One of life’s major lessons is that there is responsibility that comes with getting what you want – and what better way to learn that lesson than through a fairy tale?
Cue Durango High School Troupe 1096 – and the late, great Stephen Sondheim. Starting April 28 and running through May 7d, the student actors will stage Sondheim’s musical “Into the Woods.”
It’s the troupe’s final show of the season, and because of new COVID-19 policies, it’s back to pre-pandemic business,
meaning no masks and full capacity in the school’s theater, said Ben Mattson, theater director, who is sharing directing duties for “Into the Woods” with Jenny Fitts-Reynolds.
“This is quite an ambitious production,” he said. “And we’re really excited to put this all together and share it with the community.”
Mattson said “Into the Woods” is a collection of familiar Grimms’ fairy tales that are all wrapped up into one storyline. Act I follows the typical fairy tale structure: The characters who are the protagonists get what they want, the antagonists get their comeuppance and it ends with a happily ever after feeling to it, he said.
“Act II is really where the gray area of morality comes into play,” Mattson said. “Watching these characters deal with getting what they thought they wanted and kind of re-envisioning what they want and what they need and what they wish for, and in the end they sort of work through the minutiae of the human experience to find a little bit more truth, a little bit more complexity to what it means to live as a good person or with good intention.”
For senior Lilia Reynolds, who plays one of the bakers’ wives in the show and is also publicity manager for the troupe, the lessons imparted by “Into the Woods” have a practical application, especially as she and her fellow senior troupe members prepare to graduate from DHS and move on to their next challenges.
If you go
WHAT: Durango High School Troupe 1096 presents “Into the Woods.”
WHEN: 7 p.m. April 28, 29, 30, May 5, 6 and 7; and 1 p.m. April 30 and May 7.
WHERE: Durango High School, 2390 Main Ave.
TICKETS: $15, available online at https://bit.ly/3k3N0Zv.
MORE INFORMATION: Visit troupe1096.weebly.com.
“The story of ‘Into the Woods’ is so interesting,” she said. “Every character has their own story arc, and it’s so much fun to figure out why their story is so important to the whole show and how each character plays such a big part in another character’s story. Although they all go through a different challenge, everyone comes together in the end to remind everyone that no one is alone, and although our journeys may be separate we’re all in this together. I’m definitely going to miss the journey I have had with the troupe and I know that the rest of my senior class would agree.”
Mattson said “Into the Woods” is a challenging production to stage, but the students of Troupe 1096 are more than up to the task.
“It’s a Sondheim musical, and if you know, you know the difficulty of Sondheim. We had planned to do this before Sondheim’s passing – he passed earlier this year – which in the theater community is a huge deal,” he said. “There’s so much work that is from him sort of in the canon of musical theater and so much of today’s musical theater writers have been influenced, inspired by or worked with Sondheim. ‘Sweeney Todd’ that was just done at the college is another Sondheim musical – this is not as dark as ‘Sweeney Todd’ by any means, but the complexity of the music, it’s pretty high-level stuff. These kids are doing an amazing job with it.”
Sondheim, who wrote the lyrics and the music for “Into the Woods,” died at age 91 on Nov. 26, 2021, in Roxbury, Connecticut.
And as the troupe wraps up its season and stages a show under relatively “normal” conditions, Mattson said there are things that he hopes the audience takes away both from “Into the Woods” and theater in general.
“I think ultimately what I hope the audience takes away is the importance of being in the same room; the importance of telling stories to each other while we’re breathing the same air, while we’re able to feel the reactions of the people around us. That as we get more and more into technology, that we remember the preciousness of being in the same room telling stories to each other, how that can change lives. Ultimately, that’s big-idea what I want the audience to get,” he said. “Specifically out of this show, maybe I would like the audience to really question the stories that we tell each other and to really question our intentions and the goodness that we bring to the world, and not just regurgitating the stories we’re told but to really live them and be intentional with how we choose to treat ourselves and treat other people and the wishes that we really make for this world.”
katie@durangoherald.com
