An SIUC student is gearing up to play one of the lead characters in the Pyramid Players production of Stephen Sondheim’s Into The Woods.

The play, a musical compilation of the best known fairy tales, takes the audience on a quest with a baker and his wife to find required items that will release them from a wicked witch’s spell.

Carolyn Briggs, a senior in theater and speech communication from Chicago, plays the baker’s wife, alongside two other SIUC students with supporting roles.

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The spell is cast on the baker’s wife she can not have children until they produce Little Red Riding Hood’s blood-red cape, Rapunzel’s yellow hair and the white cow from Jack and the Beanstalk.

Stephanie Odle, a music theater major from West Frankfort, and Russ Reidelberger, a theater and English major from Du Quoin, have joined the community theater while taking a summer break from classes.

Returning to summer school, Briggs was excited to learn of the play production and decided to try out for her dream role.

Sondheim is known for writing difficult musicals, she said. It’s a challenge to play these parts.

Briggs’ challenges range from singing solos to a seduction scene with Reidelberger’s prince that leads all the way to pregnancy.

An actress since the age of six, Briggs has no trouble with stage fright.

It’s like a drug, she said. I love being the center of attention. I get on stage and feed off of the audience.

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Briggs said working with the Pyramid Players this summer has been a relaxing environment compared to productions she has been involved with in the past.

SIU has definitely prepared me for the real world, she said.

see SONDHEIM, page 6