This article was published by Triangle Review on 18 November 2023.

When the theatre department of public magnet school Durham School of the Arts (DSA), a part of the International Thespian Society under Troupe 5765, announced tickets were on sale for this week’s production of Into the Woods, Stephen Sondheim's 1987 Broadway and 1990 West End musical based on the book by James Lapine, tickets sold out in a mere 3 hours. The high demand for DSA’s black-box theater’s limited seating for its annual high-school production is not surprising. Not long ago, US News and World Report’s list of Best High Schools ranked DSA 13th within North Carolina and 358th in the nation. In 2021, DSA student Elena Holder became the top-rated high school actress in the country when she won Best Actress in the 12th Annual Jimmy Awards®, The National High School Musical Theatre Awards® presented by The Broadway League Foundation. And in 2022, Kristin Winchester, a theatre teacher at Durham School of the Arts, was one of two teachers across the country to receive the 2022 Inspiring Teacher Award from The Broadway League’s national Jimmy Awards®.

Director and DSA theatre teacher Douglas Graves can once again hold his head high with DSA’s 2023-24 high school students’ performance of this year’s production of Into the Woods, as should assistant stage managers Clark Beckstrom, Emily Neill, and Sasha Wolfrum, all DSA students. DSA students were responsible for every part of the production, which was sometimes hard to believe given its professional quality.

The set was magical, with an autumnal mosaic backdrop and a platform with ladders coated in vines and tree branches, all enshrouded in a smoky fog that made the whole place seem like an eerie forest. It was only after the house lights were turned on at the end of the show that I realized the branches and vines were made out of plastic grocery store bags, twisted and painted with realistic artistry that demonstrates a most practical form of the third “R’ in “Reduce Reuse Recycle.” Set heads Landon Wilder, Ava Jared, and Shannon Wylie and scenic heads Trevor Blanton Parke and Stephanie Perez certainly took their roles seriously.

Before the production and in between scenes, the sounds of multiple species of birds and insects could be heard, placing the audience in an auditory forest as well. But even more impressive was the manner in which sound designers Zara Riffer and Marco Cano Mejia created thunder and the booming steps and voice of the giant at precisely the right moments in the play. Lighting designer Evan Byers and head electricians Pinch Stroud-Lepine and Isko Pajel followed suit, spotlighting the characters and creating flashes of lighting with accuracy that could be taken for granted by the audience.

There was even a live orchestra with a piano (Scott Schlesinger), flute (Roberta Melton), clarinet (Lucy Ehmann), trumpet (Jack Smid), two violins (Baxter Henderson and Nathaniel Stemmle), cello (Avonell O’Keefe), and percussion (Sidonia Irven-Moore), all DSA students who combined their talents to create musical accompaniment and sound effects that could rival a professional production.

Of the twenty actors (!), Cinderella (Kendall Babb), the Baker (Nate Jones), the Baker’s Wife (Darwin Hilliard), the Witch (Pilar Manson), and Cinderella’s Prince (Christopher Johnson) all stood out with their near made-for-broadway vocals. My 13-year-old son especially appreciated the narrator (Sarah Rodriguez), who was onstage for nearly the entire production and followed the action with her movements as if she were telling the story throughout. Greta Spagnardi was endearing and sometimes hilarious in her tomboyish, Pippy-Longstocking-like portrayal of Little Red Riding Hood. And Nyla Barfield and Ciara Daye exhibited laughable chemistry in their portrayal of Cinderella’s spoiled step sisters.

The audience’s standing ovation at the end of the production leaves no question that the Durham School of the Arts theatre department delivered their sold-out audience’s expectations. Between Christopher Johnson’s and Evan Byers’ (Rapunzel’s Prince) performance of the love-sick song “Agony;” the lovely harmony achieved by any of the duets performed by Kendall Babb, Nate Jones, and Darwin Hilliard; and the bewitching solos of the beautiful Pilar Manson; there should be no problem finding competitive scenes to perform in this year’s International Thespian Competition.