Last June, at the end of the last academic year, musical theatre students at Port Coquitlam’s Riverside Secondary already knew the show — and their characters — for their 2025 production.
After staging Disney’s Freaky Friday last winter, they came to drama teacher Nicole Roberge and unanimously requested they tackle a challenge for their next offering: Into the Woods, a two-act musical by the Stephen Sondheim, based on a book by James Laine, that delves into dark fairy tales and fantasy.
Roberge had always wanted to mount it at the school but was apprehensive given its epic story line and demanding score.
Still, when they came to her and laid out the case for mounting the production, she couldn’t say no because “I could see they were passionate and capable of learning a difficult show.”
Mostly, they had the chops to pull it off, she said, as they had been working on acting, dancing and musical skills their entire lives and wanted a big piece to remember for their senior year.
“Many of them spent last summer researching their roles and studying the musical,” Roberge said in an interview with the Tri-City News at the PoCo school on Jan. 22. “It’s a complex show about how we will go into the woods and some of us will not make it out. It drips of meaning about the power of community, and the need for each of us to keep going.”
Indeed, there were times during rehearsals when they had to check in with each other to take a mental break, she said.
Roberge said she and her 20 cast members and eight crew members wanted to stage the full version of Into the Woods, which runs more than two hours, rather than the junior version for high schools because the second act has all the goodies in the cautionary tale. The musical is suitable for ages six and up.
With musical direction from Jayda Grant, a Riverside grad (class of 2022) who’s now working with Metro Vancouver theatre companies like Theatre in the Country and Gateway, the show is directed, produced, choreographed and set designed by Roberge, with costumes borrowed from Brookswood Secondary in Langley, which recently staged it.
As in past years, the Riverside musical is double cast — with many students citing current or past credits under Broadway Bound in Port Coquitlam, Lindbjerg Academy of Performing Arts in Coquitlam and/or Caulfield School of Dance in Port Moody.
Avery Hong, who portrays Cinderella, said the Sondheim music and lyrics are testing even for her: The Grade 12 soprano has sung since she was eight under the Stagecoach program and with Gerard Rances at Long & McQuade in Port Coquitlam.
“The timing and spacing switches every five seconds,” she said.
But Yasmin Ghaffarinejad, Grade 11, who is making her high school music début, said musical theatre is a “nice change for me” after studying classical music since she was three, in Iran.
“Musical theatre has really boosted my confidence,” she said.
Here is the cast of Riverside Secondary’s Into the Woods:
Jakob Grimm's cast
Cavell Parsons, Gabriel Law, Logan Culbert, Heloise Alves Munro, Samuel Werner, Livia Panetta, Corban Coello, Sienna Russell, Anna Magnusson, Ella Lingham, Abby Strain, Eden Echevarria, Madison Overbye, Olivia Arvisais, Yasmin Ghaffarinejad, Camdyn McLaughlin, Sofia Feigelstock, Caitlyn Chen, Millie Palidwor, Samuel Zietsman, Caterina Malyk, Idan Lugasy
- Jan. 30, Opening Night, 7 p.m.
- Feb. 1, Alumni Night, 7 p.m.
- Feb. 4, High School Matinee. 1 p.m.
- Feb. 6, Closing Night, 7 p.m.
Wilhelm Grimm's cast
Emily Smith, Tarek Diabmarzouk, Ellie Gibson, Avery Hong, Campbell Pearce, Fran Srbljanin, Isabel Perkins, Andy Shih, Narin Ferho, Zoe Marshall, Claire Southwell, Jae Wells, Sarah Eisenburger, Andy Stoyanova, Lizzie Hamilton, Charlee Whitman, Sofia Feigelstock, Mason Altenburg, Alex Harris, Elizabeth Drenska, Caterina Malyk, Idan Lugasy
- Jan. 31, Opening Night, 7 p.m.
- Feb. 1, Saturday Matinee, 1 p.m.
- Feb. 5, Wednesday Night, 7 p.m.
- Feb. 7, Closing Night, 7 p.m.
To buy tickets to see Into the Woods at Riverside Secondary School (2215 Reeve St., Port Coquitlam), visit onstagedirect.com/riverside.
📣 Got an opinion on this story or any others in the Tri-Cities? Send us a letter or email your thoughts or story tips to [email protected].
📲 Want to stay updated on Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, Anmore and Belcarra news? Sign up for our free daily newsletter.
💬 Words missing in an article? Your adblocker might be preventing hyperlinked text from appearing.
