Into the Woods at Watershed Public Theatre

Venture Into the Woods with Watershed Theatre
The Stephen Sondheim musical will be presented by Watershed Public Theatre March 26-29

(COLUMBIA, TN) March 5, 2026 – With six shows in just a single weekend, Watershed Public Theatre's upcoming musical is like lightning in a bottle. Into the Woods, the out-of-the-box remix of Brothers Grimm fairytales, takes the stage March 26-29 at Columbia State's Cherry Theater.

In the 40 years since Into the Woods premiered on Broadway, few musicals have reached the popularity of this Stephen Sondheim gem. The woods are where any wish may come true, whether or not the grass is greener for characters like Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack (of "beanstalk" fame), and several more. But the woods are just trees. Director Caleb Finley has set this play in a concrete jungle, inspired by dystopian fiction and Brutalist design and architecture.

After the devastation of WWII, a new style of building filled the need for cheap and durable construction. Derived from the French phrase “béton brut” (raw concrete), these imposing, unpainted buildings were described as Brutalist. A sense of coldness was projected from these massive, blocky structures. The lack of ornamentation and color in the landscape seemed to imply a bleak future and a world without imagination.

What Brutalist buildings have in common with fairy tales is that they both, for very different reasons, were meant to last forever. This irony inspired Director Caleb Finley to fuse the two concepts together for his vision of Into the Woods. The Brutalist, avant-garde look comes to life through the way the characters are dressed. Everyone's clothes are in crazy shapes and tough textures, just like the urban landscape surrounding them.

Sara McLoud, Watershed Public Theatre's resident costumer, is designing her ninth production for the company. It only took three years for Sara to cover a couple century's worth of fashion for these Watershed productions — with settings from imperial Russia, to post-Civil War West Virginia, to 1990s New York. Sara has her eyes on clothes wherever she goes and can usually rely on a few different costume rental houses around Middle Tennessee to shop for her characters. It's just a matter of finding outfits that fit the actors and resemble the right time period.

But this time, Sara doesn't expect to find a full wardrobe right out of stock; the extra-imaginative setting of WPT's Into the Woods does not overlap with typical productions of the musical. When Sara goes costume shopping in a thrift store, she looks for things not only to be worn, but to be reconstructed. She's discovered bedsheets that can become the gown for a princess, as well as magic beans that turn into a beanstalk that leads to the sky.

After all that incredible attention to design, somebody still has to act, dance, and sing. Eighty-nine actors came to audition for Into the Woods, an example of how much is talent is flowing through Watershed's community. The professional theatre company presents a cast that includes Patrick Adams, Meredith Aydelott, Olivia Black, Austin Correll, Scott Duvall, Max Fleischhacker, Scott Karan, Kailen Long, Brock Loyd, Kristin Mathis, Mileah Milstead, Austin Jeffrey Smith, Isabel Smith, McKenna Steel, Shaelyn Taylor, Crystal Woolard and Olivia Zemer.

Thursday, March 26 at 7pm, there is a special preview performance of Into the Woods; it's also another one of Watershed's popular "Pay What You Can" shows. The cast will be back on stage the next morning (3/27) at 10am to perform for local school groups as a field trip. To book a group for that performance contact education@watershedtheatre.org.

The performances continue with on Friday, March 27 with a 7pm showtime. Saturday, March 28 will be a double header, with shows at 1pm and 7pm. The performances conclude with a 3pm Sunday matinee on March 29. Performances will take place at Columbia State Community College’s Cherry Theater, 1665 Hampshire Pike, Columbia. Tickets, which can be purchased online at WatershedPublicTheatre.org, are $30 for general admission, $26 for seniors, and $22 for students.

Mission Statement:
At Watershed Public Theatre, we believe that theatre is the ultimate collaborative art and work to bring together arts professionals, volunteers, students and patrons to share in the illumination that only live performance can provide. We maintain our focus on nurturing community and practicing social and environmental responsibility while striving for the highest quality of artistic and educational experiences.
For more details or to join WPT’s mailing list, visit watershedpublictheatre.org, email info@watershedtheatre.org, call 931-797-6551 or visit the Facebook page: Facebook.com/WatershedTheatre.

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Photo: Isabel Smith portrays Little Red Riding Hood in Watershed Public Theatre’s production of Into the Woods, running March 26-29 at Columbia State’s Cherry Theater.