Going ‘Into The Woods,’ Hawkins And McFarland Land Dream Roles

August 9, 2017 at 6:33 p.m.
Going ‘Into The Woods,’ Hawkins And McFarland Land Dream Roles
Going ‘Into The Woods,’ Hawkins And McFarland Land Dream Roles


In his high school’s production of “Into The Woods,” Riley McFarland played Jack, but he really wanted to be the Baker.

Kira Lace Hawkins was the Baker’s Wife in a college production, but she wanted to be the Witch.

Both of them finally landed their dream roles in “Into The Woods” for Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts’ production of the Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine musical, which is on the stage through Aug. 19.

“When I was playing Jack, the whole time I wanted to be the Baker,” McFarland said. “So this has been a dream role for a long time.”

“I wanted to be the Witch the whole time,” Hawkins said, laughing. “I like doing the Baker’s Wife though. And that’s another real fun part about doing this show. It’s such an ensemble piece that everybody has, even the most minor of characters, have moments that they shine in and that they have their realization. It’s really awesome to be a part of this company and watch everybody shine in their moments.”

“Into The Woods” weaves the plots of several fairy tales, exploring what happens when the characters have their wishes come true. Characters come from “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Jack and the Beanstalk,” “Rapunzel,” “Cinderella” and other stories. The show is tied together through the story of the childless Baker and his wife – characters from the “Rapunzel” fairy tale – and their efforts to begin a family of their own. They quickly learn their neighbor, the Witch, has cursed the Baker’s family and are sent on a journey to find “the cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, and the slipper as pure as gold.” Along the way to find those items, the Baker and his wife encounter other characters.

Describing the Witch, Hawkins said, “She is the spellcaster, the antagonist, the terrible mother.”

McFarland said the Baker “is one of the main protagonists in the story. His character is propelled by he and his wife’s desire to have a child. And that’s kind of what their journey is about in the show.”

While they’re playing adversaries in “Into The Woods,” McFarland and Hawkins played married couple John and Elizabeth Proctor in the last show, “The Crucible.”

“It’s really fun. I love working with Kira in any sense, so I’m really excited and glad to be working with her,” McFarland said.

“And I think that’s part of the fun of the process of summer stock – getting to see people change roles and change characters so effortlessly because they’re talented like Riley. It’s just an honor to watch the work during the day and then get to perform at night something totally different,” Hawkins said.

Like “The Crucible,” “Into The Woods” also gets dark.

“It gets there,” Hawkins said. “Thankfully, it’s based on fairy tales so it has a lightness ‘The Crucible’ didn’t have, but it gets real.”

“There is a happy ending though, which differs from ‘The Crucible,’” McFarland said.

A 2014 film version of the musical starred Meryl Streep as the Witch, James Corden as the Baker and Emily Blunt as the Baker’s Wife. McFarland said he’s only seen the movie once, and Hawkins said she wasn’t as well-versed in the film version.

“It really, though, did stick quite closely to the musical’s script,” Hawkins said.

The musical is broken into two parts. The first is basically the stories of the fairy tale characters that everyone knows, and the second half is what really happened to them after “happily ever after.”

“The classic ending to any fairy tale is that they all lived ‘happily ever after.’ And in life, we know that that never really happens, so ‘Into The Woods’ explores what ‘happily ever after’ really means, or is there really a ‘happily ever after’ because something has to happen afterward and that’s what this really explores,” McFarland said.

Hawkins added, “And I think it’s really interesting, especially for a character like Cinderella or Little Red, you know when you kind of know their classic renditions of who they are, it really makes them into these three-dimensional people who have problems and issues. Where Cinderella just doesn’t just ‘Oops! I lost my shoe!’ She chooses to leave her shoe, so it gives her a brain and purpose. So it’s cool this puts the characters into a whole different light.”

There are many themes that can be found in “Into The Woods.” McFarland said those include want and desire.

“Each character, what they want in life, is very evident, and that’s what propels them throughout the show, and we see their wants change as the show goes on, which I think is really interesting,” he said.

Hawkins said, “And sometimes the dangers of what they want. You might think you want something, and then once you get it, what does that actually mean?”

“And also the consequences of what they do to achieve their want,” McFarland interjected.

