Brannon Takes Final Bow with "Into the Woods" at Pierson

[caption id="attachment_50000" align="alignnone" width="800"] Pierson High School students Denis Hartnett and Emma McMahon during a rehearsal of the play, "Into the Woods" in the Pierson High School auditorium on Tuesday. Michael Heller photos[/caption]

By Annette Hinkle

If a tree falls in a forest, will it make a Sondheim?

It will if it’s “Into the Woods,” Stephen Sondheim’s fairy-tale inspired musical which will be presented by the students of Pierson High School this weekend.

A re-imagination of the literature of Brothers Grimm, “Into the Woods” begins, as many fairy tales do, with a laundry list of desires unfulfilled. Specifically, the plot revolves around a baker and his wife who desperately want a child and are willing to do most anything to get one, including consort with the witch next door who sends them on a quest in order to reverse an infertility curse she has placed on them.

So into the woods go the baker and his wife where they encounter other fairy tale characters looking to fulfill wishes of their own, including Cinderella, Jack (of beanstalk fame), Little Red Riding Hood and the tressfully blessed Rapunzel.

Though this literary mash-up sounds complicated, it’s all really quite simple.

“What if all fairy tales took place at the same time and characters used the same wood to get to where they’re going?” posits director Paula Brannon in distilling the plot of “Into the Woods” in a single sentence.

What’s not simple is the rest of it — specifically, the complex score and vocal requirements of “Into The Woods,” which take it far beyond the realm of child’s play.

“I’ve been wanting to do this show now for a long time. It’s a wonderful show with beautiful music,” admits Ms. Brannon. “But Sondheim is scary.”

And so are the woods the characters in the play traverse in order to ostensibly reach their goals, if, that is, they don’t realign their priorities along the way. Like most cautionary tales, especially those designed for children, there’s a dark side here and in the end this show turns out to be less about the goal and more about the journey of self-discovery.

While the first act ends on a fairly high note, the second act is where it falls apart.

“Every action has a consequence,” Ms. Brannon says. “If you eat the candy on the side of someone’s house, they will cook you and eat you. The giant steps on people, people die.”

Nothing comes easy or cheap in the woods, except talk, and the script requires actors with a certain amount of chops to pull it off. Ms. Brannon seriously considered “Into the Woods” as last year’s musical due to the strong acting and singing ability of her cast, many of them seniors clambering to do the show. In the the end, she chose “The Addams Family” for 2015.

So this year, when it came time to select the high school musical, Ms. Brannon’s current crop of actors and singers, mostly underclassmen, lobbied heavily for “Into the Woods.” This time, she felt she couldn't say no, despite some initial reservations that they could truly pull off the difficult material.

“A lot of them are young, some are inexperienced actors or just making the transition from middle school to high school,” explains Ms. Brannon. “It’s an actor’s musical and its challenging, but they really wanted to do it.”

“For once I said ‘yes.’”

[caption id="attachment_50001" align="alignright" width="565"] Director Paula Brannon.[/caption]

There’s another important reason Ms. Brannon agreed to “Into the Woods” this year. Like the characters in the play, it turns out Ms. Brannon, too, will soon embark on a journey of her own — not through the woods, but to the West Coast. Come early June, she’ll be packing up and leaving Sag Harbor and her long tenure as Pierson’s musical director and moving to California to be near her two grown children.

“Into the Woods,” it turns out, will be her Pierson swan song.

Because of her impending departure from this village and these kids, this show has been a particularly poignant one for her. As a result, she admits there are a lot of emotions working their way to the surface during rehearsals these days, both on the part of the cast and their director.

Go ahead. Blame Sondheim.

“This play is unusual for that and it’s bringing out all kinds of things,” explains Ms. Brannon. “One of the songs, ‘No One is Alone,’ has lyrics that say ‘sometimes people leave you halfway through the wood,’ and I think in some ways that’s what I’m doing. And there’s a poignancy.”

“That one definitely resonates,” she adds. “Different parts of the show do apply to how I feel about staying here, while others are about what’s going to be coming ahead. But this one song in particular brings me to tears. I’m thinking, ‘I’m leaving you halfway through the wood, you decide what’s good.’”

For Ms. Brannon, who has been directing Pierson musicals for more than a decade, the words also speak of legacy and a theater program she hopes will continually raise the bar as it goes forward without her.

“Some of the kids have expressed some fears,” she admits. “‘What’s going to happen when you leave?’ ‘Who’s taking over?’ ‘Our shows will be not as good.’ That’s one thing that would hurt me — if the shows don't get better.”

Luckily, over the years, Ms. Brannon has trained her young actors well. Among them is senior Denis Hartnett who plays the baker in “Into the Woods” and has been involved in Pierson productions since he was in middle school.

Though he’s looking forward to graduation this spring, he also feels a responsibility for passing on the Pierson musical mantel and traditions to the next generation — in this case, the many underclass who perform alongside him in the show.

“Nearly all these kids I have coached in middle school,” says Mr. Hartnett. “This freshmen class were the first sixth graders I worked with – now I’m in the second act with them.”

In addition to being an actor, over the years Mr. Hartnett has also worked closely with Ms. Brannon on the technical side of the shows, ensuring the off-stage elements of the productions run smoothly. He finds it appropriate they’ll be moving on at the same time.

“I think it works out well for both of us,” he says. “We worked together and it’ll be very different without both of us. I’m not happy about it, but I’m content with leaving it behind.”

“A big part of the second act is growing up,” he adds.

And as Sondheim makes very clear, growing up can be tough — even in a fairy tale.

“Into the Woods” runs Thursday, April 14 to Saturday, April 16 at Pierson High School in Sag Harbor. Shows are 7 p.m. on Thursday and Friday evenings, and 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday. To reserve tickets, email agalanty@sagharborschools.org.