A Tale Dark and Grimm and Seedfolks

I read a kids book--A Tale Dark and Grimm, by Adam Gidwitz.  He blends several traditional tales from the Brother Grimm repertoire: Faithful Johannes, and Hansel and Gretel amongst others, into one coherent story.  Complete with all the gruesome features that make them interesting and worth retelling over and over.  I could see turning this book into a stage adaptation.  To avoid what I've done in the past (more on that in a moment) I wrote to him to ask permission to adapt his book for the stage.  I haven't heard back, yet...always a question:  do you ask permission first and wait or proceed and ask permission when you have something to show the author?  or...don't ask at all and just go ahead and do the damn thing.  I took that approach with Paul Fleischman's novel "Seedfolks".  Wrote an adaptation and staged it with my students.  I mean, who would think anyone would care what you did with 25 middle school students.  You show it to a few hundred audience members and then go onto the next show.  Well, how was I to know that some teacher at my school would have her students write to the author (all the sixth grade students at the school read his book) and some would mention our adaptation. Or that Paul Fleischman would be invited by this same teacher, 3 years later,  to come to our school during the exact week that I was remounting a production of this play, his book, sans permission.  And there he sat in the audience...watching an unauthorized production ....with 300 middle school students.  I sweated some serious bullets watching him watch the show, while running the sound board.
Well it turned out fine.  He was quite pleased.  He wrote to me and told me it inspired him to write his own adaptation--he even asked me if I could tell him the music I used for it-- he liked it so much.  And then the best thing:  He asked permission (you see he knew the "correct way") to use my opening sequence (which wasn't from his book) in his own adaptation.
But I think Paul (I'll call him that now) is unusual and was just happy to see students engaged with his work.   So, this time I decided to write for permission first, and then try my hand at adaptation.  But, if no permission is forthcoming, I'll go ahead and follow this advice:  'Don't ask permission, beg forgiveness'
Either way, for my storyteller friends, check out this book.  I think you'll like the way the author wove in and out of different Grimm tales, giving us a new way of looking at these wonderful, and gruesome
stories--and perhaps opens up possibilities for oral retellings.  It brought up my desire to work on a retelling of the Grimm tale Bearskin.  More on that in a future post.  For my theatre friends:  Do not adapt this book--I claim it.

Link to video of last year's production

As I gear up for the final rehearsal stage of our new devised piece, with the tentative title:  "House of Mirrors", I thought I'd post a link to a video of last year's devised piece:  The Sweeper of Dreams.
http://vimeo.com/9262456
Sometimes I find looking at past projects help me move forward on new ones.

Porchlight Storytelling

For those of you in the San Francisco Bay Area, I urge you to attend porchlight storytelling events.  Their next event is at the Verdi club on Dec. 20.
Their web page is www.porchlightsf.com and you can see their schedule for the year.
Their open mike at the Hemlock is a lot of fun.  I won the 50 bucks last week as the evenings best storyteller (voted on by a random member of the audience) for a story about my father and his suits. Although to me the best story involved Jello Biafra and some shennanigans in a hotel room in Chicago.
This was my third time telling:  I also won 2 months ago for a story about being given the wrong medication when I was 11 (amphetimine induced psychosis in an 11 year old seemed to be funny to this audience)
Very informal, and it's at a bar, so you can at least drink while listening--21 and older only.  While I prefer traditional storytelling, it is a place to hone storytelling skills, and I am finding it enjoyable to try and figure out how to take a personal experience and turn it into a story that other's might want to hear.  I heard from Ben Haggarty, a traditional storyteller in England, that it is important for aspiring storyteller's to tell tales in front of a company of strangers.  The Hemlock Tavern is perfect for that.
As far as traditional storytelling is concerned, I am still developing a full evening telling of The Odyssey.  I plan on a public performance sometime this year, probably may or june.  I'll keep you posted as to it's progress.

Devised Theatre

The theatre ensemble, a group of 50 students at Martin Luther King Middle School, in Berkeley, California,  are busy devising an original piece of theatre.  I have finally finished writing it and now we are  turning it into theatre.  Our community performance is scheduled for Friday, Feb 4, 7:30 pm at the King auditorium.  Check here often for further developments.
I'll let you know now the theme is Mirrors and there are many references to the fascinating history and folklore of mirrors.  Look for ancient Greek stories, a Carnival with a house of mirrors, portals, orignal songs, scrying mirrors, and of course a bar, where mirrors go to unwind after a hard day of work.  I mean what would a play about mirrors be without a bar scene, and, of course, a bar fight.
Ah, the joys of devising original work with middle school students.