With this being her last production with IU Theatre, she said it will be a bittersweet feeling when the final curtain drops.
“It’s not like it will be my last performance ever,” Shaw said. “I have my career to look forward to, and I’m excited to start that, but it’s going to be sad. There will be a lot of tears on closing night for me for sure.”
At 7:30 p.m. Friday in Ruth N. Halls Theatre, Shaw will perform alongside her fellow actors for the last time at IU in “Into the Woods.”
When Shaw found out she was playing the witch during the first week of the semester, she said she was thrilled. As she developed her character, she said she wanted to steer away from comparing herself to the famous actresses who played the witch in the past, such as Bernadette Peters on Broadway and Meryl Streep in the movie, and try to find things about her character that were a little bit more relatable.
“At the end of the day she’s a mother and okay, well I know single mothers,” Shaw said. “And being able to dig deeper than she wears a cape, she’s ugly, the ?magic and all of that.”
Shaw said she also enjoys the complexity of her character. There are moments when there’s a lot of comedy, she said, but there are devastating ones, too.
“That’s been really enjoyable for me to be able to dig deeper in that way to really experience every range of emotion in basically a two and a half hour show is kind of an amazing thing for an actress to be able to do,” Shaw said.
IU Theatre professor and director of “Into the Woods” Kenneth L. Roberson said the musical itself is also very complex.
“There’s a balance of the light and the dark, the hope and despair and faith and fate,” ?Roberson said.
Shaw said her biggest takeaway from the IU Theatre program was learning the importance of collaboration and how important each little piece is to making the production what it ends up being opening night.
“You’re creating your character, and that’s your goal, but then there’s so many people that help you get there also,” Shaw said.
During their senior year, Shaw said musical theatre majors are required to take THTR T-401 Musical Theatre Senior Showcase and perform in the Senior Showcase in New York on May 12.
Shaw said she will move to New York the day after graduation and start auditioning after the showcase. Casting directors, agents and others in the business will come and watch students perform at the showcase. Shaw said her hope is to have meeting with these professionals, who might sign her or invite her to auditions.
“It really is kind of the first way to get your foot in the door in the whole New York theater scene,” Shaw said. “I just decided instead of coming back and then moving in the fall or something, I might as well stay and get life started.”
Shaw’s ultimate goal is to be able to support herself solely through performing. She said she feels the IU Theatre program has prepared her well for auditioning in New York through the tenacity and resilience she has learned.
“Obviously, auditioning is a very stressful thing, and you’re constantly worried about whether you’re right for something or not or what they’re thinking about you,” Shaw said. “It’s just being able to walk into an audition, do what you want to and leave feeling good about yourself.”
