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I'm currently casting Into the Woods Jr. and I'm looking for a way to include a chorus of about 20 kids.  Any ideas on what number to include them in or how to give them enough to do that constitutes a chorus?

Thanks!

I teach at a HS of about 1800 students, and we have a tradition of casting about 60 students per show with another 60 in tech and 20+ in the orchestra. A few years back we decided to do the full version of Into The Woods and were challenged to find a way to get a chorus of 30+ students into the show. We added a dance troupe of about 12 girls who served as wolf dancers during Hello Little Girl, and later they danced as "shadows" while the Witch sang "The Last Midnight." Additionally, my assistant director worked with our "Fairy Tale Troupe" of improv actors to create Vignettes that we featured before the show and during intermission. Each student was a different Fairy Tale character not featured in the musical (3 little pigs, hansel and gretel, 3 bears, rumpelstiskin, etc). It was a nice way to stretch our kids in their creative thinking as performers. We even had many of these kids roam the audience and lobby during intermission, interacting with our audience. It was an enjoyable and succesful answer to the limited cast size of this great show. Best of luck.

Dave Jensen

Hi Lauren!  David had some great ideas for expansion! Part 4 is a wonderful section to explore levels, planes and proximity with a Woods chorus.  Cast that is staged as the Woods gives the Witch a path to perform and of course in scene 2 as Cinderella comes in works very well!