“I think, growing up is a really big theme in this. There’s lots of children, lots of parents, so how are those children raised? What does it mean to come to adulthood and understand things you’ve never understood before? That’s a lyric from the show. So, that happens over and over, people have these coming-of-age moments,” Hawkins said.

Audiences have found many of the moments in the musical to have deeper meaning, though Sondheim has downplayed any such talk.

According to a Jan. 2, 2015, talkingpointsmemo.com article titled “Before ‘Into The Woods’ Was A Disney Movie, It Was An AIDS Parable,” the author writes, “Some institutions describe the show in straightforward terms as being ‘originally written in 1987 in response to the AIDS crisis.’ Other critics, like Slate’s Dana Stevens, merely suggest that it reads ‘to many audience members as a metaphor for the AIDS crisis.’”

An article on thewiseguise.com states that, “In the Sondheim musical, just as everything seems to have worked itself to a happy ending, a giant approaches. The ‘giant’ in reality (in the 1980s) was the AIDS virus, ready to latch on to New York and many other metropolitan areas.”

The talkingpointsmemo article states that Sondheim demurred on whether the musical was a metaphor for the AIDS crisis, saying, “We never meant this to be specific. The trouble with fables is everyone looks for symbolism.”

In finding meaning throughout the musical, McFarland responded, “All the fairy tales, I think, when they were originally written were all metaphors, and Sondheim kind of takes that to the next level in this show by maybe making the metaphors a little more prevalent, but they’re still masked by the fairy tales, so there’s a lot of things that you would not necessarily get from watching the show once, but maybe from doing the show and researching the show and finding out later – like I did the show in high school and doing it again this time I’m finding a lot of stuff in the script ... but I would challenge the audience to come more than once and see it because there’s so much more to get from seeing it a second and third time, so I think that’s something really exciting about the show, that there’s always more to uncover.”

Hawkins added, “And like Riley was saying, because this show goes to the core of humanity, I think that opens the door for every single person in the audience to see themselves probably in multiple characters at different points in the show. And beyond that, can see systems in our society that are working in certain ways, so if the giant was linked to the AIDS crisis, I think, yeah, this show is rife with things that could be compared to larger issues out there, how they’re working and why they happen in the first place.”

To see the full interview with Hawkins and McFarland, visit the Times-Union website’s video section at www.timesuniononline.com.

For ticket information, visit the Wagon Wheel website at www.wagonwheelcenter.org.

In his high school’s production of “Into The Woods,” Riley McFarland played Jack, but he really wanted to be the Baker.

Kira Lace Hawkins was the Baker’s Wife in a college production, but she wanted to be the Witch.

Both of them finally landed their dream roles in “Into The Woods” for Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts’ production of the Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine musical, which is on the stage through Aug. 19.

“When I was playing Jack, the whole time I wanted to be the Baker,” McFarland said. “So this has been a dream role for a long time.”

“I wanted to be the Witch the whole time,” Hawkins said, laughing. “I like doing the Baker’s Wife though. And that’s another real fun part about doing this show. It’s such an ensemble piece that everybody has, even the most minor of characters, have moments that they shine in and that they have their realization. It’s really awesome to be a part of this company and watch everybody shine in their moments.”

“Into The Woods” weaves the plots of several fairy tales, exploring what happens when the characters have their wishes come true. Characters come from “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Jack and the Beanstalk,” “Rapunzel,” “Cinderella” and other stories. The show is tied together through the story of the childless Baker and his wife – characters from the “Rapunzel” fairy tale – and their efforts to begin a family of their own. They quickly learn their neighbor, the Witch, has cursed the Baker’s family and are sent on a journey to find “the cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, and the slipper as pure as gold.” Along the way to find those items, the Baker and his wife encounter other characters.

Describing the Witch, Hawkins said, “She is the spellcaster, the antagonist, the terrible mother.”

McFarland said the Baker “is one of the main protagonists in the story. His character is propelled by he and his wife’s desire to have a child. And that’s kind of what their journey is about in the show.”

While they’re playing adversaries in “Into The Woods,” McFarland and Hawkins played married couple John and Elizabeth Proctor in the last show, “The Crucible.”

“It’s really fun. I love working with Kira in any sense, so I’m really excited and glad to be working with her,” McFarland said.

“And I think that’s part of the fun of the process of summer stock – getting to see people change roles and change characters so effortlessly because they’re talented like Riley. It’s just an honor to watch the work during the day and then get to perform at night something totally different,” Hawkins said.

