Lecturer Jon Wilson has led a team of students to work with the Fortune Theatre to produce Into the Woods.
After the success of last year's collaboration on Grounded, the Fortune Theatre approached us in February this year keen to work with us again. This time they needed help to create a fantasy world for Into the Woods. Crammed with magical moments this 1987 Tony Award winning musical resonates in surprising ways today. This is not exactly the tale you remember as a childless baker with his wife along with Cinderella, Rapunzel, Red Riding Hood, Jack (amongst others) combat giants, break spells and strive for happiness. As each decade passes new generations discover the delights of this mash-up masterwork from Stephen Sondheim, based on the book by James Lapine.
Lecturer Jon Wilson worked with the director Jonathan Hendry to imagine what could be done and how. One of the challenges was successfully integrating the use of animation with human actors to bring to life an imaginary world. A group of talented communication design students then took their vision and ran with it, producing animated sequences to visually communicate the fantasy environment for this entertaining musical.
Into the Woods delighted audiences at the Fortune Theatre from 5 to 26 August 2017. This project won a bronze award in the 2018 Design Awards in the Student Moving Image category.