Into The Woods Essay

1151 Words5 Pages
The construction of PlayMakers’ Into the Woods is not irrelevant. It is about the telling a story. The elaborate design of multiple sets from the detail to the luxury of costumes the play utilized a unit-set in one main setting the woods. Into the Woods opened November 2nd and runs until December 6th. Into the Woods is a collection of stories that provide an insight to the archetypal situation of sacrifice. This plays begs the question, what are you willing to sacrifice for your wishes/dreams? The mood of Into the Woods is portrayed by the powerful elements of scenic, costume and lighting design. There is a fine indistinguishable line in Into the Woods between comedy and tragedy. Comedy unites – it helps society relate to one another and adds…show more content…
These two themes are on the opposite ends of each, meaning that an action builds up to the wish being fulfilled and the consequences of the characters force them to take responsibility for their wish. The role of the costume designer is to create the characters and balance the scenes with texture and color. The costume design in Into the Woods was particularly interesting because there was a keen juxtaposition of the surreal versus realistic design elements in these characters. Consider the witch who at the beginning of the play is part tree and is some sort of surreal creature/being. After the Baker and his wife found all the parts to reverse their situation she is costumed in a realistic attire. It is important to remember that these stories Sondheim mixed are child book fantasies, and nothing about them can be precisely realistic. The costumes are germane and fit the time period of each character and together create a wonderful cohesion. The location, however, does not fit the costumes. The characters spend a great deal of their time navigating through the woods, and none of them were wearing athletic/hiking attire. There costume fit each characters social standing, for example, the princes were decked out in fancy, shiny paisley jackets and dress shoes. Even though the characters garb did not mesh well with their location and surroundings the characters did move comfortable in
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