[Jman383]

Hey there,

So I'm doing ITW this summer and am the Baker. However, the thing that's so different about this production is our director's concept for the show. Instead of doing the traditional fairytale setting and costumes she's designed an entirely modern set of things, themed with the entire idea of scavenging and trash... for the first act anyways.

Now the setting of the show is in kind of a junkyard/urban set, with ladders and groups of umbrellas as the woods/trees. I believe there will also be piles of tires and scaps of metals and what not. As for some of the costume ideas I've listed them below. The entire point though, is that each character made their own costume out of things both commonly and uncommonly found at home/in the street:

Baker: I'm wearing a rageddy button shirt, but sewed onto the sleeves are (empty) bread bags (like wonderbread bags), and over my chest is a life vest, symbolizing the fact the Baker always needs to be saved. For slacks, I'm wearing knickers made from a tablecloth, and for pockets I have cooling pads (used to set freshly baked loafs of bred on). For socks I'm going to be wearing oven mits that have the bottoms cut out so I can fit my feet through.

B. Wife: I believe she has a bandanna on her head (like a WWII gal), a raggedy half buttoned plaid shirt, and to keep some feminity, a skirt made completely of neck ties.

Little Red: Not too sure about everything, cept I DO know that her apron will be made of caution tape, and her cape from red candy/junkfood wrappers (aka Doritos bags, skittles bags, 100 grand wrappers etc) as she's ALWAYS eating.

Cinderella: Not exactly sure about the rags dress, but the ball dress I think is going to be made from Monopoly money, as her "wealth" is fake, and that money is fake as well.

Jack: I believe he wears a "Got Milk?" shirt, cow print pants, a duck tape vest, and mistmatched shoes/sneakers.

Milky White: Made entirely from milk cartons, gallons being the body, 1/2 gallons for the feet, bottle caps for the eyes, and for the ears the small, school lunch sized ones.

As for the others, I'm not entirely sure, but just curious, anyone have an opinion of the concept? I'm sure many people will DESPISE it, but I'm just wondering basically. I'm interested to see how it will turn out myself.

[jarrod001]

...whu the ----?

[Jman383]

I could say the same thing about your post. Usually an opinion is declarative, not inquisitive. But I take it you don't like/understand the concept. That's fine. I'm not quite used to it myself.

[ConverseSneaker]

The idea is unique and interesting but I don't think you really can stray from the whole fairytale and woods thing with Into the Woods, a musical about Fairy Tales. So I'd try that on a different show, but not this.

What's next, a garbage disposal truck is the giant?

[blackbird_fly]

I could see it happening as a modern fairy tale. Why the changes?

[Baker]

I actually love it! It's very creative and symbolic and fun. The Little Red and Jack ideas are especially great, like the candy wrappers for her cape and the Got Milk? T-shirt. My least favorite is probably the Baker's costume, but that might just be the way I'm imagining it. Very creative.

I've always wanted to do a modern Into the Woods. Maybe not like this, but, for example, the Princes in tuxes, the Stepsisters in prom dresses, Little Red in a hoodie, the Baker's Wife very June Cleaver-ish, characters wearing torn jeans, etc.

[The Drama Queen]

I don't know what I think....it just sounds very weird! That sort of concept works for shows like Godspell, Brooklyn, etc. But I'm not so sure about Into the Woods...

For our production they're trying to put a different spin on things as well, only not as drastic as yours. The entire design plot for the show is based off some old 70s psychadelic covers of records that told fairy tales. All the costumes are from different time eras and places(Cinderella- marie antoinette-like, Rapunzel- medival, Princes- Russian tzar-like etc.) and the fabrics for the costumes are very bold colors. Our trees and stuff also look very much like they are out of illustrations for a childrens book, rather then trying to make them look realistic.

My favorite costume idea that is in our production is what they're doing for Jack and Jack's Mother after they become rich. They are simply making 2 sets of costumes, and making the set for the 1st act look dirty and worn, and leaving the set for the 2nd act looking brand new. So it will look like while Jack and his Mother now have money- they still have bad taste

[Baker]

[littlemisstheatregirl]

[Baker]

Although I still like this idea, my main concern would be that the audience would be really distracted by it. They might sit there the whole time going, "Why is Little Red Riding Hood wearing trash?" since it doesn't really fit into the story at all. I don't know, it's kind of hard to explain, I guess.

[Tumnus1031]

Modern ItW = <3

Trash Costumes = </3

I don't like the costumes, though I enjoy the symbolism associated with them. However, I don't think the average theater-goer looking for a fun story about fairy tales is going to read into the symbolism of the Baker's life jacket. =/

P.S. Those costumes seem very time-consuming to make as well as very fragile. You might want to take that into account. If you do go with those ideas, though, make sure those milk cartons are washed out.

[Jman383]

right, I completely agree. And the costumes are sort of fragile, but we're only using them for one show (it's actually a children's theatre production that I'm on Staff for), but we've been making them all week, and they look really great actually, esp. Little Red's cape. It has every kind of red junk food you can imagine (skittles, pringles, doritos, cheese doodles etc).

But no, I understand about the audience not getting it. I'm worried about that too. As far as the concept goes, I believe our director derived it from the fact that every character is scavenging for things in the show, (the whole "I Wish" concept), and therefore, they've had to make their clothes from common things around them.

[ConverseSneaker]

[Jman383]

Here are some pics of what I was talking about:

Little Red's Cape:


Milky White:



Baker Costume Concept:


Baker's Wife Costume Concept:


Transformed Witch Costume Concept:


Little Red's Costume Concept:


Any thoughts?

[Luc]

Why is the Witch bald?
I normally wouldn't ask that since it's just a sketch, but everyone else has hair...

I'm really not liking this idea. To me, it's too "Look at us! We're different!" *shrugs*

[jackissensational]

[Jman383]

Well that's fine that you think that, but I assure you that very few concepts are created for that sole reason. Our director looked at the show from an artistic point of view. She decided that one of the main themes of the show is that the characters are scavenging. Therefore, why not have their costumes be scavenged from everyday objects that pertain to their storyline and being? Making new concepts for shows is always claimed to be for the director's want of attention, when in reality, ours just wanted us to use our imaginations and really delve into the characters.

As for the Witch being bald, why not? Bald is beautiful too. Actually, our director forgot to draw hair on her, but then realized she liked her bald. The Witch in our show however, was not bald, and did not have a dress of credit cards. A lot of these costumes would have taken way too long to actually create, so we mainly borrowed certain themes from them to use, rather than the entire outlandish concept sketches.

[lottielou22]

Interesting. But I think everyone's gonna leave the theatre confused. Like, it isn't going to occur to someone that Cinderella's dress is Monopoly money because her wealth is fake, they're just gonna be like, "Oh, I get it, Cinderella's mother made her a dress out of PAPER money!! You know, like, since she lives in a tree! And that's where you get paper!"
Little Red's cape looks cool, though.