A twist on a fairy tale
‘Into the Woods’ opens at Lake Benton Opera House
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LAKE BENTON -- Longtime actors but first time co-directors Jenna Kor and Tom Schmitt debut for the Opera House putting on the musical "Into the Woods" for the Lake Benton Opera House's summer musical.
The musical follows the fairy tales of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk and various others as they each get their happily ever after. However, the musical comes with a twist when a new threat takes root in act two of the musical.
The three-hour musical began with auditions in mid May, Kor said. They wanted to start practice as soon as school and university were out for everyone because so many at the Opera House have known each other for so long. Kor and Schmitt already had some ideas for roles.
"Secretly in our heads, we’re like, ‘Oh, I hope they try out because I’ve had the perfect part for them,'" Kor said. "A lot of a lot of the cast members up there have been here multiple summers and keep coming back.”
One of those roles ended up being for lead actor Eric Fish. His performance in “Into the Woods” marks his 10th anniversary working with the Opera House. This year -- despite having more lines than all the other actors -- Fish was the first to rehearse off book, acting out scenes on memorization alone.
"Eric is a machine when it comes to memorizing lines," Schmitt said. “He’s got about everybody else’s lines memorized too.”
Being in the musical in any capacity is busy work, with many actors and directors working full-time jobs on top of their work with the musical. But for Schmitt, that work became uniquely busy. On top of co-directing and acting in the musical, he made the decision to make every single prop from scratch, complete with hinges, wheels, and for one prop, a mechanism to make it fall apart in an instant.
"Most people when they build stuff, they use a YouTube video or something," Schmitt said. "This all came out of my brain.”
It’s impossible to do all that work without a little help, and various southwest Minnesota arts councils and groups stepped in. According to Kor, the SMSU Fine Arts Department lent some costumes, and the Southwest Minnesota Arts council provided a grant for the band orchestra that plays live throughout the musical.
"Seeing what I’m seeing tonight, just having the full run, I’m not looking at my script. I’m not taking any notes," Kor said. "It’s like I just get to sit and enjoy the show now. So all of those weeks were truly worth it to see how it’s come out."
Performances are taking place nearly every single day for the next week-and-a-half. With 7:30 p.m. performances on July 22-25, and July 29-31 with 2 p.m. performances July 26, Aug. 1 and Aug. 2. Tickets can be purchased at https://www.onthestage.tickets/lake-benton-opera-house
The Lake Benton Opera house will be putting on several other performances this year, including a fall production of “Boeing Boeing” set to debut Oct. 2.