By KELCY DOLAN

“Anything can happen in the woods,” Cinderella’s Prince says in “Into the Woods,” and the same can be said for Hendricken’s Summer Stage program.

In only three weeks the cast, crew and campers, who will be putting on their own rendition of “Into the Woods” later this month, have collected nearly 3,000 books through the arts program for Books Are Wings.

The Summer Stage program is an extension of the Hendricken Arts Program, offering day camps for middle school students and a main stage production for incoming and just graduated high school students.

Summer Stage Program Coordinator Brendan McNamara said that as other arts programs across the country are “weeded” out, Summer Stage strives to get students excited about the arts.

He said, “We want to create an appreciation of art with the youth of Rhode Island.”

The main stage production this year will be “Into the Woods,” written and directed by James Lapine with music from Stephen Sondheim, and features over 40 cast members and 34 students on the technical crew.

For this production co-directors McNamara and Julia Paolino have adapted their own unique version of the story, shifting the setting to a library, having students reading the tales depicted throughout the play.

McNamara said the goal is to incorporate more storytelling, to bring the stories into the modern day, especially since Disney released a film version of the play late last year. Paolino said they didn’t want the students to feel like they had to be Meryl Streep to be in the show.

“We wanted to show the power of literature and literacy,” McNamara said.

Paolino added, “Show how reading and imagination can be an escape takes you to a different place.”

Both directors had been in the Hendricken shows while in high school and had tried to get a service project going, but nothing had ever come to fruition.

Now Paolino and McNamara as directors and both in college, attending Wheelock College and Fairfield University, respectively, they wanted to involve campers in some community service.

Having moved the setting of “Into the Woods” to a library, they were faced on how to make the Hendricken auditorium appear amidst library stacks, whether or not to use real books or create fake ones. They came up with the idea of collecting children’s books to fill their stage and then, once the show was finished, donating those books to Books Are Wings, a non-profit that distributes books to schools, day camps and other educational centers to foster literary throughout the state. In only three weeks the theatre program has collected nearly 3,000 books.

Paolino explained that some of the students went above and beyond visiting their local libraries to see what could be donated and reaching out to family and friends.

McNamara, who attended Hendricken himself and graduated in 2013, said the school mission is to “be a man of service,” and it’s easy to uphold that throughout the school year, but I can become difficult in the summer.

“We really wanted to see that mission carry over into the summer and we just have a great group of kids who really embraced it,” he said.

The “Into the Woods” production will run July 30 until August 2 at the Dr. Daniel S. Harop Theater at Bishop Hendricken High School. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday the show will begin at 7 p.m. and on Sunday the show will begin at 2 p.m. Tickets are $12 for students and seniors and $15 for adults. Tickets can be ordered at www.hendricken.com. For more information call 739-3450 ext. 172 or email arts@hendricken.com.