The official blog of the Dramaturgy Department at Baltimore's CENTERSTAGE. For posts related to our current and upcoming shows, click the links to the right. Alternatively, you could begin at the beginning, and explore our posts in chronological order.
(Source: , via egoetschius)
Fairy tales can come true, the old song goes; it can happen to you, apparently, if you’re young at heart. Whether one believes this hopeful sentiment, and regardless of the age of one’s internal organs, there’s no doubt that fairy tales have for the past couple of years — and into the foreseeable future — been coming pretty regularly to screens both big and small, achieving, you could say, at least the kind of quasi-truth that movies and television can concoct.
Where is my grandmother?
There’s nobody here but we two, my darling.
Now a great howling rose up around them, near, very near, as close as the kitchen garden, the howling of a multitude of wolves; she knew the worst wolves are hairy on the inside and she shivered, in spite of the scarlet shawl she pulled more closely round herself as if it could protect her although it was as red as the blood she must spill.
Who has come to sing us carols, she said. Those are the voices of my brothers, darling; I love the company of wolves. Look out of the window and you’ll see them.
Snow half-caked the lattice and she opened it to look into the garden. It was a white night of moon and snow; the blizzard whirled round the gaunt, grey beasts who squatted on their haunches among the rows of winter cabbage, pointing their sharp snouts to the moon and howling as if their hearts would break. Ten wolves; twenty wolves – so many wolves she could not count them, howling in concert as if demented or deranged. Their eyes reflected the light from the kitchen and shone like a hundred candles.
It is very cold, poor things, she said; no wonder they howl so.
She closed the window on the wolves’ threnody and took off her scarlet shawl, the colour of sacrifices, the colour of her menses, and, since her fear did her no good, she ceased to be afraid.
~Angela Carter, The Company of Wolves
Collection of fairytales gathered by historian Franz Xaver von Schönwerth had been locked away in an archive in Regensburg for over 150 years
(via rmgilby)
With our second preview tonight for Sondheim & Lapine’s Into the Woods, a short reflection on folktales.
Website of Prof. D.L. Ashliman, folklorist and literary historian, author of A Guide to Folktales in the English Language and other resources we’ve found quite useful in prepping for Into the Woods (and just intriguing in their own right).
In Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked a young scholar goes to Grandmother’s house—and beyond—to uncover the surprisingly complex and contradictory morals we’ve learned from this seemingly simple folk tale. In Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked Catherine Orenstein reveals for the first time the intricate sexual politics, moral ambiguities, and philosophical underpinnings of Red Riding Hood’s epic journey to her grandmother’s house—and how, from the nursery on, fairy tales influence our view of the world. Beginning with its first publication as a cautionary tale on the perils of seduction, written in reaction to the licentiousness of the court of Louis XIV, Orenstein traces the many lives the tale has lived since then, from its appearance in modern advertisements for cosmetics and automobiles, the inspiration it brought to poets such as Anne Sexton, and its starring role in pornographic films. In Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked, Red appears as seductress, hapless victim, riot grrrrl, femme fatale, and even she-wolf, as Orenstein shows how through centuries of different guises, the story has served as a barometer of social and sexual mores pertaining to women. Full of fascinating history, generous wit, and intelligent analysis, Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked proves that the story of one young girl’s trip through the woods continues to be one of our most compelling modern myths.
-bookdepository.com
Kim Furano’s deft digest of the Grimm’s process, history, and agenda—program dramaturgy for Into the Woods at CENTERSTAGE and Westport Country Playhouse.
The work, style, and tone of Hoffmann are proving influential starting points for the production of Into the Woods now rehearsing—both for Mark Lamos and the company in staging the piece, and for the design and production team as they construct the world of the show.
