Theater: Prison Theater Arts Presents 'Sleeping Giants: A Dream Play' (Victoria, Canada)

Does the idea of going inside a prison to watch a play, even one based on fairy tales, unnerve you? We admit, we area little disconcerted, but we're also intrigued.

Opening yesterday (Friday, October 7th 2016), the minimum security prison William Head Institution is staging with the help and support of WHOs (William Head On Stage) and SNAFU Dance Theater, a new play titled Sleeping Giants. It uses metaphors from the tales of Sleeping Beauty, Rip Van Winkle and A Midsummer Night's Dream to reflect on real life experiences.

Description:

Sleeping Giants began inspired by such stories as A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Rip Van Winkle, and soon grew and evolved into a wholly original piece with music, costumes, lighting, set and props--all designed and built by the inmate team.  We follow the story of five human dreamers and a family of dream spirits who act as guides through the subconscious landscape.  Dreams are scarce, and the dream spirits must find a way to make the humans dream again, or else fade away into oblivion.  

There's an interesting review about the play and it's development HERE. Here's an excerpt:

Sleeping Giants takes its cue from such tales as Rip Van Winkle, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Sleeping Beauty. It tells five fictional tales based on the real-life experiences of inmates. Greenfield said one of the themes is the notion of “long sleeps.”

“There’s the idea of people going to sleep for a long, long time and waking up and the whole world’s changed around you. It’s kind of a metaphor for prison life,” she said.The chairman of William Head on Stage is one of 15 prisoners performing in Sleeping Giants. He said the play is also a critique of our technology-obsessed society. The inmates have a different take on the topic because this side of modern life is off-limits to them.“We have no direct access to the Internet, we have no iPhones or gadgets to play with while inside,” said the inmate, who cannot be identified due to prison regulations. 

            

 

Costumes created for the show by the inmates:

The Alchemist's cape, Dream Spirit costumes and the Woodland Sprite costume. 

Here's a little introduction from WHOs, introducing the play:

You can find out more information about the play, the facility and the process of visiting this 'unique' stage HERE.

We would suggest, if you're interested, to do your research. You will find many surprisingly great reviews of plays staged at the William Head Institution and the visit process is made very clear. Consider going in a group, for your peace of mind, and, at the suggestion of those working in theater to change lives: keep an open heart.

What: Sleeping GiantsWhere: William Head Institution, Metchosin, near Victoria in CanadaWhen: Oct. 7, 8, 14, 15, 21, 22, 27, 28, 29, Nov. 3, 4, 5. Must be 19 or over to enter.

Happy Summer Solstice Northern Hemisphere! (& news on Jasmine Becket-Griffith's upcoming Faerytale Oracle Deck)

A Midsummer Night's Dream by Jasmine Becket-Griffith

Just squeaking in super late in the longest day of the year to say Happy Summer Solstice!

This lovely rendition of A Midsummer Night's Dream is by the popular and talented Jasmine Becket-Griffith, who is currently working on a new Faerytale Oracle Deck (with author Lucy Cavendish writing).

Being no stranger to using fairy tales as subjects for her work, I'm so curious to see how she portrays fairy tales and which ones she chooses to use.

Here are a few works she plans to include so far:

Brother & Sister

Rumpelstiltskin

The Little Match Girl

The Red Shoes

Snow White & Rose Red

Ms. Becket-Griffith's Oracle Deck is due out sometime during 2015 from Blue Angel Publishing.

Happy Solstice!

Puck from A Midsummer Night's Dream retold by Bruce Coville & illustrated by Dennis Nolan

Summer in the North, Winter in the South.

A season's change for us all.

May it be joyous.

Butterfly Dresses

 

You may already have seen this amazingly-gorgeous-wow dress by Luly Yang. Although I'm not really into high fashion this incredible dress caught my eye quite a few years ago and I haven't forgotten it.

 

(Does that magazine cover say '68??! It must have made a comeback in the early 2000s for me to have noticed it.)

Here's a slightly different version which is being used around the web. It appears to be designed after (ie. "in the style of") the Luly Yang dress but I don't know who the official designer is of this one or when it appeared.

2011 (as far as I can tell) was the first year a designer came close to making the same impact with an original take on the butterfly theme. You have to admit, the monarch butterfly is so striking all on its own. To have a dress that would make as big an splash not using the monarch design and colors would be difficult. One designer seems to have found a way to look beyond this (now) classic, still using the impact of the monarch but in a very different way.

The designer is Alexander McQueen, who has an incredible flair for the fantastic in his designs.

 

 

There are even matching shoes! (I'm thinking comfort isn't premium for these sandals, though looks can be deceiving.) 


Check out the Alexander McQueen website and click on The Experience - wow. The 2011 collection in particular all looks like it was designed for a modern court of Faerie, complete with those princess-hip-flares [hip bustles??] you see in King Louis the XIV court styles. The 2011 collection is definitely nature inspired too so, again, perfect for a modern Faerie court.

I only wish the dress were longer with a sleeker silhouette, rather than going for the hip-bustle (?) short skirt look. I think a long sheath version, perhaps with a large and long hem flare and train, would be incredibly elegant and regal.

This is a backstage shot but I love the natural looking lighting here. I'll have to search to see if they did a magazine shoot for this dress. Imagine the possibilities!

