32 ACUMEN • SPRING 2026 sides, there is no orchestra pit. The result is a multi-level set, with one level forming a kind of bridge over the on-stage orchestra. Katakalos explains, “They are seen the whole time by the audience and they’re in this kind of thicket of roots. The root system of the forest is an important part of the design, where we actually see the strata of the forest. We see…the canopy, the trunks of the trees and we see below the earth.” Unlike classic fairy tales, which take place in mythical places existing outside the everyday world, this version of Into the Woods places the characters in an environment that often seems familiar. The woods always are steps away from an urban or suburban landscape denoted by using materials such as concrete, with roots of trees breaking through. Lighting and media design, such as projections, are used to animate the woods. “We will be seeing movement, not just through lighting, but through imagery,” Katakalos says, adding that the set emphasizes a juxtaposition of “the city and the wood coexisting.” Other trappings typically associated with fairy tales, such as Red Riding Hood’s traditional costume, have received a different treatment that keeps Into the Woods from falling into a cliché. “There is a cloak,” Katakalos says. “But it’s not the cloak you think it is.” The production may lead audiences to recognize themselves in the characters while also spawning new realizations about what these stories mean, Gabel says. “Audience expectations and cultural imagination are the material we mix and remix in theatre to help people look at things in different ways,” they say. ● Collaborating To Create Collaboration among students was an added benefit of the vocal class. Cast members come from virtually every college in the university. Some are involved in choral activities at Lehigh and others are veterans of past theatre productions. “This is a way for everyone to come together and learn from one another and with one another,” Olson says. “In addition, Sarah and I get to do the same thing with Kashi and Lyam, where we get to learn from them and with them at the same time as we collaborate.” All 10 faculty involved in the production met as an interdisciplinary team throughout the fall to create the show, with no one department controlling decisions. “Eventually we will come to a shared vocabulary and vision, which makes it so much better,” Johnson says. Melpomene Katakalos, professor of scenic design and scenic designer for this show, says the group became a kind of “hive mind” to determine a concept for the world of the play. “That’s what I love about being a theatre artist, that is so different from any other art form: it’s so highly collaborative,” she says. One of the challenges the team solved was that musicians and cast must coexist on the stage. Because the Diamond Theater features a thrust stage with audience on three The cast rehearses (above). Kashi Johnson (right) directs.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTA0OTQ5OA==