Faerie Tale Theatre

This show was one of the defining elements of my childhood and inspires me to this day in my work. Faerie Tale Theatre was a television program that would take a different fairy-tale each week and let a different director and celebrity cast transform it into a play-like story. Sometimes the stories were comedic (like in "The Frog Prince" or "The Princess and the Pea",) sometimes they were lyrical and poetic ("The Nightingale" "The Snow Queen"), or frightening ("The Boy Who Left Home To Find Out About the Shivers" "Beauty and the Beast"), or just plain corny ("Thumbelina".) These one-hour shows intruduced me to the work of artists I wouldn't have otherwise been exposed to at such a young age, like Francis Ford Coppola, Tim Burton, Helen Mirren, David Bowie, James Earle Jones, Matthew Broderick, Angelica Huston, Billy Crystal, and Christopher Lee. These directors, actors and writers didn't treat fairy tales as something just for children (a la Disney,) but rather as wonderful adventures in their own right that the whole family could enjoy. Their enthusiasm inspired me even at the age of five to put my own spin on the stories that I heard, and so I started to create stories of my own (which I would act out with the neighborhood kids on my back porch.) Even to this day, my work is influenced greatly by folk tales and legends. The stories that we tell as a culture defines who we are. But the way each of us individually interprets these stories defones who we will become.

Some favorite Faerie Tales Theatre Quotes:

Cinderella: Do you know anything about kissing?
Prince Charming: I'm almost certain it has something to do with the lips.
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Prince: I need something warm and soft and gentle...like a hamster!
Fool: I think what you mean is a wife.
Prince: A wife? Is that better than a hamster?
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Narrator: ...the prince was thrown into the dungeon and the princess was sent to a very strict boarding school, where she was forced to learn latin and play hockey.
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