The cast rehearses in the West Lobby of the Loeb Drama Center. Cast members not rehearsing at the moment help set up the stage. The cast itself has several guiding lights: Heller, music director Michael D. McNabb ’02, assistant music director Peter J. Dong ’02 and vocal director Steven B. Anderson ’01. In these last few weeks, they have been rehearsing six hours a day—three hours to work on individual pieces and three hours to run through the entire show. Lacking the resources of its Broadway predecessor, the student production must rely more on the performances themselves to captivate the audience. This particular day, the cast works on running the finale, paying attention to groups, levels and lines presented to the audience. The music is already excellent. Heller reminds the cast to keep up their energy and think about the emotions of their characters to make everything flow realistically. The Mainstage is a large space, but if actors are solid in their roles, they can emote and fill the vacuum with their presence. Heller states that the audience shouldn’t notice good directing; all movements should be entirely natural because they occur with a purpose.

In the last push to make the show happen, reminders abound for everyone to take time to eat and sleep. People may snap under the mind-boggling amount of work to be done, but cast and crew alike must keep the goal in mind: to make the show the best it can be. All must come together to take the audience “Into the woods / Then out of the woods/ And happy ever after!”

Into the Woods opens tonight at 8:00 on the Loeb Mainstage.