This last week, I had the opportunity to see The Woodsman at New World Stages and participate in a Q&A with some of the cast members after the show. 
When I walked into the theatre, I was transported to a magical place. The set was not on the stage, the theatre was the set. There were mason jars and branches hanging all over the theatre, creating a fairytale-like atmosphere.
The Woodsman takes place in L. Frank Baum’s Land of Oz and tells the story of how the Tin Man lost his heart and ended up in the rusted-solid state he is in when Dorothy and the Scarecrow find him in the woods.
I went into the theatre knowing very little about the production and was surprised by the performance. The Woodsman is more of a performance art piece than a play. That does not mean it was bad, it was just different from what I expected.
There was almost no dialogue in the production. The show opened with a monologue to set the scene and convey the rules of the land to the audience. After that, all communication was made with body language, facial expressions, and breath. James Ortiz, creator and leading man of the show, talked about the evolving nature of the show and admitted that early versions of the script had more text than it has in its current form.
Several cast members chimed in when discussing changes to the script along the way, and emphasized that they all had different backgrounds and different areas of expertise that proved to be essential to the production. Eliza Martin Simpson spoke highly of the value of a cast with such diverse skill sets. She said, “Everyone drew on their roots and we made a gumbo.”
I found the most fascinating aspect of this piece to be the puppets that starred in the show. Ortiz had a vision of working with both puppets and actors. He asked the question, “Can a puppet be as emotional as an actor?” Baum’s fairytale was the first story read to him as a child and he wanted to show the story, not tell it. 
None of the actors were trained puppeteers, but you would never guess that watching them bring life to these otherwise static creatures. When discussing the Tin Man, Ortiz said, “It was important that the Tin Man seemed fragile and still mechanical.”
Ortiz was awarded a grant in 2014 from the Henson Foundation and built the puppets himself, inspired by the Land of Oz. Cheryl Henson (daughter of Jim Henson) led the Q&A after the show and emphasized that breath and gravity are the two most important considerations in puppetry. This was something that cast captured as the puppets seemed full of life on stage.
While I thought the production was beautiful, I thought the piece suffered from a lack of dialogue. I accept that the Land of Oz is a fairytale world where the logic of reality may not apply, but there were sections where character motivation was unclear. This beautifully crafted piece could only improve with some more dialogue sprinkled throughout the show.
If you have the opportunity to head over to New World Stages and see The Woodsman, you will be transported into what Ortiz called a “Munchkin Folktale.” The show runs for 75 minutes without an intermission and will leave you wanting to explore more of Baum’s Oz.
Live, Love, Learn,
Candice & The Write Teacher(s)