A Fairy Tale Come True

When telling a fairy tale, it’s just as fun setting the stage as it is describing the characters’ zany adventures. The design team of “Into the Woods,” the final Ray Bolger Musical Theater Program production of the year, relished the idea.

In this Jeremy Mann-directed production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s musical about what happens when fairy tale characters collide, the elaborate sets and intricate costumes are just as important as the cast.

“What’s so cool about fairy tales is that you are suspending (belief) for people,” said Laura Angotti, a graduate theater student and costume designer for “Into the Woods.” “You take them into the theater, and you put them in this world that doesn’t exist.”

“Into the Woods” will be playing Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. at the Macgowan Little Theater.

Angotti pulled out all the stops to bring the make-believe characters to life.

“My witch is crazy; she has a feather mohawk, and she’s not your average witch. She has these tubes, and she has things growing out of her costume,” said Angotti.

With creative freedom, Angotti set out to incorporate the quirks and details of each character.

“The original cape I wear for the first half is designed so it looks like a bunch of petals, going along with ‘the prettier the flower the farther the path,’ along with all the symbols,” said Lana McKissack, a third-year theater student who plays Little Red Riding Hood.

Angotti abandoned the generic cape designs in favor of a rich cape made of rose-colored petals. Each petal was dipped into a different shade of red, which delicately flows when Little Red Riding Hood jumps and spins.

Sometimes Angotti’s creativity was a little too over the top for the costume shop.

“Originally I wanted Rapunzel to have a braided costume that was made out of the same stuff we made her hair out of, so it just looked like she was so bored she made herself a dress,” Angotti said. When the costume shop disagreed, they compromised and created a magnificent silk gown with a hand-painted braided pattern.

Much of Angotti’s imagination shows in her ability to create costumes for characters in unconventional ways. Jack’s harp is traditionally just a harp, but Angotti envisioned the harp as an actual character who sings. She designed a golden costume for the new character with a harp attached to the back.

In many productions of “Into the Woods,” Jack’s cow, Milky White, is a painted wooden board on wheels, but Angotti envisioned something more interactive. In this version, Milky White is built around a bicycle and moves around with the help of Christiane Cannon, a third-year theater student, who provides the personality for it.

Angotti said that collaboration with the director and communication with the actors are crucial to successful costume design.

“It’s like a house that you build for them so they can also get into character. If the actor feels like it’s perfect for them, then that’s the biggest compliment you can get,” said Angotti.

Angotti has always been interested in sewing but began seriously pursuing it when she moved to New York and was exposed to quality fabrics.

“It’s like a painter only having access to crayons for drawing, and then all of a sudden you have oil paint and you know you are capable of doing so much more,” Angotti said.

Her costumes majestically flow together with the lights and set the mood for the actors.

“The costumes are nothing without the sets, the actors, the lights – it’s all inclusive,” said Angotti

“Every element contributes,” said Andrew G. Pandaleon, a fourth-year theater student who plays the Prince. “It adds to the comedy of it. It adds to the believability. I mean, it’s really the set and the lights and the costumes that create a world.”

The eerie woods are the product of the imaginations of set designers Francois-Pierre Couture and Shannon Kennedy, both graduate theater students. Along with the lighting, directed by Thomas MacHan, the set designs bring the woods to life with looming trees of massive gnarled roots, full moons that talk and a giant beanstalk that actually grows out of the stage.

The team tried to create a fantasy environment that is equally founded on theatrics and technology.

“There’s a lot of magic moments in the play that you could do as high-tech special effects in the play, so I wanted to be sure that what we did was effective and not a high-tech thing that didn’t work,” Mann said.

The actors said they felt the artistry in the play contributed to an environment that actually worked quite well.

“As soon as (the actors) got on stage with the giant trees and the backdrop, it just made a huge difference because that’s our environment and that’s the world we live and play in,” said third-year theater student Paul Peglar, who plays Jack.

At the end of the night, the cast and production crew hope they will take people away to another world.

“I was really, really amazed when I first saw the concept, and now to see (the production) in real life is just amazing,” McKissack said.