Actress MacKenzie Mauzy to join Lipscomb's hit production of <em>Into The Woods</em> this weekend
Lacey Klotz |
Lipscomb Theatre exists to provide quality entertainment to the Nashville community.
This weekend, Lipscomb University’s College of Entertainment & the Arts presents Into the Woods, directed by Scott Baker, as a part of its 2015-16 theater season.
The show opened Thursday, Oct. 29 at 7:30 p.m. in Lipscomb’s Collins Alumni Auditorium and will run through Saturday, Nov. 7, with a special 9:30 a.m. student matinee on Friday, Nov. 6.
The production also features Lipscomb’s School of Music who is playing live on stage throughout the entire show.
Into the Woods combines the well-known fairy tales of Cinderella, Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk and Little Red Riding Hood with the story of the Baker and his Wife.
Each character starts the play with a wish: the Baker and his wife long for a child but cannot conceive, Jack desperately wishes his cow, Milky White, would once again provide milk so he wouldn’t have to sell her, and Cinderella dreams of attending the king’s ball and someday being free of her cruel stepmother and stepsisters.
Lipscomb Theatre also has a mission to provide invaluable training to aspiring artists in a Christ-centered environment.
One way they do this is by exposing students to professionals who have been successful in the theater industry.
Mackenzie Mauzy, a film, TV and stage actress, played Rapunzel in the 2014 Oscar-nominated Disney film Into the Woods with an all-star cast of actors including Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp, Anna Kendrick, James Corden, Emily Blunt and Chris Pine.
Mauzy also supports Lipscomb Theatre and will join the cast and crew of Lipscomb’s production of Into the Woods, Friday, Nov. 6, for a special pre-show reception as well as post-show talk back.
Born in Greensboro, North Carolina, Mauzy has been involved in several television series including the CBS soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful, and Guiding Light, as well as guest starred on CBS's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: NY and NBC's Law & Order: SVU.
Mauzy has also been involved in stage productions of A Christmas Carol, Snow White, and Macbeth, and in 1998, she won the Anna Wentworth Award for "Best Child Actress" for her role as Annie Warbucks in the production of Annie at Showtimers Theatre in Roanoke, Virginia.
“I’m very excited to have Ms. Mauzy joining us this Friday,” said Baker. “She’s an actress with a background in theater, is gaining success in film and is coming here in the context of having performed in a musical. It’s this kind of cross-training that we favor at Lipscomb, and she’s a wonderful example for our students.
“I’m looking forward to showing her Lipscomb’s hospitality and entertaining her for the evening.”
Ann Marie Bagge, a junior theater education major, is playing Rapunzel in Lipscomb’s production of Into the Woods, and says she is both excited and honored to meet and perform for Mauzy.
Bagge also explained how Mauzy’s performance within the Disney film inspired her and helped her gain better insight of her character, Rapunzel.
“One of my favorite moments of the movie and the show, has always been the scene where the Witch sings, ‘Stay With Me,’ to Rapunzel,” Bagge said. “This is when the Witch has just found out that the prince has been secretly visiting the tower and, in true Sondheim fashion, the song is both loud and quiet all at once. Terrifying yet soothing.
“MacKenzie brings so much vulnerability and honesty to this scene and to the crossroads that Rapunzel encounters as she fights, and later embraces, the urge to run from the confines of the safe little world that she's always known. The moment is captured so well in the film and I'm always inspired each time I watch it.”
Don’t miss the last weekend of Lipscomb’s production of Into the Woods in Lipscomb’s Collins Alumni Auditorium.
Remaining shows include:
Thursday, Nov. 5 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 6 at 9:30 a.m.
Friday, Nov. 6 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 7 at 7:30 p.m.
For tickets, call Lipscomb’s box office at 615-966-7075 or visit http://bit.ly/1EvLvLA