This weekend, Parkland High School presents "Into the Woods," the musical wherein classic Brothers Grimm fairy-tales take on a delightfully entertaining new twist.

The yarns of "Rapunzel," "Little Red Riding Hood," "Jack and the Beanstalk," and "Cinderella" are wonderfully woven together as the Narrator played by Max Hakim tells the story of a childless Baker, portrayed by Tyler Haney.

He and his wife, played by Victoria Bartkavage, have a spell cast on them by The Witch, portrayed by Abby Kern, rendering them childless.

To end the spell, they must satisfy a seemingly impossible list.

The hunt for these tokens takes them deep into the woods where they encounter a fairy-tale world.

As the baker and his wife forage through the forest, they encounter a variety of characters and face moral dilemmas in their quest to become parents.

"The baker's wife is really headstrong, but she has this romanticized idea of life," Bartkavage said of her character. "She goes after what she wants and will stop at nothing to get it, which is really inspiring, in my opinion."

Eleventh grader Abby Kern portrays The Witch, a role she said has become her favorite.

"It's a real role. She's a very real character," Kern said. "What I love about this character is she's not your average mean and nasty witch.

"She turns out to be kind of right in the end, and everybody should be listening to her, but they don't because they think she is the classic witch."

Based on the book of the same title by James Lapine, the original music and lyrics of "Into the Woods" were written by Stephen Sondheim.

The production made its Broadway debut in 1987 and won several Tony Awards.

Francis Anonia, in his many roles of director, producer and musical director, is a veteran of PHS musicals.

Anonia explained why he chose "Into the Woods" for this year's production.

""Into the Woods" features really 22 characters, whereas most musicals feature only five or six," said Anonia. "So this was an opportunity to feature [the talents] of a whole bunch of kids."

Assistant Director and Choreographer Kelly Jean Graham, agreed.

"Everyone gets a little bit of a highlight," she said. "We've never done [a musical by] Sondheim, so this is exciting.

"It's fun for the kids to take that on."

The talent of the students is shown both on and off stage.

Violinist Amal Saeed, a 12th grade student, has lent her talents to "Phantom of the Opera" and "The Wizard of Oz" in the past.

She told The Press why she enjoys being part of the pit orchestra.

"It's just really cool seeing how everyone works together in musical theater. It's really different from regular theater, because there are a lot of components," Saeed said.

"You have the orchestra working with the actors and working with the stage crew."

Orchestra Conductor is Jim Tully.

Technical Director is Alex Michaels with assistant Andrew Burns.

Set design is by Damon Gelb.

"Into the Woods" is being presented 7:30 p.m. April 8-11 and 3 p.m. on April 12 in the high school auditorium.

For ticket information, call 610-351-5600 or go to parklandsd.org.