Seeing ‘Into the Woods’ through a Filipino lens
In the hustle and bustle of this modern world, Theatre Group Asia (TGA) invites us to go “Into the Woods,” a full staging of the beloved 1986 Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine musical that has won several Tony Awards and Laurence Olivier Awards from its multiple productions over the years.
“Into the Woods” brings familiar fairy tale characters like Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk, and so many others into a collision as they enter the forest to make their wishes come true. But they find that all wishes come with a price.
This is one of Sondheim’s most accessible plays, but it’s also one of his most profound ones. And TGA is bringing it to Manila to reimagine it—rooted in the Filipino experience.
A stellar cast goes “Into the Woods”
Produced by TGA’s artistic and creative director Clint Ramos, a Tony Award-winning producer, and directed by TGA’s Chari Arespacochaga, a veteran director both here and in the US, this staging of “Into the Woods” boasts of a stellar cast of Filipinos and Filipino-Americans.
Leading the 18-piece ensemble is Tony and Olivier award-winning actress Lea Salonga as the Witch, Arielle Jacobs as Cinderella, Nyoy Volante and Mikkie Bradshaw-Volante as the Baker and the Baker’s Wife, Nic Chien as Jack, and Teetin Villanueva as Little Red Riding Hood. Meanwhile, Josh Dela Cruz joins the cast as Cinderella’s Prince and the Wolf, with Joreen Bautista as Rapunzel, Mark Bautista as Rapunzel’s Prince, Rody Vera as The Narrator, and Eugene Domingo as Jack’s Mother.
Also in the cast are Carla Guevarra-Laforteza, Jamie Wilson, Tex Ordonez-de Leon, Sarah Facuri, Kakki Teodoro, with covers by Ima Castro, Nino Alejandro, Jillian Itaas, and Jep Go.
During the press conference, both Ramos and Arespacochaga hinted that it was important for them to produce this staging with the Filipino experience in mind. Arespacochaga harkens to the Filipinos’ love for myths, myth-making, and the supernatural—and that this would be in full display in both the show’s production and performance.
But they never went into too much detail and insist on not spoiling the surprise.
What the woods represent
“Into the Woods” is a big deal. It’s a universal story that takes on a whimsical approach in the first act and then gets deadly serious in the second act. It reintroduces us to familiar fairy tale characters who—in their interactions with each other and their collective quest to make their wishes come true—learn a lot of important things about themselves and the world around them. The titular woods is a powerful metaphor for many things, and the cast and creative team have many ways to interpret this.
“Historically, the woods is where we live. In the present, it is menacing, it’s scary, but it’s where communities are formed,” Arespacochaga says, which Ramos builds on by saying that “the woods is where you find yourself.”
Jacobs’ answer echoes Ramos. She says, “The woods is a place of uncertainty. It represents going towards what you want.” She also talks about how there are paths that we could follow, but if you go through the woods, “It’s riskier, but there’re bigger rewards if you do.”
“In that place, you will find out things about yourself you may not be ready for, or you will find life lessons that can shake you to your core, and it can change you as a person you don’t expect to become. It will make you think differently about the world,” Jacobs adds.
There’s so many ways that this production wants to play with the concept of the woods, but Ramos didn’t want to be too obvious in representing those metaphors. So when it comes to depicting it, especially with that Filipino touch, Ramos says, “It’s infused. We try to navigate how to make it obviously Filipino, but also infer it.”
From whimsical to dark
The very structure of the show follows that of the coming-of-age story. The whimsical fairy-tale tone shifts to a darker, more mature one, and with a strong narrative element that focuses on children and parent relationships, I can’t help but share my personal observations about the show’s theme on innocence to the team and ask them how the show tackles this concept of it.
For Dela Cruz, he sees it more as “naivety,” while Jacobs says, “There’s a lot to say about innocence in this production. How it relates in the modern day, I think it has more connection to the idea of selfishness than innocence.” She further explains that she believes that people in today’s world, especially as seen through social media, “are so isolated and they believe that their view of the world is the right view of the world.”
“I think that ‘Into the Woods’ has a lot to say about how…if you are only thinking about yourself and what you wish for, you’re not going to be okay. We’re not going to be okay,” Jacobs says. “We need to be thinking in terms of community. We need to be thinking in terms of lifting each other up.”
“It has been interesting to sort of navigate our sense of innocence,” shares Arespacochaga, “and how growing up as Filipinos, it’s so different. [Our idea of innocence] is so specific and it is dictated by family values, religious things, and others, and these are at play in our show.”
But Ramos says, “What we are hoping to touch is ‘What does it mean to re-examine innocence and the loss of it?’ Most storytellers and stories end at the loss of innocence.”
“[But] what comes after the loss? You will see that in Little Red, and Cinderella, and Jack. [In] everybody,” he adds. “In 2025…in many ways, we are not innocent anymore, and yet, we still are because we are so attached to our phones. We don’t experience what it means to be broken socially. Are we really experiencing oppression in real form, or are we just seeing it through our phones?”
It’s what he loves about theater because it’s an art form that brings that experience to us, its audience, in its entirety through the medium.
Which is Witch
For Salonga, she answered the question in relation to her character, the Witch. She references Ramos in her answer, saying, “How Clint characterizes the witch is truth and fury made flesh.” She then recites a bit of the lyrics sung by her character: “I’m not good. I’m not nice. I’m just right.”
“For her, what is true is far more important than the social niceties that come with society and dealing with people,” she continues. “As far as innocence, I don’t know if she’s an innocent character. She seems to be embittered by the world, and in her interactions with these characters on the first three nights and then all of her interactions later, she has this beeline to the truth.”
For her, the Witch knows what must be done to be able to get what they want. She knows that if you want to get this desired result, you must do this and “it must be frustrating for her” when they don’t do as she said or they expected a different outcome. “She’s like, ‘Why are you not listening? I’m already giving you a solution,’” Salonga says with a laugh.
I ask her if that’s a metaphor for today’s world.
“I think it’s a metaphor for anyone who tries to get anything done and has run into multiple brick walls of red tape,” she says almost immediately. “I think there’s a lot of the Witch in a lot of people.”
The giants in our sky
From my discussions with members of the cast and the team, the show is already sounding like it will not shy away from all the profound ideas and concepts of the show.
In fact, I am more convinced that they will explore them fully and use a very personal, Filipino lens, with Arespacochaga revealing that, “Everyone comes to the ball game with their own take on things.”
And when asked about working with the 18-piece ensemble, she has good things to say about it. “I love working that way. I want a collaborative space. I want them to take ownership so that they know we created this together. And they are really taking ownership. They are infusing so much of themselves in it. It’s been a really great process,” she enthuses.
But with all the incredible productions that have been staged all over the world, I had to ask both Ramos and Arespacochaga if they were trying to avoid any similarities from previous productions. How would they make theirs unique?
“It wasn’t about not wanting to do anything that others have done,” Ramos replies. “I have done this show a couple of times, and I’ve seen many other shows. I think what we really wanted to do was not to do a pared down version. We wanted to do a full orchestration. We wanted to do the full staging.”
“[We thought of] what can we add to it, rather than what we can take away,” the director continues. “I have a good relationship with the estate [of Sondheim], and they were excited about how this version will be different in the Philippines. What makes it Filipino? Our affinity to the supernatural, to myth-making.”
“But I think there’s a big question that we want to answer in our production—who are our giants in the sky? That is something we are attempting to answer.”
