You Know You're a Fairy Tale Blogger When...

Graphic by Gypsy using Dore's illustrations & Debbie's vintage dust jacket project from Confessions of a Plate Addict
(text is the opening lines of Le Chat Botté)

I got tagged by Kristin from Tales of Faerie, so now it's my turn:

Gypsy's list:

- You feel it's your job to watch ALL THE FAIRY TALE SHOWS every week (and movies too)

- You get annoyed that googling "fairy tale" leads to sports stories at least half the time

- You feel over saturated by Disney stuff/content and yet you have to read it/check it out just in case...

- Any time you have to buy shoes you get very self conscious that someone will think, that you think, that you're really a princess

- You have always owned, and will always own, a red hoodie

- ... and feel a little bit self conscious/rebellious every time you wear it.

- You find ways to relate every conversation to fairy tales

- You're pretty sure you wouldn't be too surprised if an animal came right out and spoke to you

- You have multiple copies of Grimm's, Andersen's & Perrault's tales but cannot get rid of a single volume

- You have a dream to own the complete AT index one day

- You always have the urge to add a witch when making gingerbread houses

- ... and feel guilty eating gingerbread men.

- Your TBR pile is actually a mountain

- You regularly have 14 tabs (or more) open at once for articles and stories you MUST blog on

- Your drafts folder is full of placeholder topic titles with one-liners/single paragraphs and half-complete essays on fairy tale issues so you won't forget to blog on them... (-sigh-)

Now tagging... HEIDI at SurLaLune!

Fairy tale bloggers' confessions so far (updated as they appear...):

• Tales of Faerie - Kristin
• Once Upon A Blog - Gypsy (see above)
• SurLaLune - Heidi
• Fairy Tale Fandom - Adam
• Diamonds & Toads/Timeless Tales Magazine - Tahlia
• Enchanted Conversation - Kate
• Twice Upon A Time - Kristina
• Australian Fairy Tale Society - Reilly (co-founder)
• Spinning Straw Into Gold - Christie
• The Dark Forest - Megan
• Something To Read For the Train - Cate
• Fairy Tale Factory - Amy has been tagged...

What is this? From Kristin, of Tales of Faerie:After having a fairy tale blog for years, it really starts to bleed into the rest of your life. Gypsy from Once Upon a Blog and I have been enjoying sharing some of these unique results of our bloggerhood and thought some of you might also have some funny and interesting things to share as well!

Pensuasion Takes on Fairy Tales for the A to Z Blogging Challenge (Which Means More Daily Fairy Tale Fodder For Us!)

S.L. Hennessy, writer of the informative, encouraging and entertaining writing blog Pensuasion is writing about fairy tales every day for 26 days. It's a daily blogging challenge she's taken on, in which the blogger chooses their own theme to post on and, lucky for us, she chose fairy tales. I really enjoy her writing. She obviously enjoys the tales and researches and writes enough to inform without overwhelming but also enough to give her unique perspective on the tales for those of us already in the know. It's been a lovely daily check-in point and she's very kindly given me permission to repost a preview/teaser of her writing every day remaining during the challenge. Thank you Ms. Hennessy (and yay for us)!

So first, let me catch you up, since I didn't find her until day 'H' and it's now day 'K'... I'm posting her ABC's with a screen cap 'teaser' so you can get a taste. Each ABC title links to her original post for that letter/entry so you can keep reading.

A is for AUTHORS.

(A for Hans Christian Andersen, B for Brothers Grimm and C for Charles Perrault...)

B is for BEAUTY and the BEAST.

C is for CINDERELLA.

D is for DISNEY.

E is for ENCHANTED.

F is for FABLES.

G is for GRIMM.

H is for HANSEL and GRETEL.

I is for ICE MAIDEN.

J is for JACK and the GIANTS.

and today (actually yesterday, Saturday)...

K is for KINGDOMS.

I'm very much looking forward to seeing where she goes with her fairy tale alphabet. Click on the mini-bio below to find out more about this writer and check out her blog.

And now I feel like I should make an A-Z fairy tale list of my own...

I'm Over at Tales of Faerie Today! (Where You Can Learn All My Secrets...)

My thanks to the lovely and talented Kristin for having me on her blog for an interview!

Kristin's blog, Tales of Faerie, can be found HERE, as well as regularly at the top of the Other Fairy Tale News Sources in the column on the right of OUABlog page.


She is one of these people who writes on fairy tales the way I wish I could. Her posts are fascinating, well researched, thought provoking and honestly, I kind of wish she was posting for me here.

We are lucky to have her as our fairy tale friend and blogger, who shows with every post why fairy tales are both fascinating and important.

Curious about the strange brain behind this blog, Kristin asked me a few why's and wherefore's you may be interested in.

You can find the interview HERE. 

(And you'll then understand why I've posted these pictures of a retelling of the Cupid & Psyche story as well...) 

I love the illustration Kristin uses in her banner for her blog (the double page is shown below). It's by Angela Barrett for Beauty and the Beast and reflects Kristin's blogging style really well: clearly fairy tales, good quality content and detailed research as well as thought provoking topics. It's one of my favorite places to visit and should be on your fairy tale must-reads list as well.

Beauty & the Beast by Angela Barrett

*Till We Have Faces by CS Lewis, vintage book covers by Time Life

Theater: Glassheart - A Very Different Beauty & The Beast (& Fairy Tale Friend Megan Reichelt Is Getting Rave Reviews For Her Performance!)

