Other Theatrical Snow Queen Productions (Pt 6) :Triad Stage's Appalachian "Snow Queen" (I Heart This So Very Much!)

Snow Queen poster for Triad Stage by Tom Woods of Bluezoom Advertising, Design, Chemistry

The final production in this varied theatrical round-up is my favorite find of them all (which is why I've given it it's own post - apart from it being long anyway, due to all the amazing images).

Taking a moment here to appreciate the poster: I haven't seen anyone approach the Snow Queen character (or story) quite this way in illustration! It emphasizes the natural aspect of the Snow Queen as well as how far her reach is. Somehow it's both comforting and foreboding. And notice Gerda's footsteps? (In this production it's Gertie.) They cross the crack the Snow Queen has made in the landscape - that's powerful imagery. Brilliant!

Not only is it a new production that debuted in December 2013 but it's an Appalachian take on The Snow Queen, which I just love. Triad Stage's Snow Queen was created as part of the company's mission to promote the local regional voice and flavor of telling stories in their productions, and that includes not only the design style, but the storytelling style and the musical aspect as well.

Part of the mission of Triad Stage, the ambitious American resident theatre headquartered in Greensboro, NC, is to promote a regional voice — reviving or creating stage literature that reflects the color and heritage of the Carolinas and the South.

Promotional image for Triad Stage's Snow Queen

Promotional image for Triad Stage's Snow Queen

The result makes for a very folkloric approach (a folkloric approach to a fairy tale seems obvious but it's actually more unique that you'd think - and very cool). First of all, just look at the empty stage:

Maybe it's my theater roots but I'm transported into a wonder world just with this (please transport me there immediately!). But it gets better.

While the promotional images are nice I think the production photographs are simply spectacular! Just one or two of these would have sent me running to get a ticket. I'd dearly love to see this show taken on tour. 

There's so much wonderful work here and I you don't need to be "one of the local folk" to appreciate how special this is.I'm not going to bother putting them "in order" as it's really not necessary to enjoy them and besides, I realized seeing them this way makes you think of the aspects of HCA's story in a different way again.

As a bonus, here are some pre-production drawings, showing some of the thinking behind the style.

Congratulations Triad Stage! This is breathtaking.

There's a great article HERE on the music created for the show, including links to a couple of the songs to give you an auditory taste.

In the meantime. if you'd like to see this show tour as well, drop by the Triad Stage webpage, or their Facebook page, and leave a comment to that effect. 

I think people everywhere would find this beautiful, fascinating and, as a result, it could run for a long, long time.

Cinderella's Sizzling Dress (Live Action Film Update, With Bonus Ashes)

Fan made Cinderella 2014 poster by Zhivko Petrov (myrmorko)

Not long before Christmas, while shooting at Pinewood Studios, the extravagant wedding gown Lily James was wearing, caught fire (she - and no one else- was hurt).

Here's what happened, told best, and with gentle humor, by the DailyMail (extract):

The 24-year-old had been shooting a scene at Pinewood studios. The bridal dress — with its voluminous skirts, three miles of hemming and covered in Swarovski crystals — is a work of art in its own right. It covers so much square footage the actress can’t always see what’s in front of her. 

She was led into her dressing room (a large tent in a corner of the vast 007 sound stage) and her hem brushed against a heater and began smouldering.‘It had turned really cold and someone had put a three-bar heater a bit too close to where Lily was going to sit on a stool,’ explained distinguished costume designer Sandy Powell. 

Lily James channeling Bridget Bardot for Tatler UK Magazine

‘Luckily, just a segment of the silk dress got burnt. Thank God Lily wasn’t harmed,’ added Powell  who has collected three Oscars and two Baftas for her screen creations. 

‘I wore this wedding dress for about 20 seconds before I walked past the heater and burned some of it.’

She said she was in tears at first — until Ben Chaplin, who plays Cinderella’s father, lightened the mood by saying: ‘Well, I’ll wait a while before I make the Cinders joke.’  

Lily said: ‘I went: “Oh, no!” And I was laughing through my tears. 

...incendiary dresses aside, Lily said she’s been having ‘a ball’...

Once the emergency is over, you have to admit, it's a perfect behind-the-scenes story for a Cinderella. (Cinders! lol)

Producers for the film confirmed at the time of the incident, that the movie wouldn't be ready/released until Easter 2015. Considering the buzz around Maleficent and Frozen right now, and with Into the Woods heading for the 2014 Christmas release slot, it's probably a good thing.

Other Theatrical Snow Queen Productions (Pt 5): Fidget Feet Aerial Dance Theater

And now for something completely different: an adrenalin-pumped acrobatic & flying Snow Queen spectacular, by Irish company Fidget Feet Aerial Dance Theater (don't you love that name?)

While the aesthetic seems harsh initially, I have a feeling it would work really well live. Doesn't it seem as if Cirque Du Soleil went to the Winter Olympics to play out their latest fairy tale there? Such a unique take - and it works, fairy tale magic intact and everything. This would be a perfect year to see this production, though unfortunately I can't see any indication that it's been performed since 2011.

                           

Wow - does that look like a giant shoe to you too? Was that intentional??

Fidget Feet's most recent production (Dec 2013) was The Elves & the Shoemaker, which I will have to look up again when photos become available, but they also did an aerial take on Red Riding Hood call Catch Me.

Looks like a company to keep an eye on, especially with regard to unique interpretations of fairy tales.

