At NEIU, music students have the opportunity to participate in different kinds of ensembles for academic credit, including opera, choir and orchestra. For 35 years, the Opera Workshop Program has put on nothing but -you guessed it- operas. This spring though, they are offering a new option: musical theater.
Opera Workshop Director Sasha Gerritson says there has been talk of adding musicals to the curriculum for years, but there were many logistical problems to overcome. Musicals require different tech equipment than operas, a different orchestra, and certainly a very different kind of performance. Gerritson has been a passionate advocate of musical theater at NEIU, however, because the Music Education Program is such a big part of the Music Department. “A lot of students will go on to teach music in high schools, and they are not going to be putting on [operas], they will be doing [musicals],” she says. Several of the cast members are equally excited about the prospect of being exposed to musical theater in a didactic setting and how it will enrich the Music Education program at NEIU.
The Opera Workshop will put on a musical (instead of an opera) every other spring so that all music education students, who average about three years in the program, will be able to audition for a musical or two while at NEIU, or stick to operas if they so choose.
Gerritson is kicking off the program with Stephen Sondheim’s Tony Award winning “Into the Woods.” The musical borrows characters and plot lines from the familiar fairytales “Little Red Ridinghood,” “Cinderella,” “Rapunzel,” and “Jack and the Beanstalk,” and intertwines them with a couple of original characters to tell a bigger story: does getting everything you wish for truly lead to “happily ever after?” Sondheim takes the fairytales beyond the end and explores the question with a sense of humor that can be both innocent and dark at times.
“Into the Woods” is a particularly good choice because there are twenty three parts and no chorus in it. This means that every cast member can get a full experience and bring their individual strengths to the stage, since each character is unique and calls for different talents. Gerritson says it was important during casting to form a varied group of actors and singers from different performance backgrounds and academic departments. Students in the Music as well as the Communications, Media and Theater majors were recruited for the show, which Gerritson adds is also a “great way to bridge departments”.
This is a great, big step for the Music Department and students and faculty seem thrilled about the possibilities it could open up.
“Into the Woods” will open Apr. 1. There will be additional performances Apr. 3-4 at 7:30 p.m. in the NEIU Auditorium. Admission is free for NEIU students, faculty and staff and $10 otherwise. Call the box office at (773) 442-4636 for reservations.