Next weekend, Cortez Middle School Theater will premiere “Into the Woods, Jr.,” a twist on Stephen Sondheim’s musical fairytale about the choices and wishes we make in life.
It shows on Friday, Nov. 3 at 7 p.m., and repeats on Saturday, Nov. 4, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
The play is being co-directed by Angela Gabardi and Marla Sitton, with accompaniment by Debbie McHenry.
Sitton is the choir teacher at both M-CHS and CMS, and Gabardi is a former student of hers.
The two directors have been waiting for a class strong enough to put on a show of this proportion and sophistication.
“We actually wanted to do it the first year, and we just knew that we couldn’t so we chose this one this year because we have lots of great singers and actors and lots of kids that want to be in it,” Sitton said. “This is our third musical, and each musical has gotten a little more difficult in terms of what we have to work with and what the kids have really had to step it up.”
According to Gabardi and Sitton, the play is the “junior version” of the Tony Award-winning musical because it eliminates mature content, does not include the second act, and has shortened the musical number. It’s more accessible to a younger and wider audience, but still contains much of the lyrical power of the original musical, which was based on Brothers Grimm fables.
“I wanted to choose it because we have a lot of eighth-graders that will be going on to high school who have worked with us for three years,” said Gabardi, the theater and computer teacher at the middle school. “We had to pick something to really showcase their gifts and their talents because they worked so hard.”
The actors, actresses and crew of the play are excited to show off that hard work.
“I think what the audience should remember is, ‘Hey those kids actually did that,’ seventh-grader Gillian Schuenemeyer said. “Middle school (students) can actually do it. It isn’t just a dumb little play where you put on costumes and do a little funny jig. It is a show; it is magic.”
Franklin Gray, seventh-grader and “ninja” crew member, said that he had joined theater because of his familial ties.
“I joined theater because all my siblings and my family before that have been in it,” Gray said. “It is fun to be able to move the set around.”
The students hope their audiences can leave the show with something they did not have before.
“I want kids, especially when they get to middle school, to be like, ‘I want to do that,’” sixth-grader Lily Sandner said. “I don’t want them leaving like ‘that was a boring little show,’ because I remember when I was little, watching my dad’s plays, is when I started wanting to do theater. So I want them to leave knowing they want to do theater.”
Many of the students in the cast and crew hope to work as actors and actresses as a profession.
“What I really like about being an actress is that you get to kind of fill in a role that isn’t you, and you get to act like somebody else, and it just kind of empowers you, and you get to learn a moral or a lesson along the way with the story,” eighth-grader Marina Bradley said.
Quinn Nielson, also an aspiring actress and eighth-grader, hopes to be a good role model for younger audiences.
“What I like about being an actor is good actors are role models,” Nielson said. “I have lots of actor role models, and they just inspire me everyday, and I want to inspire people like that.”
The cast and crew are hard at work preparing for their Nov. 3 premiere. With so much time put into the show, the group has become close.
“The most fun part is getting to meet so many new people because before they are just like strangers,” eighth-grader Khyztin Stiegelmeyer said. “But then they become like your family, and you feel like you can go through anything with them.”
Tickets are $8 for general admission, and $5 for children under 12, Montezuma-Cortez High School students and senior citizens. Admission is free for CMS students and staff, M-CHS staff and children under 2.
