(Seguin) – A twist of classic fairy tale characters comes to life in this weekend’s Seguin High School’s Matador Theater production of “Into the Woods” by James Lapine.
SHS drama students are inviting the public to make plans to catch one of three productions scheduled for this weekend at the Seguin Performing Arts Center.
Into the Woods is described as a fairy tale-themed musical about the “experiences of various characters in the woods, as they strive to get their wishes and deal with the consequences of those wishes.”
Among those taking the stage is Senior Leo DeLeon who portrays the character, The Baker. Deleon says the storybook musical again is a culmination of events that folks often have to endure in life while working toward a goal.
“The production is about finding your wish and achieving your lifetime goals and coming together. There’s different fairy tales in this show as well like Rapunzel, Cinderella, Jack in the Bean Stalk, Little Red Riding Hood. I play The Baker and I have my wife and we more than anything in the world, we really want a child and my father died in a baking accident and he wanted me to have a child and we just failed to have a child for so long,” said Deleon.
Sharing the stage with Deleon, a.k.a. her husband is Junior Amanda Munoz. Munoz says the story is like no other and will keep the audience captivated.
“I play The Baker’s wife and I basically help him throughout the whole journey because we both are aiming for the same wish. We both want a child, and we have to work together. It’s a little rough at first. We argue but eventually, we come together, and we figure it out together. We go through the whole journey of finding these things that we need to get our wish and at the end when we do get our wish, we are happy and then all these bad things start happening. I cheat on my husband. I also die but at the end, I am still…. it’s like a story that we all go through different experiences and we all have to work together to get our mail goal or our main wish. It’s a very complex story but I think we’ve done a really good job at making it happen and telling the stories the way they are supposed to be told,” said Munoz.
Portraying the character Cinderella is Junior Aly Burns. Burns says although the production was delayed earlier this year due to COVID-19, the cast and crew has produced one of its best productions yet.
“I think everybody is really hardworking and determined like spent their time making sure this is perfect. I know when it got delayed, everybody was a little let down, but it just made our passion for it even greater, wanting it to be better than how we left it and I think it’s really come together in a very special way. I would just encourage people to come see it. The set is really really amazing, costumes are great, actors are great. It’s going to be good,” said Burns.
Proud of what they have been able to accomplish is Theater Teacher Lydia Robles. Robles says this cast and crew of 30 to 35 students have yet again raised the bar when it comes to talent. She says the community will not want to miss this experience.
“While there are fairy tale characters in this show and younger audiences can enjoy that, it truly is an adult theme, an adult story. We are telling the story of I think the modern-day person even though it’s a fairy tale, we still relate to these characters. A modern day person trying to achieve their goal, their dream – something better than what they have right now and it’s a first act of comedy but it is a second act of tragedy and how these characters that are left in the end, pull together to redefine and reignite what their happy is, what their good is at the end of the show because it looks very different than when they started off at the beginning – beautiful songs, ballads, hysterical comedy mixed in there with the step-mother and the step-daughters and the witch and the wolf who wants to eat a young girl. It’s got all these fun elements mixed in with all of these more serious elements that adults can relate to. So, it’s one that you have to have that right concoction of students to tackle this sort of project because they wanted it and they were willing, we stepped up to the plate,” said Robles.
Show times are at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. Pre-sale tickets are $12 for adults and $8 for students. Tickets at the door are $15 for adults and $10 for students. Pre-sale tickets are available at Gift & Gourmet and Keepers Interiors.