Researching & Rewriting Le Cirque Féerique

1/24/2018 0 Comments

Researching & Rewriting Le Cirque Féerique

David first approached me about developing Le Cirque Féerique (The Fairy Circus) with Collective Unconscious Performance while we were in the middle of a workshop for Skins, our piece in the 2017 Minnesota Fringe Festival.

David pitched Le Cirque Féerique as a feminist story about four bad-ass French women from the 17th century, who were the original creators of our most beloved fairy tales. And, yet, history has all but erased the existence of these women from the textbooks. During his pitch, David told me all about the thrilling escapades that these women pursued: attempted murder, espionage, witchcraft, freeing your lover from imprisonment dressed up as a bear (true story!). As writers, these women were also considered to be bestselling authors in their day. Their fairy tales were wildly popular and featured bold, clever princesses who never waited around for a prince to come and save the day. Instead, they did it themselves. Before David could finish telling me about the project, I knew that I was on board.

We began our process similar to how we started working on Skins, with a research group of five brilliant, talented, and dedicated lady dramaturgs, actors, and directors. For a little over a month, we met weekly, sharing visual research, brainstorming ideas, and reading and discussing historical articles and fairy tales. From this research group, we amassed a wealth of information that started to inform the narrative and structure of the piece. We knew the play would exist in two difference spaces: the realistic world of the salon where the ladies met and shared their stories, and the magical fairy tale world where we see their stories theatrically come to life. Questions of how these two worlds co-exist and inform one another was central to our investigation, and we are still pondering them.

The next step in the process was the actual creation of the script, which I am still hard at work on. As is always the case, we learned a lot with our first couple of drafts. Our biggest question is, and was: What is the structure of this piece? Even as I embark on the next draft, this is still a question we don’t have a definitive answer for. I suspect we won’t find one until our workshop and reading next month.

This play is a gift. It’s a joy to work on everyday, which is definitely not true for every piece. This is a play about four tough, complicated, and determined women who desperately want something and aren’t afraid to go after it. How often do we see that onstage? In our current world, this play has taken on new meaning for me. In spite of the many hardships that these women faced (and I don’t want to give anything away, but believe me: there were many), they persisted. These women inspire me, and I feel so honored to be bringing their lives to the stage.

Please join us for the at the Alliance Française, at 7 P.M. on February 12. Admission is free, and David and I will be eager to hear your thoughts. We hope to see you there!

~ Emily Dendinger, playwright

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