Behind stage, the actress playing Rapunzel drapes her wig around her neck like a boa. During parts of the show, cast and crew members prepare to crawl underneath the stage to appear from inside the tree.
Between scenes, actors “chug tea like nobody’s business,” said Autumn Hitt, senior music and philosophy double major.
When audiences experienced Stephen Sondheim’s musical “Into the Woods,” a collaboration between the theater program and music department that ran April 23-28, most did not witness the work behind stage and in the months leading up to the production.
“It’s just worth it in the end,” said Caitie Vance, senior theater major who played Jack’s mother and worked on the costume design crew. “When it’s your calling, it’s your calling. When you don’t do it, you don’t feel complete. It’s not just being on stage, it’s working up to it. It’s all the effort you put into it. It’s knowing that you have put all of who you are into this to make it something you can show to somebody else to give them two and a half hours of a whole new world.”
About five hours before the Friday showing, costumes were scattered around the men’s and women’s dressing rooms along with boxes of tea. Sitting outside the Union costume closet, Allison Hearn, Union alumna and costume designer and wardrobe head, sewed up holes and combed out tangled wigs while Vance sprinkled gold dust on Cinderella’s crown.
Both the costumes and the set had been in progress since February. Neither were finished until the week of the production, Vance said. She and others, particularly the seniors, pulled many all-nighters during the lead up to the play.
Daniel Poore, senior theater major, worked on the set and played the Narrator. Rapunzel’s tower is made of blue foam spray painted to look like brick, while some of the trees are made out of chicken wire, cloth and wood, he said.
Rapunzel’s wig is created from five wigs braided together and spray painted “yellow like corn,” with removable sections for when pieces of her hair are cut.
Hearn said she made about one-third of the costumes for the show, repurposing or altering the rest from existing clothes. Only minor pieces, such as petticoats, have not been changed, she said. During the show, Hearn waited back stage, ready to help characters with a clothing change or to hand an apron or coat to an actor.
“As much control happens onstage, it’s so hectic behind the stage and in the whole process too,” said Nick Fleming, senior Christian ministries and missions major who played the Baker. “I think no one realizes how much work you put into making the final product happen.”
The week of opening night was packed with rehearsals, meeting the orchestra and dealing with lost voices.
Fleming and Vance both woke up Thursday morning — the day of their first show — unable to speak, they said.
“[Sondheim] writes songs at the very top of your range and the very bottom of your range,” Vance said.
Multiple cast members needed injections with “sinus cocktail shots” to recover their voices, Vance said, and they even broke out a mixture of apple cider vinegar, cayenne pepper and honey.
Abigail Peecher, freshman vocal performance major who played the Witch, said theater students often came to music students asking for help saving their voices, while music students often went to theater students for help delivering lines.
The collaboration between different areas of the university gave her a chance to get to know upperclassmen from both departments.
“It’s been an overwhelming semester,” Peecher said. “It’s been so busy, but in a really good way. … Just getting to come together with all of them who are so talented was so much fun.”
Vance said there previously had been little contact between theater and music students, especially since they spend so much time in different buildings.
“We got together and realized we’re not different, which most of us already knew, but we gained way more from being together than being apart,” Vance said. “When you’re a fine arts major, you have to cling to all of the other ones. It’s been a really fun adventure.”
The actors first rehearsed with the orchestra Monday night the week of the show. Members of the orchestra, which was conducted by Stanley Warren, professor of music, received their music about two months prior, said Joey Moore, senior music major who played the trumpet for “Into the Woods.”
The orchestra came together to rehearse from 6 p.m. until 7 Monday night, held a run through with the entire cast later that night, held a second run through Tuesday, held a rehearsal Wednesday night and launched into the first show Thursday, he said.
“It was great,” Moore said. “It’s fast and furious, but that’s what makes it fun. … I think it was time that we all came together and did something. We have the people here, the resources on both ends, the actors and the musicians — why not go ahead and put something together?”
The orchestra cannot see the actors from behind heavy curtains, so the conductor acts as a “liaison,” making sure the timing comes off.
“Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it’s a challenge,” Moore said. “But it’s always clear. Our conductor is always very clear.”
Hitt said Sondheim’s score is difficult, with complex rhythms and accompaniment that does not always help the voice. She also spoke of how the music and theater students shared their expertise with one another during the months leading up to the show.
“Music and theater go really well together,” Hitt said. “I’m so glad it’s finally happening. It’s all coming together.”