(Stay tuned for one last theatrical production in this recent retelling roundup.)

New Maleficent Sneak Peek Trailer (With Lots of Maleficent & a Comparison with the Original Animated Classic)

It's a gutsy move - intercutting the new Maleficent movie scenes with the corresponding original Disney animated ones, but it works. And it should draw in nostalgic parents and Disney die-hards as well as new fans. (Heck, even the live action fairies don't annoy me half as much as the animated ones do!)

Take a look:

Angelina Jolie seems pretty much perfect in the title role, from all we've seen so far. Elle Fanning seems fine but it's really not about her, and honestly, we all want to see more Maleficent anyway, right?

I find it intriguing that we have this giant "remember she's a fairy!" visual indication in the very pointed ears, which are then very specifically covered up by the Mistress of All Evil cap, which also covers her (grown/growing?) horns, subconsciously transitioning us to think of her as less fairy, more demon.

It's a little difficult to tell how the script is going to sit, as all the lines we have heard are out of context (and many out of order), but I remain impressed with the movie overall at this point.

Plus: screencap and gifs opportunities galore!
Here are some I just pulled:

Whomever is directing the marketing for this really understands our society's current hunger for gif-able scenes (new word) and meme-potentialed images (more new words). And it's working. Looks like someone noted the enthusiasm of the OUAT fan images - and how well they help market a show (even when it's often below par) - and how the fans enthusiasm and stories help the movie/product take on a life of it's own - beyond the screen. (Free and fast marketing - make it viral and you have a hit!) Smart, smart, smart.

Fairy tale people should be looking at this and taking note!

In the meantime, expect a zillion Maleficent gifs on Tumblr tomorrow. Oh - and don't forget this iconic scene:

Although I have some reservations, overall I think I'm just going to enjoy this film (possibly a lot!), not to mention my excitement over seeing the "expansion" (in pop culture) of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale.

Bring on May 30th! (In the US & UK - some other lucky countries will get to see our favorite fairy tale villain a few days earlier...)

Other Theatrical Snow Queen Productions (Pt 4): Rose Theater (with Su Blackwell's Lovely Sets)

Next up: the production you've probably heard about (especially if you've been a regular reader of the blog for a few years and saw this post HERE): Rose Theater's The Snow Queen production, using designs by the amazing fairy tale paper artist Su Blackwell.

I heard a lot of great things about the design, less so about the production itself unfortunately. I wish I could find some better sources to cite some different views from but here's the best I found:

A brief excerpt from an atypically brief review in The Guardian (who's reviews and articles I generally respect a lot):

There is a great deal to charm here, especially in Su Blackwell's cutout paper designs, which conjure fairytale forests and winking houses. The comedy is good, too, particularly in a scene in which Gerda encounters a Hooray Henry wedding party. But the show is often at its best when it sticks closely to Andersen's original rather than veering off into a story of the changing seasons at war with each other; and although Natascha Metherell's production has its moments of frosty magic, it doesn't quite generate the emotional power that it should.

An excerpt from British Theater Guide:

Here, the story of a young girl, Gerda, and her quest to save her friend Cei from the clutches of the evil Snow Queen, who plans to cloak the world in a perpetual winter, plays out on an attractive set by Su Blackwell, an artist making a first, distinguished foray into theatre design with this production. Each stage of Gerda’s journey through the seasons has a very particular look and tone, the mood enhanced by excellent music composed by Alex Silverman, with fiddle, accordion and guitar giving the production a beguiling folk spirit.
A standout sequence transports Gerda through the ice to arrive at the cottage of the sorceress Mrs D, the first of the transformative encounters on her quest. The most surprising episode moves us into a world of gap-year toffs and teen-speak: it breaks the mood, but features a very funny performance from Sian Robins-Grace as a decidedly modern teen princess.
...Overall, The Snow Queen skirts deep enchantment in this incarnation. But it’s a classy and enjoyable production that offers many delights.

And finally excerpts of additional information about the production, along with review opinion from Exeunt Magazine:

The set alone is a source of wonder. Paper artist, Su Blackwell, in her first design project for the stage has created a delicate, wintry world of trees, cottages and lampposts that appear to have been snipped from the pages of a paperback. Black lettering nests against white, making an apt and charming backdrop for Charles Way’s adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairy story.Young Gerda is a nervy girl, prone to panic attacks and terrified of her bad-tempered schoolmaster father, Mr Overskou. When her classmates take turns to dance in front of one another, she can’t bring herself to join in and her best friend Cei has to calm her down. Though Cei and Gerda have been friends and playmates all their lives, Mr Overskou disapproves of the boy’s dreamy ways and forbids them to see one another; it is then that Cei falls under the Snow Queen’s spell. A shard of mirror pierces his heart and he becomes cold and cruel before being whisked off to the Queen’s winter palace and forced to piece together the shattered fragments of her magic mirror. But though the townspeople believe Cei to have drowned, Gerda refuses to accept this and sets off to find him.
If anything Natascha Metherell’s production is too gentle and sedate....What’s missing, despite all its considerable polish, is any real emotional tug or genuine sense of peril; it’s all a little too neat and tidy and lacks the wild fringes of the best children’s theatre.

I'm not quite sure what to think of this one, apart from the lovely set design (which I insta-love). Did anyone know anyone who actually saw this?

More Snow Queen theatrics coming so stay tuned!