Student Blog: Into the Woods and the Haunting Nature of Memory

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Every musical, every play, every lyric, every conversation about theater seems to lead me somewhere personal. Strangely enough, many of those places are in the woods.

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“Into the Woods, it’s time to go, I hate to leave, I have to though.” There’s something haunting about those lyrics from Into the Woods. They sound simple at first, almost like a goodbye. But the older I get, and the more I write about theater, the more I realize they’re really about memory.

Writing for BroadwayWorld has surprised me in ways I never expected. BroadwayWorld is what I grew up reading. It was the bridge that connected me to a place that meant so much to me: Broadway, the shows, and the people I admired. I originally thought writing about theater would simply allow me to share my love for it and celebrate storytelling onstage. It has done exactly that, but it has also allowed me to document my own moments in the woods and hold onto the memories and the way they made me feel.

There is also something deeply surreal about writing for BroadwayWorld because I still read it the same way I did growing up. I still scroll through articles about new Broadway casts, opening nights, national tours, and performers whose journeys inspired me long before I ever imagined becoming part of that world myself. BroadwayWorld was never just a website to me, it was a window into a world that felt magical and larger than life. Seeing my own name listed as an author for the first time felt like stepping into the very stories I used to dream about being part of. In many ways, it reminded me that the woods we admire from a distance sometimes become the woods we eventually walk through ourselves.

That feeling became even more meaningful when I had the opportunity to write and perform my own show, The Journey of Inspiration Through Theater, at The Green Room 42. Sharing my story onstage alongside Broadway performers whose journeys helped shape my own felt like a full-circle moment I still struggle to put into words. It reminded me why capturing these moments matters so much to me. Writing about theater, preserving memories, and sharing personal experiences is not only about holding onto moments for myself, it is about encouraging others to take the first step into their own woods, even if they are uncertain where the path may lead. Because sometimes the most life-changing moments begin with simply being brave enough to enter the woods at all.

Every musical, every play, every lyric, every conversation about theater seems to lead me somewhere personal. Strangely enough, many of those places are in the woods.

Not literal fairy tale woods filled with witches and giants, but the woods of memory, the memories I have created over the years both onstage and in the audience.

Writing about theater has become a pathway back to moments I once experienced, and writing them down allows me to remember them forever: the feeling of walking through Shubert Alley, walking down 45th Street, the silence that somehow never feels empty when the houselights dim and a show begins, the feeling of watching friends make their Broadway debuts, and going backstage afterward to interview those same friends in dressing rooms on Broadway and national tours.

When I listen to Sondheim’s score or revisit Into The Woods, I don’t just think about characters searching for wishes. I think about how all of us wander through emotional forests trying to understand ourselves.

Writing about theater has helped me hold onto feelings I once carried inside theaters, and reminds me never to lose that magical spark a show can place inside your heart.

A show can begin as something you have hoped to see for years, and then suddenly become a reflection of your own life and the way you view the world. A song lyric becomes a doorway. A performance reminds you of a version of yourself you haven’t visited in years. That’s what surprises me most about this journey: writing about theater is not only about observing art. Sometimes it’s about discovering where the art meets your own memories.

The woods in Into the Woods are complicated. They’re magical, dangerous, uncertain, and transformative all at once. Real life feels that way too. We enter different woods throughout our lives hoping to find answers, only to discover pieces of ourselves instead. That is what writing for BroadwayWorld has done for me.

I also carry this with me into my podcast, The Inspiration Show, where I have the privilege of speaking with actors about their own journeys through their woods. Hearing them reflect on the moments that shaped their paths, the uncertainty, the breakthroughs, has made me realize how universal this experience really is. Each conversation reminds me that everyone is walking through their own version of the woods, trying to find meaning, purpose, and connection along the way. And being trusted with those stories means everything to me, because it reinforces why I began all of this in the first place: to honor the journey through these woods in whatever form it takes.

And maybe that’s why those lyrics stay with me:

“I hate to leave, I have to though.”

Because eventually we all leave certain woods behind. We all walk out of theater doors after the show is over carrying so much love in our hearts. But through writing, through trying to string words together to explain what we felt, we capture those moments. Those moments in the woods. They remain there forever. And when we return to those words later, we get to visit those woods again, if only for a moment.

“The trees are just trees, the woods are just woods.”

But sometimes the moments we experience within them become the memories that shape us forever. Here are a few moments from my own journey through the woods, the theaters, the friendships, the stages, and the memories that continue to stay with me long after the curtain comes down.

Because the most beautiful thing about the woods is not getting lost in them, it’s remembering who you were while you were there. Write it down. Remember it. Hold it close and carry those moments in the woods with you.

As the semester comes to a close, I wanted to reflect on what I've learned as a Student Blogger with BroadwayWorld, specifically in terms of discovering myself and my values through my writing.

While that uncertainty hurts the Type A side of me, the fear is motivating, and I find it to be extremely helpful to be somewhat on the side of the unknown.

Something that I feel is overlooked for actors is developing skills aside from acting. There's the pressure to just choose something and stick with it. I decided to share my experiences of trying things other than performing and how they have benefitted me, both as an actor and as a human.

Writing about theatre has not made me an expert, but it has made me a far more attentive observer, and that has been the biggest surprise of all.

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_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Student-Blog-Moments-In-The-Woods-20260528)._