SMU student organizations present "Into The Woods"

By Kyle Christopher West

Over the river and through the woods we go! For the second year in a row, Southern Methodist University student organizations Program Council (PC) and SMU Student Theatre (SMUST) bring Family Weekend Musical to SMU's campus.

The SMU PC and SMUST team that brought you the past three 24-Hour Musical shows will collaborate this fall to tackle Stephen Sondheim's critically acclaimed classic, Into the Woods.

The story of Into the Woods follows your favorite fairy tale characters as their stories overlap and they wander into the forest to find family, success and ultimately "get their wish."

Co-creator, director, choreographer and SMU senior Sam Weber explained that the team wanted to make this year's project special in its own way.

"We picked Into the Woods, inarguably one of the most challenging shows to sing and learn in the musical theatre canon," he said. "This might be the best 24-Hour Musical or Family Weekend Musical we have done yet."

Born from a void of opportunity, the 24-Hour Musical (performed over Easter Weekend) and its autumnal cousin Family Weekend Musical are cast, rehearsed and performed on a radical schedule. Students from all across campus come together for a few hours each week in the fall (and packed into one weekend in the spring) to stage a full-length musical. Students in the cast of Into the Woods will rehearse for just 24 hours to stage, design and learn a full-length musical.

Now in its fourth year, the SMU PC and SMUST student-produced project, affectionately referred to as "SMUsical," provides students from all majors, backgrounds and experience levels the opportunity to come together and produce art. The 24-Hour Musical broke box office records at SMU, as it has been the most attended theatre performance over the past six years.

Read the full story and see related photos.