka-Steuben students are working on their footwork, the students at Prairie du Chien are practicing to hit their notes for Into the Woods, which debuts on Nov. 6 at the Prairie du Chien Performing Arts Center (PAAC).
The 1987 Broadway musical written by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine is a mashup of several Brothers Grimm stories, including “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Jack and the Beanstalk,” and “Cinderella.”
The musical has received a multitude of accolades throughout the years, including a Tony Award, and was adapted into a feature film in 2014 starring Meryl Streep and Anna Kendrick.
“It’s musically different than most. It’s almost all music, so you can tell your emotions through it,” said Adalyn Blackburn, who plays Cinderella.
“I fall in love with a prince after being treated badly, and then I go into the woods to find a new life,” she said.
Brecken Toberman, a senior in his third production as a performer, plays the Prince, a role that allows him to show a different side of himself. “He’s very charming, he’s very boastful and very out and about. He thinks he’s better than everyone else.”
“There’s a real believability in who got what role, and everybody is taking their roles as far as they can,” said Jill Ahrens, the production’s director. “It’s a really supportive group, and that is what theater is all about: creating a world beyond yourself.”
This year’s group of performers features high school, middle school and elementary students.
“We have unique casting this year,” said Toberman. “We have a lot of middle school kids that are actually really great at singing — better than me, actually. Some of them are absolutely stellar... I loved working on stage with them.”
“We have a huge community that is super fun, and all of us are into the same thing and have the same energy,” added Blackburn.
Ahrens didn’t originally like the “treacherous” turn of events in act two of the play but changed her mind while directing a student production in DeSoto.
“I realized telling kids it’s fairy tales of happily ever after is not life; that’s false promises,” she said. “This is very practical and lets kids see that bad things may happen... To me, this becomes a story of resilience. Now it’s one of my favorite musicals.
“It’s a story that, in a fun way, is necessary for our community. I look at the hardships our families are facing, and it’s almost a metaphor for ‘Let’s keep going and problem-solve together.’”
Even though the story is rooted in fantasy, the lessons people can take from the story and the tribulations the characters experience have a realistic quality that makes them engaging.
“It can happen in real life, and it tells a story about how things can end up good or bad,” said Blackburn. “We can all create our own characters. Each person has their story to tell, and it catches more people that way.”
But that doesn’t mean the PdC players have skimped on the magic and wonder, either.
“We’re going to have some spectacle here and there, some surprises... There’s going to be so many stories [the audience] can relate to,” said Ahrens.
Prairie du Chien School’s production of Into the Woods will raise the curtain on Thursday and Saturday, Nov. 6 and 8, at 7 p.m. and on Sunday, Nov. 9, at 1 p.m.
