Into the Woods - Letter to the Editor
We received the following letter to the editor at the end of last school year in response to a piece written on SCU Presents’s production of Into the Woods. The article we published was certainly flawed, and this letter provided invaluable insight into those shortcomings.
While it is abnormal to publish a letter to the editor so far after the original piece ran, I felt it was important to share this perspective with any who might have read “A Study in Flawed Characters,” as well as with those who haven’t. Jean Lau (now a senior) presents the issues we discussed with incredible nuance that we neglected to include.
Please, please write letters to the editor. We value your point of view, and the rest of the student body deserves to hear it as well.
– Rhiannon Briggs, Editor-in-Chief
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Dear The Santa Clara,
I’m Jean Lau, a current Santa Clara junior, and I wanted to send some feedback on the recent article titled “A Study in Flawed Characters.”
I want to start by saying that the article was an interesting read, and I’m happy to see The Santa Clara writing about the arts at our school - we are always grateful for more traction and recognition! That being said, this article did create a bit of a ruckus among our cast and crew, and I wanted to share my reactions and opinions as a cast member and as someone who cares about this topic.
First of all, I was confused about the goal of the article. Is it supposed to be a literary analysis on the script itself? Is it supposed to be a review of our department’s specific production of the show?
Is it supposed to highlight some shortcomings (as it should!) about some of the behind-the-scenes aspects of the production? I ask this because this article seems to be an attempt to do all of the above – but in a way that feels misrepresentative of both the show and the points that Kennedy and Langston were trying to make.
Allow me to explain:
“Is Into the Woods a feminist or sexist musical?” is a very complex and layered question. The point of Into the Woods is that the stories we tell to people, especially our children, matter. And that morality is not straightforward. If you wanted to address what themes our show presents, I think you could address it in the context of our school being a Jesuit institution – we had a play from winter quarter titled Giants Have Us in Their Books that had a literal Nazi character in it, but there was no article being published to discuss or analyze that!
If you’re going to analyze the script and its meaning, there is more nuance than just saying that most of the female characters are “weak-willed” (since there is a fair amount of textual evidence one could use to argue otherwise, it would actually be sexist to disregard that and only say the female characters lack any agency!) or that the male characters are misogynistic (they are meant to be a caricature of what many know as the “frat boy” or “boomer husband” stereotype – played for humor, yes, but very much meant to be the butt of the joke).
Either way, I suspect that all this would have been too much to aptly cover for an article of this length or genre… lest it were an op-ed piece perhaps (which it does not seem to be).
As for the point about hair and makeup for actors of color (which is indeed an important issue to bring up!!), I am not of the specific demographic that was addressed in the article, so I will not speak on that particular experience. However, I do know that Kennedy (felt misrepresented in her statements about the hair and makeup “team.” (And as an FYI, we don’t actually have makeup artists to do our makeup – we do that all ourselves with instruction from the costume design faculty.) As a person of color myself, though, I also would have liked more guidance on highlighting my specific features.
All this is to say, it would have been much more appreciated if the article talked about how the department should work on hiring more people of color to be on the faculty, and thus be able to address the needs of a diverse cast. This is also a budget issue, of course. We don’t want it to sound like we have any qualms or are “unhappy” with the costume designers personally, as the article made it seem – we just think that systematically something should be done. I felt that this issue could have been addressed and highlighted differently. It may have even deserved a whole article itself.
Essentially, my point is that the article was imbalanced and lacked a sense of focus, and because of this, it felt like it did not understand the show or the production in their contexts, and also had the tone of glossing over an important issue such as diversity in the Theatre and Dance Department.
Despite the above more critical points, I do want share some things I appreciated! The final line (“Despite the darkness […] wonderfully complex tale”) acknowledging the hard work of the whole team was very heartfelt. Given that we’re going through the gradual process of rebuilding after COVID-19, and also with the department’s budget still being at the limit as it was cut during the height of the pandemic, it’s been a major thing for us to be able to have elements such as a live orchestra for the show. Any form of appreciation for the arts or highlighting of the progress we’re making is gratefully received.
School newspapers are sometimes an under-appreciated aspect of our campus life. I’m saying that I do see you, and in fact have full confidence that The Santa Clara can do better with this in the future.
Sincerely,
Jean Lau
Co-signed,
(All individuals listed below are members of the Into the Woods cast and crew)
Clayton Baldwin
Christian Barnard
Dylan Caballero
Katie Castillo
Ariana Chavez-Magaña
Tyler Choo
Michael Davis
Kennedy Dawson
Ellen Duncan
Shayna Fallin
Deirdre Farrell
Patrick Gammon
Lindsey Gebhardt
Maddie Hall
Mary Hemker
Kristin Hoekema
Maya Jaffe
Madalyn Javier
Alex Jordan
Addison Lewis
Brianna Morales
Ashwin Raman
Brianna Robison
Fernando Salvador Francisco
Ajay Schlehuber
Sarah Sporn
Anneliese Seidel
Jessica Tate Simms
Fiona Sundy
Katy Wolff
Ivy Wu