Texas Shakespeare Festival

Van Cliburn Auditorium

June 30 – July 28, 2019

Directed by:  Daniel Haley

Scenic Designer:  Jason Jamerson

Costume Designer:  Angelina Herin

Lighting Designer:  Alice Trent

 

Into The Woods tells the story of many of our favorite storybook characters, including Cinderella, Jack, Little Red Riding Hood, the Baker and his wife, and others.  Act 1 tells the story of each, giving them reasons to go into the woods to achieve goals for themselves.  The woods seem to be where all stories begin and some end.  By the end of the act, they have all gotten what they want.  With Act 2, a giant shows up, and another journey into the woods must be made.  Some characters are lost to the giant.  With the end, the characters learn what they truly want, and learn how to face challenges they thought insurmountable.

 

This is one of Sondheim’s most complex musicals, and the music is tricky and never-ending.  One of my primary goals was to make sure the cast would be comfortable with the tricky music as they performed.  Balancing the levels of the orchestra to the cast became my priority when establishing the sound into the space.

 

Initially it looked like we were only going to be able to put microphones on about half of the cast.  This was going to further challenge our sound goals, as to balance the orchestra to a non-reinforced performer was a difficult prospect.  Fortunately, a donation came in that allowed us to purchase additional microphones, and we were able to cover the entire cast.

 

My research for the soundscape of this show centered around that magical story world that the musical is set.  The woods needed to have a bit of magic to them, but they also needed to be mysterious and a bit menacing at times.  Key sounds included the arrival of Cinderella’s birds, the chimes of midnight during act 1, and the impacts of the giant’s work in the form of splatting and squishing sounds.  The act 1 soundscape was largely more positive, with the act 2 soundscape being far more dry and dark, fitting the change of the points of the story.