Normally you think butterfly dress = fairy queen or Midsummer Night's Dream and that certainly is fitting. I, however, can't help think of a butterfly dress being the perfect outfit for Cinderella. (Has anyone done that anywhere?) The metaphor is fitting and I even found a very different butterfly dress that would work for a Cinderella character too. This dress is now in a museum and apparently marks an emergence in the history of fashion design (although this reminds me of ancient Egyptian silhouettes...).

Charles James (American, born England, 1906–1978). "Butterfly" Dress, 1955. Smoke gray silk chiffon; pale gray silk satin; aubergine, lavender, and oyster white tulle. Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Mrs. John de Menil, 1957 

From the Brooklyn Museum:

This design invites multiple interpretations. The form alludes to the extreme bustles of the 1880s and at the same time can be imagined as a transformation of the female body into that of a butterfly with iridescent wings that shimmer when they move. References to the past aside, it was a form hitherto unknown in the history of fashion. Twenty-five yards of tulle were used in its making.

And since we're on the subject of butterfly dresses I had to include this art piece titled "While You Were Sleeping" by Su Blackwell (perhaps best known for her incredible fantasy paper cut work) which, again, feels very Cinderella-appropriate to me.

Little aside: while butterflies have married well with Cinderella in my brain for some time now, I hadn't thought to connect Cinderella and sleep before. I love that there are so many different ways to look at the tales!

The dress, and other pieces of Ms. Blackwell's work, reminds me of that last beautiful scene from The Corpse Bride (which is, as you probably know, based on a Russian-Jewish folk tale). I wonder if Tim Burton was inspired by Ms. Blackwell and her butterflies? The butterfly is the running theme throughout that movie and is used so beautifully.

Pageant of the Masters 2011: Only Make Believe

I didn't know about this at the time but apparently this year's Pageant of the Masters theme, from the Festival of the Arts in Laguna Beach, CA was Fantasy. Specifically, "Only Make Believe."

[If you don't know what Pageant of the Masters is, it's essentially where they take live people and turn them into famous works of art, on stage for a sit down show/performance. Each actor is made up to blend into the painting - which is also reproduced person-sized, complete with prop pieces to help the actors blend in - and they must hold their pose for 90 seconds at a time while the story of the painting is told to the strains of a live orchestra. Neat stuff!]

This would have been wonderful to see in person. Apart from a simply awe-inspiring show and feat of art this year they apparently had Edmund Dulac's Cinderella With Fairy Godmother* AND Cinderella Sitting In The Ashes (please see note at end of post), along with Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Arabian Nights and many more (the videos show the most variety of pieces.)

 Here's a video with some of the behind-the-scenes work put into the Cinderella paintings/ performances, though this is from 2007. (I'm a little confused - did they duplicate this one for the 2011 show? See my additional note at the end of the post):

From fairies to superheros, here's another to give us a preview (now, a post-view!) of what people could expect to see:

Luckily there are a few photos from around the web to give us some closer and more specific glimpses, though why I can't find some decent ones of the Cinderella pieces is (frustratingly) beyond me.

And because I couldn't get enough glimpses myself (and thought perhaps you couldn't either) this news spot video shows some different works again:

There's so much work that goes into duplicating these paintings and making a 90 minute show. It's quite phenomenal. While I'm sad to have missed this year's works of Rackham, Dulac and many more, the Pageant of the Master's is definitely on my to-do list before I leave LA (whichever year that will be).

Pageant of the Masters happens every year in Laguna Beach, near Los Angeles. Next year's theme (2012) is "Genius".

 

*I've found a weird anomaly of a Dulac Pageant of the Masters photo from an earlier year, though the  program and promo videos and photos clearly showed Cinderella in the Ashes by Dulac happening in 2011. In one of the videos the two painting-performances are shown side by side so I'm a little confused by this one!

12 Days: Féerie Perfume

This item isn't fairy tale specific but I have a feeling it will appeal to readers of Once Upon A Blog. It was, after all, inspired by A Midsummer Night's Dream.

This luxury perfume, in an incredibly beautiful bottle with a tiny fairy perched on top, came out last year. The perfume is called "Féerie" (yes, that's two 'e's) and is by Van Cleef and Arpels with the bottle designed by Joël Desgrippes. No idea what the perfume smells like as I haven't seen it in person but the bottle alone is present-worthy.You can see more about the fancy launch HERE (which included that designer mini-trunk you can see in the image below) and read more about the actual perfume HERE (btw this site is a great place to browse if you love perfume - the scents, the bottles, the ads, anything related to perfumes!) but if you're interested in a bottle for purchase I suggest shopping around - this, like many good perfumes, isn't cheap.
NOTE: As usual, please note I am not affiliated with any of these stores or products. I do not receive any commission from any visit to the site or any purchase. These are just items I thought may interest people as fairy tale themed gifts for the Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Yuletide/Holiday Season. :)

Don't forget the "Pursuit of Happiness" Giveaway!

Entries close IN LESS THAN A WEEK on December 20th, so be sure to email me before then.
(A preview of the prize is coming soon too.)

Details for the giveaway are HERE and the wonderful London Particulars (who are making this giveaway possible through their generosity) can be found HERE.