Nice is Different then Good: A Moment in the Woods with Taylor Wallis

I played Little Red Riding Hood in Into the Woods once before. I was 17-years-old. I remember the director delicately trying to explain to me just exactly WHAT my storyline was really all about. I remember understanding, to a point, but never fully grasping what is REALLY going on here. What 17-year-old me thought was just a story teaching us the importance of not “straying from the path,” has turned into a story that 25-year-old me can really learn from.

 

Little Red Riding Hood starts out with a child-like innocence and naivety that is almost endearing, if not a little annoying. She encounters people and situations that force her to look at herself in a new way and therefore have a new attitude and way of living. Some of the things she experiences (I’ll let you come see the show to find out just what I’m talking about…) she enjoys (perhaps a little too much) and they help her grow positively into the young woman she becomes. But then some things she has to deal with (death, loneliness, fear) she doesn’t enjoy as much.

 

This is where I started to find the story interesting and relatable. A LOT of the things that happen to her and every other character in this musical are awful and unthinkable. But each character comes out at the end pretty scarred, but ok; and has a lot more knowledge than they did before. I have heard people refer to life as a “journey” and every event that happens to you, good or bad, is a piece of your journey. You are ultimately headed to where you are supposed to be. Each piece of the journey is getting you there; and though you may not realize it at the time, sometimes the worst parts get you to the best places. You have to learn to trust your journey. I think that shines though in Into the Woods, and I think the idea of finding your way through what can seem like an impossible journey at times, and coming out at the end stronger than before, is what makes this musical so beautiful and one of my absolute favorites.

Taylor Wallis with Alden Bowers Price & Joshua Sherman
in rehearsal for Into the Woods

 

Little Red is a lot like all of us growing up. She’s skipping nicely along her path and then BOOM one day 'life' messes everything up. She deals with a lot. She learns a lot. But at the end of the story, she is surrounded by people who love her and has a new sense of who she is.

 

I am so excited for the opportunity to take another look at this role and entire show as an adult, especially which such a talented cast around me. This was an intimidating company to step into (I mean, who in DFW DIDN’T hear about In the Heights??), but it was also an exciting new step. As Little Red says, “scary IS exciting!” And I’m very glad for this piece of my journey. 

I never met a wolf who didn't like to howl! He Said/She Said with Kyle Lester and Georgia Fender

Today we meet a pair of actors who make us howl! Both of them are making their Artes de la Rosa debut this season with the Stephen Sondheim musical, INTO THE WOODS! Kyle Lester and Georgia Fender are taking the Little Red Ridinghood fairy tale and turning it on it’s head with a sizzling and powerful new staging on the Sondheim classic, “HELLO LITTLE GIRL.” Take a moment and say hello to these wolves!

DIARY OF A SHE WOLF by Georgia Fender

Into the Woods has always been one of my favorite musicals. This is partly because it was the first musical I did in high school, playing Granny, a role I get to reprise in this very different production.  But what I’ve always loved most about this show is that everyone can find a little bit of themselves in each of the characters, as far fetched and fantastical as they may seem at first. Even the most outlandish of these characters have something relatable about them, something human.

Now that said, certain characters are much easier to relate to than others. I think most of us are hesitant to see something of ourselves in the more villainous characters, such as Kyle and my roles of the Wolves. I know that as thrilled as I was to be cast, I was immediately aware of what a challenge this role would be for me. The Wolves are definitely not the first characters I relate to when I see a production of Into the Woods, but part of that is probably due to the fact that my part is traditionally played by a man.

 

However playing a traditionally male role is not a new challenge for me. Not sure what it is about me but I’ve been playing male roles since high school. So my challenge as an actor was to find what I could relate to and appreciate about the “She-Wolf” as we’ve taken to calling her. As I looked past the violence and raw sexuality, I began to see qualities I could relate to. I like to think of myself as a strong, confident woman but it’s not always easy to be strong and confident. I doubt myself frequently and struggle with a multitude of insecurities, as most of us do. The Wolf however does not. She is completely secure in her body, in her sexuality and in who she is as a person. This is a woman who knows exactly what she wants, goes out and gets it, and doesn’t apologize to anyone. Although her desires stray pretty far off the beaten path, this drive and confidence is something I wish I had more of.

As I examined the Wolf, I began in a strange way to admire her. Maybe not quite everything about her, but her unapologetic nature is something I hope to take with me, if only slightly. In our table work, Adam and I discussed this side of the Wolf. It is not her desires that make her scary, but refusal to apologize for them or be ashamed of them. To be secure in one’s sexuality and not be ashamed or apologetic will get a person, more specifically a woman, labeled all sorts of insulting and frankly narrow-minded things. But the Wolf doesn’t care. And while I don’t think we need to follow the example she sets with her other half and Little Red, perhaps we can all take a little bit away from her. She teaches us, in a strange and slightly twisted way, to stop apologizing for what we want and who we are, but instead to go after what we want. And whenever possible to do so in killer heels. 

 

Deception, Violence, and a Little Red Cape! OH MY! by Kyle Lester

Little Red Riding Hood is one of those stories that I never remembered actually hearing, but always knew. I mean, who doesn't? It's got a wolf, it's got deception, it's got terrible violence against a young woman and her grandmother...everything a growing boy needs! But if I'm being honest, I don't think I ever truly understood the point of the story until I was cast as the male wolf in Artes de la Rosa's production of Into the Woods.

While reading through the original story and through Sondheim's very similar interpretation, one question plagued me more than anything: if the wolf wanted simply to eat Little Red, why all the bother with her Grandmother and the deception? Why not just get on with eating her right then and there and get away with it.

To understand the answer to this question, you have to realize that the story itself isn't about a little girl being eaten by a wolf. It's about a child making an adult choice to give in to her desire to deviate from a carefully navigated path and encountering unintended consequences for both her and a member of her family. After all, the wolf doesn't force Red to stray from her path, he merely (strongly) suggests it, and tempts her to do something she already wanted to do in the first place. It's Red's choice whether or not she acts on it.

And therein lies the story's truth: that Red chooses her fate. In a way, the wolf is nothing more than a representation of Red's unbridled desire and, therefore, Red is essentially her own villain. That is why this story is timeless. It simultaneously represents the rapid growth into adulthood as well as the very real consequences of our choices.

...but that doesn't mean it's not fun to play the consequence of Red's decision to stray from her path. The song, Hello Little Girl, is without a doubt, one of the most fun songs to play out on stage in all of musical theater. The realization that Red is almost as much to blame for her fate as the wolf has put the song and the both characters in a new light that makes it all the more interesting to be a part of. It's a true privilege to perform that story, and I know the audience will enjoy our take on it.