St. Davids Public School invited parents and the community to the school for two performances of Into the Woods, James Lapine’s fairy tale musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, this Tuesday and Wednesday.
St. Davids Grade 4 teacher Sharon Heidebrecht had been working with a cast of 30 Grade 4 to 8 students twice a week since February to prepare for this week’s performances. Two hundred Dragons sang in the choir to back up the actors on a stage set up as a fantastical forest, with Rapunzel’s castle walls made out of pizza boxes. Auditions were held in January, and by this week they were ready to take to the stage.
Paying the baker’s wife was like a dream come true for Avery Janzen, who has appeared in Linus Hand and Yellow Door Theatre productions in the past. “I have a lot of lines in this, about 65,” says Janzen, who will be attending Eden High School in September. “We’ve put a lot of work into it. I’ve never had a role this big. I love theatre.”
The cast performed Tuesday afternoon to a gymnasium filled with the cast’s counterparts from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 3, who enthusiastically responded to the portrayal of multiple princesses, princes and knights in shining armour in the weaving together of a number of familiar fairy tale characters.
Performances Tuesday evening and Wednesday afternoon for the public were to follow.