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KPBS Midday Edition

Write Out Loud Presents 'Fractured Fairy Tales'

David Fenner rehearsing his "Tale of Diminutive Swine" as part of Write Out Loud's "Fractured Fairy Tales," at Bayfront Charter High School, May 12, 2017.
Kris Arciaga
David Fenner rehearsing his "Tale of Diminutive Swine" as part of Write Out Loud's "Fractured Fairy Tales," at Bayfront Charter High School, May 12, 2017.

Show compliments Cygnet Theatre's 'Shockheaded Peter'

Write Out Loud Presents 'Fractured Fairy Tales'
Write Out Loud Presents 'Fractured Fairy Tales' GUESTS: Veronica Murphy, Write Out Loud Artistic Director Beth Accomando, KPBS Arts Reporter

This is KPBS Midday Edition. I am Maureen Cavanaugh. The group Write Out Loud reads poems allowed for a live audience. They perform at signet theater. Next Tuesday, they will present "Fractured Fairy Tales" that will complement Write Out Loud three , which is a story -- "Shockheaded Peter" about knotty children. This is Veronica Murphy. Veronica, you are going to do something called "Fractured Fairy Tales". For someone of my age, this conjures up images of the cartoon on Rocky and Bullwinkle. Is there a connection ? There is no connection to that other than I have that same connection. That title came to mind. When we decided we wanted to do something to coordinate with "Shockheaded Peter" , those are dark stories about the demise of children. We thought it would be fun to pick fairy tales that have unusual twists and turns in the dark, little bit. There is a connection thematically of dealing with fairytales that may not be what people expect. Yes. We do snow White and the seven dwarfs, a program of that. It is quite different than the snow white you are familiar with. The dwarves are all jockeys. We are also doing Edward, the ghastly crumb tiny's. That is an ABC poem about the demise of a child that has a name that begins with each letter of the that. Amy fell down the stairs. B is for basil, assaulted by bears. C is for Claire who wasted away. That is probably the one most tied in theme to "Shockheaded Peter" . It is specific about the demise of children. Explain how this "Fractured Fairy Tales" came for Write Out Loud. You are doing this as a complementary component. How did that come about expect I saw "Shockheaded Peter" in New York. When I saw they were going to do this, I said, wouldn't it be great to do something to complement that? It is about literature. Why not take pieces of literature that are dark and twisted and do a program that would be complementary? What is "Shockheaded Peter" ? It is a book of poetry that a German doctor wrote for his children in the 19th century. It is about children, it is moralistic. If you suck your thumb, that they will chop your thumbs off. If you play with the matches, you will catch on fire. Those are things that you say to your children to get them to behave. Of course, that never really happens but in "Shockheaded Peter" , they do happen. He does not Bay. His hygiene is very bad. How did you go about picking these pieces? Were you looking for diversity? Were you looking for ones that might complement the play ? I am a big fan. He writes dark things. Last year, we bit -- we did a big celebration of his 100th birthday. We read a lot of [ Name indiscernable ]. We came on poems. He woke -- wrote one about Goldilocks and Cinderella. We do do that red riding Hood story. Those with the first pieces that I came up with. The calendar link story came up because we do a program for middle and high school kids where we encourage them to read literature and create something, some art, that's her thing. And then I was reading all that and I came across this story that I loved, the fairy handbag. It has a young girl and her grandmother in it. I am a grandmother. That spoke to me. It is about a grandmother who has an entire Eastern European village village -- in her handbag. It is big enough to hold the village and all the people under the hill and the mountains and the forests and the seas and rivers and the lakes and the orchards and the sky and the stars and the spirits and fabulous monsters and sirens and dragons and mermaids. For people who may not be familiar with Write Out Loud , what can you expect? This is not a full-blown production. This is a readers theater. Think of it as coming to a musical concert. Instead of musicians coming to the stage, performers come to the stage. I mean, it is a live theatrical performance. It is not a play. In this case, for this performance, one-story is memorized. It is based on the three little pigs. Collectively agreed but individual empowered, the demented of swine set out to wrecked in about. It seems for this particular piece, it is fitting in the sense that because these are fractured fairy tales, it is the notion that somebody is reading you a story before you go to bed. It feels natural that this is the way to listen to this. Yes. Write Out Loud is like that. People sit and close their eyes and listen . We try to do a program that has a lot of variety to it so it is a tapestry of literature for needing expect you mentioned that people close their eyes and listen. What is it about this performance that attracts you to doing it? Is at something on a certain level that engages the audience more because they have to contribute ? They do have to contribute. It came about for Walter and I because we read to each other. We heard about this organization in Colorado. We thought, you know, we read to each other all the time but adults are not often read to. It is not an experience they have. They read to children and grandchildren. When they are out of school, they do not get read to. Wouldn't it be fun to do something like this and then, what ends up happening, just as you said, the audience has to bring all of the imagery that the reader is explaining. They have to make that come to life for themselves. So, the reader has the ability and the finesse at creating all of that is very important in order for the audience to have that kind of experience where they are imagining what you are reading them expect how does directing something like this differ from directing a stageplay where you are actually directing movement on stage as opposed to the boys back It is different in one way. You are dealing with each actor, unless you have multiple actors in the story. The rehearsals are typically -- you have one actor, and you rehearse with that actor. They have already done a lot of preparation before they arrived. They are familiar with the story. They understand who the characters are. They understand what is going on. One thing that is similar in directing a play is that when an actor is reading, they have to embody the character that they are reading like an actor in a play does. In that way, when you are talking with the actor about what is going on with the characters, it is very much the same. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Write Out Loud regularly performs at Cygnet Theatre and on Tuesday it will present “Fractured Fairy Tales,” a piece designed to compliment Cygnet’s current production “Shockheaded Peter,” which is a collection of stories about naughty children and misguided parents.

