A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

Not So Grim Fairy Tales

Full-Length Play, Satire/Political Satire  /  6w

A feminist satire in five scenes featuring an all-female cast, to be performed together in a full evening of theatre.

Not So Grim Fairy Tales

  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    6w
  • Duration
    Duration
    60 minutes (1 hour)
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Fables/Folktales, Parody / Spoof
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult, Senior, Pre-Teen (Age 11 - 13), Teen (Age 14 - 18)

Details

Summary
Not So Grim Fairy Tales is a feminist satire in five scenes featuring an all-female cast, to be performed together in a full evening of theatre. In “Snow White and the Anti-Freeze,” Snow White’s Mother tries to persuade her daughter to abandon keeping house for the seven dwarfs and join her in a witches’ commune. In “Little Red and the Big Bad She-Wolf,” Little Red, a business major at Harvard, is invited by Mae Wolf to quit school and get a start in the service-selling business—in spite of opposition from Granny, who turns out to be Mae’s senior partner. In “Bumble Stiltskin and the Baby Business,” Rumple Stiltskin’s practical and put-upon wife implores the Queen to keep her royal baby and offers to set up a Day Care Center if she can be assured of government support. In “Jack and the Marijuana Stalk,” the Giant’s Wife and Daughter pay a visit to Jack’s Mother in the hope of recouping the hen and the singing harp. In “Cinderella and the Ever-After Life,” Cinderella, a Ph.D. candidate, is pressured by her Godmother and Stepsisters to give up the life of an academic bum, but holds out against the Prince—a dynamite band leader—because she wants to live happily ever after.
History
Goucher College, Baltimore, MD, 1977
SNOW WHITE - a somewhat flighty Sweet Young Thing
STEPMOTHER - a middle-aged zany—eccentric, vain, theatrical
MOTHER - a practical, middle-aged feminist
REDINA HOOD - a naïve, wide-eyed Sweet Young Thing
MAE WOLF - Mae West
GRANNY - a crafty, spirited old lady
QUEEN - a business-like, young fashion designer, eager to pursue her career
BUMBLE STILTSKIN - a much put-upon but enterprising middle-aged housewife
JACK’S MOTHER - a tough, down-to-earth welfare widow
GERALDINE GIANT - a society matron
GERMAINE - a precocious child
ELLA - a perennial student, scholarly, independent, uninterested in marriage
MOLLY - bar-hopping stepsister, exasperated with Ella
MINNIE - bar-hopping stepsister, exasperated with Ella GODMOTHER - Irish, managing, maternal, middle-aged-to-old

There are 5 discrete scenes. No scene uses more than 4 characters. The play could be done comfortably with 6-9 performers, but could use as few as 4 or as many as 15.

  • Time Period Contemporary
  • Features Fantasy Costumes
  • Additional Features Local Celebrity Cameo, No intermission
  • Duration 60 minutes (1 hour)
  • Cautions
    • No Special Cautions

Music

  • Musical Style N/A (Not a musical)
  • Vocal DemandsN/A (Not a musical)
  • Chorus Size N/A (Not a musical)

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: $110 per performance

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Authors

Patricia Montley

Patricia Montley has had had 25 plays published, separately or in anthologies or textbooks (Samuel French, Playscripts Inc., Meriwether, Heinemann, Applause, Dramatic Publishing, Blue Moon Plays, Prentice-Hall, International Center for Women Playwrights, Dramatics Magazine). ...
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