Sprite Symphony (Fairy Installation) by Davy & Kristin McGuire (Do NOT Tap the Glass!)

Not specifically a fairy tale but it might be the sort of thing you'd find in a fairy tale, here's a lovely little film of an inspired installation being hosted and exhibited by the RSC (Royal Shakespeare Company), made with holograms (and fairies!).

Thank you to the ever-creative and tuned in Lisa Stock of InByTheEye for alerting me to the magic.

The team, Davy and Kristin McGuire, were the creative geniuses behind another "projected project" I love, titled The Icebook, (you can see my post on it HERE), and they've done many more since.

Take a look at this lovely, lovely thing!

From the Vimeo description:

Commissioned by and developed for the Royal Shakespeare Company and later adapted for the Enchanted Parks, Sprite Symphony is a magical installation using projections and sound to create a beautiful yet dark display of fairies that have been trapped in jam jars and are trying to escape their glass cages. 

The fairies knock and tap on their jars and thereby create a polyphonic musical composition. 

The sprites are currently exhibited in a Victorian display cabinet in the RSC theatre foyer in Stratford upon Avon, (and) they also featured in the windows of the park keeper‘s shed at the Enchanted Parks in December 2013.

I'm thinking the fairies are drawing people to them with this magical sound and display, in order to persuade you to let them out. Trouble is, I don't entirely trust fairies. No matter how pretty they are, they tend to bite.

And just to underscore my wariness, this RSC exhibition also has a piece titled 'The Haunted Dress'. Worn by the Faerie Queen, it has a life of it's own.. and possibly teeth. (You can see the trailer for it HERE.) *shudder*

The Haunted Dress is an installation using theatre couture, projections and sound to tell the gruesome story of a beautiful but savage fairy queen who seduced a man into madness.

The exhibition, which opened in November last year, will run until March 2, 2014.

Press release from the RSC (and I'm including the artists' info & credit below as well, because these guys are just amazing!):

Sprite Symphony. By Davy and Kristin McGuire  

PACCAR Room, Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon  

16 November 2013 – 2 March 2014 

Sprite Symphony takes you on a journey around the theatre into a world of magical fairies and sprites. Follow the trail to find enchanting fairies trapped in jam jars and the Queen of the Fairies' haunted dress. Discover a cabinet of curious sprites in the foyer and listen to their enchanting music.  

Created by award winning artists Davy and Kristin McGuire, Sprite Symphony combines animation and projections with costumes and props made by the Royal Shakespeare Company, recomposed to invent a brand new contemporary fairy tale.

Davy and Kristin McGuire: Winners of this year's Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award, Davy & Kristin McGuire are multidisciplinary artists whose work has included The Icebook and an atmospheric stage adaptation of popular fantasy novel, Howl's Moving Castle. Their latest commercial commission for Courvoisier was displayed at Harrods and their new theatre production The Paper Architect premiered in July 2012 at the Barbican. The McGuires critically acclaimed theatre projects have toured to 12 different countries over 3 continents and their art work has been exhibited, published and screened internationally. 

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.)