Working on the school musical “Into The Woods” has been an exhaustive, yet rewarding experience.
“Into The Woods” comically intertwines several fairy tales into one exceptional musical. It takes the main characters of “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Jack and the Beanstalk,”“Rapunzel,” and “Cinderella,” as well as introduces an original story of a childless baker and his wife. The musical starts off fun and innocent, but later takes a turn and explores the consequences of the characters’ actions and their granted wishes.
Initially I didn’t join the play for any exact reason.I just thought it might be fun and several of my friends were joining as well. The play’s director, English, art, and theater teacher Jamey Genna had also encouraged me to try out for the play because I had paid my dues during the last show working as a stage hand. However, now I truly appreciate the encouragement as working on the play has been a valuable experience.
Working with Ms.Genna was as pleasant as it was scary.She’s extremely dedicated about the play so if someone messes up she definitely scolds you for it. Ms.Genna is the entire show’s pillar. As the director, she comes up with the blocking and she even made most of the costumes.Without a doubt, the play wouldn’t be possible without Ms.Genna.
Practice started about two months ago and unlike what I originally thought, it was enjoyable. And although it was time consuming, it was a rewarding experience to learn lines and improve as a speaker and actor. Practice was always filled with jokes and laughter and felt more like hanging out with a close group of friends.
We spent the first two weeks just speeding through our lines and our songs a couple of times so we could get a good feel of the play and then spent the next month or so memorizing our lines and practicing our songs.We weren’t left to practice our songs alone after we managed to hire Hercules High counselor Eric Medeiros. Mr. Medeiros happened to be a musician himself with theater experience.
Medeiros was a great investment. He was able to calm us down when we were nervous and with his wacky and goofy personality made practice more enjoyable. He even helped Ms.Genna decide our roles in the play and ran songs we had difficulties with.
I remember a specific event that happened during practice when one of our princes couldn’t make it Mr.Medeiros took his place and performed with us. It was pretty great.
One of the drawbacks for working on the musical though was it’s affects on my grades. Practice originally started after school from 3:30 to 5:30, which didn’t influenced my grades. However that changed in the last two weeks of practice when it was pushed to 6:30 everyday. Then in the last week it was pushed to 8:00, giving me little time to do homework and resulted in a couple of grade letters dropping.
However I don’t regret my decision at all to join the cast of “Into the Wood.” The musical was a bonding experience for me. I got to meet new people of different grades and got closer to my friends from this experience, and although I’m nervous I’m also excited for opening night.