Taking the trail one step at a time.
It was a crazy summer with family activities and amazing changes, but I am so excited to have so many wonderful things happening. The recording we made of the songs from "The Dancing Princess" turned out great and I am putting the final touches on a novelized version of the story.
A discussion of the current status of theatre for children in this country has led me to wonder if many theatre companies even consider producing shows that are not already based on a popular book. I discussed the trend with Linda Hartzell of the Seattle Children's Theatre and Mark Chenovick of Second Story Repertory. One of the problems of doing something original is that parents and teachers are hesitant about taking their children to a performance when they aren't certain of the content or the ending of the story. It's sad but true that we all want to know what's going to happen before we see it. So many parents are afraid there might be something unexpected.
Mark Chenovick took a risk presenting 'The Dancing Princess'. It was not a well-known story, although loosely based on "The Twelve Dancing Princesses". But it wound up being one of their most successful productions of last season. Maybe the trend is turning and parents as well as children are willing to take the risk of seeing something without first securing a guarantee of the outcome.
Here is Emily Shuel singing one of my favorite songs from the show, "Yulia's Lullaby".