One of our beloved fairy tale news-blog friends, Megan Reichelt of The Dark Forest, is busy bringing magic to the stage and "illuminating" a different side to this beloved fairy tale (sorry, Megan - the puns are difficult to resist!) in the company of Rorschach Theatre. The play is titled Glassheart, and was written and created by Reina Hardy.

While Rorschach's production of Beauty and the Beast doesn't have singing silverware, flirtatious furniture or dancing dinner plates, it does have a one last magical servant of The Beast's, who keeps him company in this after-the-failed-fairy-tale story. 

She's a quirky, upbeat and particularly chatty lamp, named "Only" (thanks to a random dictionary choice) and actually has a hat that lights up, underscoring her magical nature [and potential] as well as the hope and dreams within her. In her own way, she helps bring the truth to light, (again - very sorry!), including truths about herself. This delightful and layered character is being played by our dear Ms. Reichelt - and getting great reviews on her performance to boot! 

Here's a blurb remix (multiple blurbs, re-blurbed into one):

Beauty never showed up, so the Beast... left. Now, holed up in a tiny, shabby Chicago apartment near a 7-11, with his only remaining magical servant and friend, a lamp, he waits; hoping for lower cost of living and better luck with girls. The downstairs neighbor has a band, the landlady makes suspiciously delicious gingerbread, then one day, a U-Haul arrives… 

In the space between now and always, GLASSHEART confronts the universal uncertainties of love, fate and free-will and a relentlessly cheery lamp discovers what - and who - must be sacrificed for an ordinary life.

Much of what I've seen with regard to this particular production of Glassheart, and the talented cast, shows a fun and creative approach to both the craft and in bringing the story to magical life. 

Here's an excerpt from a (somewhat cheeky) review by the Washington City Paper, explaining a little more of the thrust of the play:

In Glassheart... (the Beast) has traded in his castle for a Chicago walk-up, the kind bookstore clerks can afford. This we know because the sleep-deprived manic pixie dream girl who just moved in next door has come to work in a bookstore. The beast’s lamp—apparently the last of the walking, talking home appliances who like their master yearn to be restored to human form—is determined to play matchmaker because, as you’ll recall, only true love can break the curse that reduced a shallow prince to a drooling, shedding, feral monster, at least part of the time.

I must recommend reading this review HERE by the MDTheaterGuide for a great overview. As it discusses the performances more than the actual story it's difficult to clip excerpts to be posted out of context that still make sense, so just go read it. Although brief, it explains a lot of the nuances of the story as portrayed by the company.

Even though this retelling is set in a modern apartment in downtown bustling Chicago, with the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale front and center and the small, but obvious impossibility/magic of Lamp/Only a crucial part, it would be easy to feel this was disconnected from the real world, but one of the things I love most about it is how very "now" this play feels. Somehow it is both magical yet modern. Tweeting, Facebooking and "Vining" various aspects of the production help that too, giving it a life beyond the performance space. 

Take a look at some of the tweets from the rehearsals (you can get a personal behind-the-scenes look and meet the cast - with extra fairy tale questions bonus! - via Megan HERE), along with some more great performance shots (note: the rose pot is the last remnant of the Beast's castle, so you can intuit a little more significance when you see it in the photos):

Had to add this one, even though it wasn't technically in the rehearsal tweets!

Tell me you're not intrigued!

Here's what Reina Hardy (the playwright and creator of Glassheart, among other productions) said about Glassheart when interviewed by the Austin Chronicle last year:

AC: Regarding Glassheart: What made you want to bring those Beauty and the Beast characters into our reality? 

RH: It's just one of those things that gets into your head and stays there, worrying you until it turns into a play. I was very taken with the idea of the Beast's reduced circumstances, and of making the magical servant the main character, and I tend to write a lot of plays that imply there's a lot more to the world than what most people notice. ...Glassheart is about broken, scared people trying to be human.

Here's an excerpt from an article, again by the Austin Chronicle, on the premiere production of the show (ie, this is from Shrewd Productions and NOT Megan's current staging), explaining a little of the plot and the characters (note: the pic is also from the premiere production, not Rorschach Theater's):

Hardy's take on the fairy tale is intriguing and seems to relish in its own magic. Through the many years, the lamp and the Beast have developed a curiously loving relationship in which he regularly barks and snarls, but he also reads to her from the light that she gives off. In fact, the Beast is a true bibliophile. Some of the most endearing moments of Glassheart come when the Beast abandons his animalistic grunts and growls in favor of an earnest love of stories and books. The neighbor, Aoife, has come to Chicago to work at a bookstore (natch), and her quirkiness allows her an entrée into the fairy-tale world. She has the patience to tolerate the weirdness in the Beast's apartment and the loneliness necessary to give him a chance.
Throughout this story looms the presence of the witch, an odd, powerful woman with desires of her own. Evil she may be, but she's also a character with deep and sympathetic desires. Her efforts to manipulate the story away from the conventionally happy ending form the conflict of Glassheart.

And just to show you the sense of humor this play is being done with, I just had to include some cast roars... (after the jump... it autoplays but the sound is muted until you choose it not to be.)

I'm also going to add a somewhat spoilery overview of the story (though the ultimate ending is kept secret), so if you - like me - are unable to get to the show and satisfy your curiosity, hopefully it will take the edge off, as well as show you more about why Megan is so very excited about doing this (and we for her!).

✒ ✒ ✒  ✒ ✒ ✒  ✒ (click the "Read more" link below this line for more) ✒ ✒ ✒ ✒  ✒ ✒ ✒  ✒