Into the Musical

By Mary Demarco, News and Sports Editor

“Oh people aren’t ready,” according to senior Charlie Steiner. But what are we not ready for? “Princesses and princes and wolves and Little Red Riding and Beanstalks,” Steiner adds. “And then, chaos ensues.” The ZCHS production of the musical “Into the Woods” will take place on Nov. 11-13 in the PAC. Musical director Sam Chenoweth said this production is difficult to do at the high school level. “I’m excited to see it all come together and to have those present in the pit that are going to take it totally to the next level,” Chenoweth said. “I think that people are going to be impressed.” “In the first half, you get to see all of the fairy tales that you got to see as a child,” Steiner said, “It’s a very nostalgic story for the first half. And then everything takes a turn in a way that you would never expect in the second half.” After a scaled-back musical in 2019, the cast is working hard to return to elaborate musical productions. “I feel like there’s also a little bit of pressure to be back and better than ever,” senior Iris Jordan said. “But I think we can rise to meet that expectation.” The cast has had extensive rehearsals where they work not only on their acting skills but on their singing, dancing, and stage presence. “We had vocal rehearsals first, where we were just learning the music,” Jordan said. “The leads over the summer had two sessions where they would come in and privately work on their individual songs sen. We got our scripts at the very beginning of summer, last year. So we got the cast list on the last day of school. It’s been in the works since May.” This year’s leads are seniors Charlie Steiner and Haleigh Tussinger, sophomores Jilayne Kistner, Ben Kistner, and Izzy Casciani, and freshman Claire Kauffman. To prepare for “Into The Woods,” auditions took place in May. As summer began, the students were already hard at work memorizing songs and looking over their script. Over the summer, the leads had two private sessions to work on their songs. The cast currently rehearses three times a week, 2 hours per rehearsal. “Zionsville has a lot of insanely talented people,” Jordan said. “We recognize that in athletics. I think that it’s such an awesome experience. But in other things, I love just sitting in the audience and being able to see the different side of someone that might sit next to me in calc class, and I didn’t know that they could do something like that.”

Sophomore, Jilayne Kistner practices the dance number during rehearsal on Oct. 5. photo by Mary Demarco

Musical flyer provided by Performing Arts Center Director, Isaac Spillman