Riot Productions reimagines Gretel without Hansel

Riot Productions wanted to stage a musical created by women and featuring strong female characters. Although the pool of choices was small, the company fell in love with "Gretel: The Musical," a reimagining of the famous Brothers Grimm fairy tale.

Sarah LeClair is cofounder and artistic director for Riot Productions. She describes the company as "an intersectional feminist company and we're very interested in not only doing works that are by women, but we're looking for female characters that have arc and agency of their own. We're looking for storytelling that shows women as more than just how they function in men's lives and making men better, which is the subject of a lot of musicals. So we're more interested in female-centric stories where there's growth and agency of her own so that she doesn't have to exist only as a wife, mother, sister, daughter."

"Gretel: The Musical" does all that. This folk rock musical by Jenn Hartman Luck and Susan Zedar, with book by Jason Tremblay, retells the classic folk tale of "Hansel and Gretel" by putting Gretel at the center of her own story, and creating roles for her mother and the witch that challenge expectations.

William "B.J." Robinson, who usually finds himself onstage performing, will be adding directing to his duties on this production.

"I'm a huge fan of fantasy that can teach us something, something different. I don't want to say something new because a lot of the lessons are familiar lessons," Robinson said. "But it gives us a new perspective in seeing those ideas. And I think that in itself can broaden our understanding. I love it when there are musicals that can challenge those tropes and those themes and make us re-examine and question a little bit more how we look at others in the world."

Riot Productions

In this version of the fairy tale, the witch, Baba Yaga, is not simply a one-dimensional villain.

"One of the big conflicts between Baba Yaga and Gretel is that Baba Yaga wants Gretel to access her anger so that she can come into the power of her own," Le Clair explains. "That's where Baba Yaga's fuel is, it is her anger at things in the past. And so she sings a song where she's trying to get Gretel to look at the hurts and the slights and the slanders and all the pain that she's experienced to get her to this moment, to find her fuel."

I had the chance to see a rehearsal of the song on Tuesday and absolutely loved it. Check it out.

Riot Productions is a young theater company, and as such has no brick and mortar home to work out of. That means they are rehearsing out of venues in both Lincoln Park and City Heights, and performing in City Heights, Carlsbad and Scripps Ranch. While that can be a logistical challenge, Robinson also sees it as a plus.

"You've got so much more running around to do, but at the same time, we live in such a commuting style society that it doesn't feel so odd to have to necessarily be in different places and spaces," Robinson said. "And for the approach that we have with this show, keeping in mind the minimalism, keeping in mind the traveling troubadour aspects of it, it really kind of helps us rise to that challenge of how are we keeping our storytelling authentic to that feel by having to literally go from place to place."