Icicle Creek Center for the Arts presents ‘Into the Woods’

LEAVENWORTH – Icicle Creek Center for the Arts is gearing up for its second live theater production of the season, featuring Stephen Sondheim's "Into the Woods."

"Into the Woods" weaves together characters and storylines from classic fairy tales to create a sophisticated take on well-known stories.

"So a lot of folks are gonna recognize some of the classic sort of fairy tale characters, Cinderella, Little Red and the Wolf, Jack and the Beanstalk," said McKenzie Baird, who handles marketing for ICCA and is the choreographer for this production.

"So we're looking at those fairy tales and part of the idea is what happens after you get your ever after, like your happy wish that you wanted," she said.

"A big portion of this show is about family and community. It's written that the first act feels like the exploration of the fairy tales that we sort of know, and it has that little bit of that Disney magic feel that all of these characters go through the arcs that we love, where they get their final goal they, you know, where they just get past whatever it is that's in their way whether it's the wolf or the beanstalk or different things."

"And then act two really, to me, it feels like it examines what is ever after really, what is getting your wish, what is really important and it asks a lot of big questions about what we value. "

Director Diana Trotter has a way of bringing the production down to earth in a way that highlights the lessons in the second act, Baird said.

"I think one of the ways that we're doing that is that the set design and the costumes actually are as well, are really minimal and pared back," she said. "It feels like you get to sort of reuse your imagination in the way that you would when you first heard these kinds of fairytales as a kid."

Trotter may be familiar to audiences from her previous performance this season as Mrs. Bennet in "Pride and Prejudice."

The cast of ten includes local favorites like musical educator Cathy Bronson, Bradley Stieger, Phil Lacey, Marcus Wolf (previously Mr. Bingley and Mary Bennet), Christopher Puckett (previously Mr. Darcy), Jessica Hamilton, Michela Muñoz-Brown, Andy Meyers, Cherisse Martinelli, and Gracie Butterfield. 

"I think that it's a pretty stellar cast," Baird said. "Everybody is really talented and also working extremely hard, and the product that they're making, I think it's probably the best thing I've seen in our area in the last like three or four years."

"It's a chance to get, you know, professional theater in a region that doesn't typically get it. We typically have to travel to Seattle, or we have to travel to places like Spokane for touring things," she said.

The show runs April 5-7 and 11-14. For showtimes and tickets, visit icicle.org.

Quinn Propst: 509-731-3590 or quinn@ward.media