DSA Theatre Troupe 5765's Into the Woods
Meets Sold-Out Audience's Expectations

The DSA Theatre Troupe 5765 will present the 1987 Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine musical, Into the Woods, on Nov. 15-18

When the theater department of the public magnet school the Durham School of the Arts announced that tickets were on sale for DSA Theatre Troupe 5765's production of Into the Woods, Stephen Sondheim's 1987 Broadway and 1990 West End musical, with a book by Jame Lapine's, tickets sold out in a mere three hours. The high demand for DSA's Black Box Theatre's limited seating for this high-school production is not surprising.

Director and DSA theater teacher Douglas J. Graves can once again hold his head high with DSA's 2023-24 high-school students' performance of this year's production of Into the Woods, as should assistant stage managers Clark Beckstrom, Emily Neill, and Sasha Wolfrum, all DSA students. DSA students were responsible for every part of the production, which was sometimes hard to believe, given its professional quality.

The set was magical, with an autumnal mosaic backdrop and a platform with ladders coated in vines and tree branches, all enshrouded in a smoky fog that made the whole place seem like an eerie forest. It was only after the house lights were turned on at the end of the show that I realized that the branches and vines were made out of plastic grocery-store bags, twisted and painted with realistic artistry that demonstrates a most practical form of the third "R" in "Reduce Reuse Recycle." Set heads Landon Wilder, Ava Jared, and Shannon Wylie and scenic heads Trevor Blanton Parke and Stephanie Perez certainly took their roles seriously.

Before the production and in-between scenes, the sounds of multiple species of birds and insects could be heard, placing the audience in an auditory forest as well. But even more impressive was the manner in which sound designers Zara Riffer and Marco Cano Mejia created thunder and the booming steps and voice of the giant at precisely the right moments. Lighting designer Evan Byers and head electricians Pinch Stroud-Lepine and Isko Pajel followed suit, spotlighting the characters and creating flashes of lighting with accuracy that could be taken for granted by the audience.

There was even a live orchestra with a piano (Scott Schlesinger), flute (Roberta Melton), clarinet (Lucy Ehmann), trumpet (Jack Smid), two violins (Baxter Henderson and Nathaniel Stemmle), cello (Avonell O'Keefe), and percussion (Sidonia Irven-Moore), all played by DSA students whose combined talents created musical accompaniment and sound effects that could rival a professional production.

Of the 20 actors(!), Cinderella (Kendall Babb), the Baker (Nate Jones), the Baker's Wife (Darwin Hilliard), the Witch (Pilar Manson), and Cinderella's Prince (Christopher Johnson) all stood out with their near made-for-Broadway vocals. My 13-year-old son especially appreciated the Narrator (Sarah Rodriguez), who was onstage for nearly the entire production and followed the action with her movements as if she were telling the story throughout. Greta Spagnardi was endearing and sometimes hilarious in her tomboyish, Pippi Longstocking-like portrayal of Little Red Riding Hood. And Nyla Barfield and Ciara Daye had great comic chemistry in their portrayal of Cinderella's spoiled stepsisters.

The audience's standing ovation at the end of the production leaves no question that the Durham School of the Arts' theater department met their sold-out audience's expectations. Between Christopher Johnson (Cinderella's Prince) and Evan Byers' (Rapunzel's Prince) performance of the love-sick song "Agony," the lovely harmony achieved in any of the duets performed by Kendall Babb, Nate Jones, and Darwin Hilliard; and the bewitching solos of the beautiful Pilar Manson; there should be no problem finding competitive scenes to perform in this year's International Thespian Competition.

Nov. 18: 7 p.m. Saturday: Stephen Sondheim and Jame Lapine's INTO THE WOODS (In Person), directed by Douglas J. Graves (DSA Theatre Troupe 5765 in the Durham School of the Arts' Black Box Theatre in Durham). PRESENTER: https://dsatheatre.wixsite.com/5765/troupe-5765, https://sites.google.com/dpsnc.net/dsatheatre?usp=sharing, https://www.facebook.com/dsatheatre, and https://www.instagram.com/dsatheatre5765/. 2023-24 SEASON: https://sites.google.com/dpsnc.net/dsatheatre/season. VENUE: https://www.dpsnc.net/domain/47, https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063933880135, https://www.instagram.com/durham_school_of_the_arts/, https://twitter.com/DSA_DurhamNC, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durham_School_of_the_Arts, https://www.youtube.com/@durhamschoolofthearts2650. DIRECTIONS: https://www.google.com/maps?q=400%20N.%20Duke%20Street%20Durham,%20NC%2027701. INTO THE WOODS (1987 Broadway, 1990 West End, and 2012 Off-Broadway): https://www.mtishows.com/into-the-woods, http://www.jameslapine.com/into-the-woods, https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-show/into-the-woods-4753, http://www.iobdb.com/Production/5442, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_Woods. STUDY GUIDE (Utah Shakespeare Festival): https://www.bard.org/study-guides/into-the-woods-study-guide/. STEPHEN SONDHEIM (New York City-born composer and lyricist, nee Stephen Joshua Sondheim, 1930-2021): https://www.sondheimsociety.com/, https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/stephen-sondheim-12430, http://www.iobdb.com/CreditableEntity/2008, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0814227/, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Sondheim. JAMES LAPINE (Mansfield, OH-born playwright, nee James Elliot Lapine): http://www.jameslapine.com/, https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/james-lapine-6607, http://www.iobdb.com/CreditableEntity/829, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0487567/, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lapine. TICKETS: SOLD OUT but a WAIT LIST will be kept at the door -- to fill any seats not occupied by 7 p.m.. INFORMATION: 919-560-3926 or https://[email protected]. PLEASE DONATE TO: Durham School of the Arts Theatre Boosters.

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