Like “The Crucible,” “Into The Woods” also gets dark.

“It gets there,” Hawkins said. “Thankfully, it’s based on fairy tales so it has a lightness ‘The Crucible’ didn’t have, but it gets real.”

“There is a happy ending though, which differs from ‘The Crucible,’” McFarland said.

A 2014 film version of the musical starred Meryl Streep as the Witch, James Corden as the Baker and Emily Blunt as the Baker’s Wife. McFarland said he’s only seen the movie once, and Hawkins said she wasn’t as well-versed in the film version.

“It really, though, did stick quite closely to the musical’s script,” Hawkins said.

The musical is broken into two parts. The first is basically the stories of the fairy tale characters that everyone knows, and the second half is what really happened to them after “happily ever after.”

“The classic ending to any fairy tale is that they all lived ‘happily ever after.’ And in life, we know that that never really happens, so ‘Into The Woods’ explores what ‘happily ever after’ really means, or is there really a ‘happily ever after’ because something has to happen afterward and that’s what this really explores,” McFarland said.

Hawkins added, “And I think it’s really interesting, especially for a character like Cinderella or Little Red, you know when you kind of know their classic renditions of who they are, it really makes them into these three-dimensional people who have problems and issues. Where Cinderella just doesn’t just ‘Oops! I lost my shoe!’ She chooses to leave her shoe, so it gives her a brain and purpose. So it’s cool this puts the characters into a whole different light.”

There are many themes that can be found in “Into The Woods.” McFarland said those include want and desire.

“Each character, what they want in life, is very evident, and that’s what propels them throughout the show, and we see their wants change as the show goes on, which I think is really interesting,” he said.

Hawkins said, “And sometimes the dangers of what they want. You might think you want something, and then once you get it, what does that actually mean?”

“And also the consequences of what they do to achieve their want,” McFarland interjected.

“I think, growing up is a really big theme in this. There’s lots of children, lots of parents, so how are those children raised? What does it mean to come to adulthood and understand things you’ve never understood before? That’s a lyric from the show. So, that happens over and over, people have these coming-of-age moments,” Hawkins said.

Audiences have found many of the moments in the musical to have deeper meaning, though Sondheim has downplayed any such talk.

According to a Jan. 2, 2015, talkingpointsmemo.com article titled “Before ‘Into The Woods’ Was A Disney Movie, It Was An AIDS Parable,” the author writes, “Some institutions describe the show in straightforward terms as being ‘originally written in 1987 in response to the AIDS crisis.’ Other critics, like Slate’s Dana Stevens, merely suggest that it reads ‘to many audience members as a metaphor for the AIDS crisis.’”

An article on thewiseguise.com states that, “In the Sondheim musical, just as everything seems to have worked itself to a happy ending, a giant approaches. The ‘giant’ in reality (in the 1980s) was the AIDS virus, ready to latch on to New York and many other metropolitan areas.”

The talkingpointsmemo article states that Sondheim demurred on whether the musical was a metaphor for the AIDS crisis, saying, “We never meant this to be specific. The trouble with fables is everyone looks for symbolism.”

In finding meaning throughout the musical, McFarland responded, “All the fairy tales, I think, when they were originally written were all metaphors, and Sondheim kind of takes that to the next level in this show by maybe making the metaphors a little more prevalent, but they’re still masked by the fairy tales, so there’s a lot of things that you would not necessarily get from watching the show once, but maybe from doing the show and researching the show and finding out later – like I did the show in high school and doing it again this time I’m finding a lot of stuff in the script ... but I would challenge the audience to come more than once and see it because there’s so much more to get from seeing it a second and third time, so I think that’s something really exciting about the show, that there’s always more to uncover.”

Hawkins added, “And like Riley was saying, because this show goes to the core of humanity, I think that opens the door for every single person in the audience to see themselves probably in multiple characters at different points in the show. And beyond that, can see systems in our society that are working in certain ways, so if the giant was linked to the AIDS crisis, I think, yeah, this show is rife with things that could be compared to larger issues out there, how they’re working and why they happen in the first place.”

To see the full interview with Hawkins and McFarland, visit the Times-Union website’s video section at www.timesuniononline.com.

For ticket information, visit the Wagon Wheel website at www.wagonwheelcenter.org.
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