The Tartan Online: Once upon a time, the Carnegie Mellon School of Music whisked audiences into a magical show that twisted traditional fairy tales into a new story. This show, Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods, was presented last Thursday through Sunday in the Philip Chosky Theater in the Purnell Center for the Arts.
11 comments:
I'm happy to see that the TartanTale enjoyed this production. I thought the set was stunning for this production. From what I had heard, the operas were not as supported as the musicals, but the designers certainly pulled there stuff together to make it look fantastic! I would definately give my congratulations to the design team. I think the overall aesthetic of the show was great and I like the fact that the School of Drama can lend a helping hand to the School of Music! I also wish the writer had said more about the performances by the narrator and the witch. They were by far the best on stage!
I am so glad to see the hard work of the School of Darama (SoD) and School of Music (SoM) students get the applause and credit they very much deserve. The thing I love about these SoD/SoM productions is that we get to interact with people outside our building. Far to often we at the SoD get used to working with people we are extremely familiar with. This is good thing to have familiarity, but with outsiders, there is a new fresh take on things. Whenever the SoM students are around the shop or backstage of a show, I know that from a management stand point, we do things a little differently because we are both unfamiliar with each other. This collaboration is an invaluable experience. My friend was the SM and she had a high interaction level with both actors, deck crew, and directors of the show and from what she has said she learned so much from this experience. I hope that in the coming year I will be able to have an interaction with outside personnel and be able to experience what it is like to work on a CMU show with people I done basically live with.
This was a fantastic show to work on, and I am very happy to have been a part of it and to see how well the final product turned out. One thing in particular that I enjoyed was the set, taking place in an attic gave a wonderful perspective leave just enough up to peoples own imagination. reminding me of being at my grandparents house when i was younger and getting to dig through their garage and storage and find different trinkets and develop stories for them.
Any ways the show was a fantastic production, from the talent to the design team.
I also believe that this production was absolutely phenomenal. It was visually stunning and the performances were marvelous. The show is quite long, but it was such a well-done production that I did not mind at all. I was fully immersed in the world of the play for the entirety of the production. I would like to point out, though, that the choice to set the show in an attic should also be credited to the set designer. Many of the actors and the director have been credited in this article, but please take the time to also credit the designers if you are going to talk about their work. These names are also listed in the program and they contributed greatly to the world of the play. It is great to see that others also enjoyed this terrific production!
I'm glad Into the Woods got a favorable review, however I'm a bit disappointed that the designers didn't even get a mention. The "beautiful sets" are mentioned, is it really that hard to put in the set designer's name? Personally, I thought the set was quite fantastic, and the same goes for the lighting. (sadly, I'm not sure I can say the same about the sound). Anyway, Into the Woods is one of my favorite Sondheim's and I'm glad I got to see an excellent performance of it.
I agree with Dan that it is sad that the designers didn't get mentioned. The author gave them a big compliment, they should mention them. The paragraph about the cast also doesn't read well. It's interesting that it was national opera week and this was where they put their musical. They should have swapped it for their opera.
I enjoyed this production a lot. I will admit though that I found the design elements to be a bit better than the performers, although so many of their voices blew me away. It's great to see our school and their school come together to put on a performance for many people to enjoy. I'm also happy with the choice of Into the Woods just because I find it to be a great story with a great twist on classic fairytales. I can't wait to see what else the school of music has to offer and I can't wait to see how our school and their school work together again to put on another fantastic performance!
I saw this production of in to the woods, and in most cases I completely agree with the paper. The set and props were beautiful and creative, the costumes were true to the story and the singing was fantastic. The one major complaint I had with the show was that the acting was not as strong as all the other elements, perhaps this was because the case was taken from the music school and not the drama school, but never the less the slow or awkward acting moments took me out of the magic of in to the woods. I love the show and I loved the production despite it's one major short coming. I hope the the music and drama schools and continue to work closely together.
I loved "Into the Woods" so so much and am so glad that The Tartan did as well. As everyone else has said, the sets were simply stunning, and worked brilliantly with the costumes and light glitter/ confetti effects here and there to bring such a strong element of magic to life. It's also been interesting being a part of the School of Drama to see just how much work went into the show, and the tricks used during the show. For instance, I hadn't realized that during the witch's transformation scene there was actually a second actress! And wouldn't have without backstage knowledge. Awesome music, awesome plot, awesome show, awesome design.
The show was great. Seeing this show come from paper to product was a great experience. I know the tech for this show was an.... experience... but certainly the final product that was put on the stage was satisfactory. It was neat that the SOM did a musical as opposed to an opera. It was also interesting to watch the acting skill level in relative to what i am used to from SOD productions. working on the show provided a fascinating insight into the labor management and actor management of people who are not entirely exposed to the standard theatrical process.
I loved the show. I know it really well and I think the School of Music kids did a fantastic job with presenting their work. I was mostly taken by the technical elements of the production more than anything else. I think the set design was phenomenally conceived and worked really well with telling the story while not needing to require any huge set changes, but it still utilized the entire stage space both in height and depth.
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