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‘Into the Woods’ opens Friday

T-R PHOTO BY SARA JORDAN-HEINTZ The Marshalltown Community Theatre will present its rendition of “Into the Woods” with opening night this Friday, at the Martha-Ellen Tye Playhouse. The play is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, based on the book by James Lapine.

The Marshalltown Community Theatre will present its rendition of “Into the Woods” with opening night this Friday, at the Martha-Ellen Tye Playhouse. The play is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, based on the book by James Lapine, and made into a film in 2014 starring Meryl Streep and Emily Blunt. The musical interweaves the plots of several Brothers Grimm fairy tales, including “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Cinderella,” “Jack and the Beanstalk” and “Rapunzel.” The plot centers around a childless couple who set out on a mission to end a curse placed on them by a vengeful witch.

“I had seen the movie, and thought it’d be a fun show to do for our summer musical,” said Director Rick Gooding. “It’s a show kids can come to, and it’s fun.”

The play has an ensemble cast of 18, plus 12 musicians in the orchestra pit and 12 tech people. The baker is being played by Shawn Pavlik, the baker’s wife by Brianna Yates, Cinderella by Libby Crawford, the stepmother by Aubrey Does, Rapunzel by Amy Van Holland and the witch by Susan Harris.

The play will be performed in six performances: Friday and Saturday, July 21-22 and 28-29 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, July 23 and 30 at 2 p.m.

“We will be offering six performances from now on for our plays,” Gooding said. “We find people are wanting us to do matinees.”

Gooding noted that those familiar with the film, will find the play put on in a similar fashion.

“The storyline is pretty much the same as the movie,” he said.

Parts of the wooded set used for this play were actually built from fallen twigs, branches and logs that fell during some recent thunderstorms in Marshalltown.

Staging a musical, Gooding said, always has its complexities.

“We have a larger cast for the summer musical, and want to put as many people on stage as possible,” he said. “We started rehearsing in May. It’s very tough music. We worked on the singing first, then the lines. The orchestra, made up of a mix of high school students and community members, rehearsed by themselves initially, then joined us.”

The orchestra is conducted by Brett Umthun.

The show will run 2-1/2 hours, plus a 15-minute intermission.

Tickets cost $20 for adults, $10 for students and kids 12 and under are $5. This play is not on the season ticket. The box office is open from 12-2 p.m., Monday-Saturday, by calling 641-752-4164, and one hour before each show starts. To learn more, visit www.marshalltowncommunitytheatre.org.

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