Original play to be performed at Saunders Farm
What would you do if a Mr. Wolfe came to your door and tried to persuade you to let him drill for gas in your backyard? After Cinderella leaves home to marry the Prince, this is exactly the situation faced by her stepmother and stepsisters. On Saturday, Sept. 17 at 3 p.m. (rain date Sunday, Sept. 18), Apple Tree Productions will present its new musical, Things Are Looking Grimm, (a Hydro-Fractured Fairy Tale), as part of the Collaborative Concepts Farm Project 2011 at the Saunders Farm in Garrison.
In addition to the stepmother and stepsisters, characters in Things Are Looking Grimm include Hoagy Carmichael, the surviving Little Pig, and Granny Ridinghood, both local activists who are trying to save the community from Wolfe and the hydro-fracking gas company. Will they prevail? “This production is our first original work,” said Judy Allen, the play’s director, “written especially for the Collaborative Concepts exhibit. We started out with the stepmother and stepsisters because they’re so loveable in their own dysfunctional way, and asked what misfortune could befall them after Cinderella leaves. Hydro-fracking is a hot-button issue in the Hudson Valley, and just as we started working on the play, the story broke that the Utica Shale Formation is under our very feet in Philipstown and Putnam Valley. So it has become an important and very local concern.”
The production will feature Chris Blossy, Elizabeth Breslin, Jeff Green, Joe Niola, Simon Skolnik and Lew Zwick, who has also written the songs. Apple Tree Productions has been performing “children’s theater for grown-ups too” at camps, schools, libraries and theaters in the Hudson Valley and beyond since 1993. Previous productions have included Jack and the Beanstalk, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Two Chinese Folk Tales, and Cinderella, the Trashy Musical (about recycling and ecological awareness). In addition to the Putnam County 4-H Fair, for which it was created in 1995, Cinderella was presented at the Clearwater Revival in 1996, the Hudson Valley Fringe Festival in 2004, and Arts on the Lake in Lake Carmel in 2009. Things Are Looking Grimm is a sequel to Cinderella.
Audience members should plan on arriving at 2:30 for the 3 p.m. performance, because the stage is at the top of a hill and parking is at the bottom. Or come even earlier and enjoy a picnic. Admission is free. For further information, call Apple Tree Productions at 845-528-6643 or Collaborative Concepts at 845-528-1797.