Write Out Loud was founded by San Diego actors Veronica Murphy and Walter Ritter to deliver a unique entertainment experience by reading short stories and poems aloud to a live audience.

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Murphy, who serves as artistic director, said “think of it as coming to a musical concert and instead of musicians coming to the stage, performers come to the stage. It’s a live theatrical performance, it just isn’t a play.”

But “Fractured Fairy Tales” was created as a companion piece to Cygnet Theatre’s play. For people who grew up in the 1960s, the title “Fractured Fairy Tales” will conjure up memories of the wacky segments on “The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show” where classic fairy tales got a clever twist.

So, while Write Out Loud’s “Fractured Fairy Tales” are not taken directly from that old kids’ TV cartoon show, it is of a kindred spirit.

Murphy said since “Shockheaded Peter” deals with some grisly tales of childhood, Write Out Loud was looking for stories that might either deal with the death of children or twisted takes on classic fairy tales.

Edward Gorey's alphabet poem "The Gashlycrumb Tinies" will be performed as part of Write Out Loud's "Fractured Fairy Tales."
Edward Gorey/Harcourt Brace
Edward Gorey's alphabet poem "The Gashlycrumb Tinies" will be performed as part of Write Out Loud's "Fractured Fairy Tales."

Edward Gorey’s “The Gashlycrumb Tinies” is one of the pieces being performed and it is an ABC poem about the demise of children with each letter representing a different child and his or her peculiar fate. There will also be Roald Dahl’s revisionist take on “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” and Kelly Link’s “The Faery Handbag” about a grandmother who keeps an entire community from Eastern Europe living inside her handbag.

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The performance style of Write Out Loud seems especially fitting for “Fractured Fairy Tales” because it reminds of having a bedtime story read to us as a child. Murphy pointed out that many of us were read to as children “but as adults, we rarely have the opportunity to sit back and listen to a story read to us aloud.”

Write Out Loud's 'Fractured Fairy Tales'

At performances, she said, “People often sit and close their eyes and listen and the audience has to bring all the imagery that the reader is explaining, they have to make that come to life for themselves. So the reader’s ability and finesse at creating all of that is very important in order for the audience to have that sort of experience where you are imagining what you are reading to them.”

In addition to Murphy and Ritter, performers include Rachel Esther Tate, David Fenner and Linda Libby, with music by Mark Danisovszky

Write Out Loud presents “Fractured Fairy Tales” at 7 p.m., May 30, at Cygnet Theatre in Old Town San Diego. “Shockheaded Peter” runs through June 18 at Cygnet Theatre.