Talent and Creativity Displayed at NBHS’ Musical “Into the Woods”
By Diane L. Mechlinski at April 1, 2024 | 7:00 am | Print
New Britain High School’s 6th annual musical,“Into the Woods,” took place with three consecutive performances March 25 and 26 at the school’s Vincent Sala Auditorium. This year’s performance was dedicated to retiring superintendent, Dr. Doris Kurtz. As always, a large crowd supported the talented students who took part in the production. “Into the Woods” is a challenging production in drama, comedy and music yet the young cast members superbly met those challenges.
“Into the Woods” is a musical which intertwines plots of several Grimm Brothers fairy tales. Grimm’s Fairy tales are based on the two German brothers who, in the early 1800s, began collecting and compiling the stories and tales of central Europe. After nearly 200 years, two modern-day story-tellers, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, created a musical in 1987 which ran on Broadway, based on several of these stories. The show’s basic plot followed and blended tales from “Little Red Riding Hood,” (played by Amanda Hollywood) “Jack and the Beanstalk,” (Jack was played by Zachary Smith-Grabko) “Rapunzel,” (played by Amanda Delgado) and” Cinderalla,” (played by Cecilia Gigliotti) forming a unique modern fairy tale which further explored the consequences of the characters’ wishes. A baker (played by Joseph Foran), and the baker’s wife, (played by Nicole Ramos) added their quest of trying to start a family to the story. The entire cast did a magnificent job – even when Little Red Riding Hood (Amanda Hollywood) apparently had a small glitch when she was unable to unclasp her red cape when she was supposed to turn it over, wonderfully adlibbed that scene until the clasp finally did give, much to the humor and delight of the audience.
The singing voices of the cast were strong and professional, talented and definitely not amateurish. Particularly talented were the voices of Cinderella (Cecilia Gigliotti), Little Red Riding Hood (Amanda Hollywood), Jack (Zachary Smith-Grabko), Rapunzel (Amanda Delgado), the witch (Marie Ramos), and both princes (Henry Forti and Juan Colon).
Milky White (played by Paulina Henao) was a vital character to the story but her vision upon the stage undoubtedly brought everyone a chuckle. Her costume was delightful, though her two front paws might’ve cost her a backache by the end of the night due to continuously being in a bent-over position!
The three blind mice (Julia Leitao, Sarah Salce and Beth Merkle) were adorable skittering across the stage, as were the three little pigs (Rachel Holly, Julia Leitao and Alisha Sanders). The seven dwarfs (Lainnie Jurgasik, Annette Lopez, Christina Waskiewicz, Rachel Waskiewicz, Marissa Henry, Natasha Figueroa and Ellesandra Calderon). Not to be forgotten was the excellent, strong and clear reading voice of Narrator, Sebastian Kwiatkowski.
Some interesting facts are that parts of the show’s set were designed and built using recycled materials. For example, the raised deck across the back of the stage was covered with egg cartons and painted to look like a rough-surfaced stone wall. Real tree branches and shrubs were also used in the set. They will be replanted on school properties throughout the district. The 18’ tree on stage was made from paper mache and Molding cloth, took two months to construct and has appeared in multiple shows held at the school.
Even more interesting is that the show’s producer (Elaine Zottola), director (Jason Ferrandino), musical director (Brian Germain), technical director (Robert Smedley) and choreographer (Christine Kuzia) are all graduates of NBHS. “Into the Woods” is proof that there is a great deal of talent, past and present, at NBHS.
