From: Michael Moynihan <mmoynihan-AT-wi.rr.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2009 01:46:01 -0600
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Adapting Grimm's Fairy Tales...


I knew Jack Zipes when he was in Milwaukee for a while. He did some  
children's plays that I think he had already developed in Germany.  
Jack was very political and enthusiastic.

I began writing scripts at age 8. 54 years ago. I've written, co  
written and adapted lots of long and short plays and film and video  
scripts. Some for puppets, some for actors and puppets. Some for  
circus performers, actors, puppets, dancers & musicians.

I was in my 30's before I found a playwrighting teacher. It was Joan  
Holden, then the main playwright for the SFMT. I traveled to an  
international theatre festival in Baltimore just to study with her.  
She taught me about Aristotle, which I think is a good place to start  
in playwriting. Adapting the story you choose to a 3 act structure is  
a good idea (no matter the length of the play) imho. Nobody writes 3  
or 5 act plays today, but I acts and 2 acts use the 3 act structure  
(rule of three turns up everywhere). To start write the action of the  
play in one single line. Everything else gets hung on that.

There are plenty of good arguments to depart from Aristotle's poetics,  
but I think it is a useful discipline to adopt when starting out. Sort  
of like a musician masters the instrument by learning to play  
classical works at first.

- michael john moynihan
Please support rational/radical/revolutionary change - practice  
compassion in all thought/plans/actions.
"Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself." http://charterforcompassion.com/

Please read my latest blog: http://blogs.bayviewnow.com/how__why/

& watch my vids on http://www.youtube.com/user/mkewi53207

On Jan 26, 2009, at 12:48 AM, Mathieu René wrote:

> Hi Pixie Moss.
>
> I don't have specifics about writing a play, but have one piece of  
> advice
> about the grimm brothers...
>
> The most known versions of their tales are diluted to the point of no
> recognition.
> Disney is not the only culprit, I'm sure there have been censors and
> sensitive souls who made the gory and violent stuff vanish.
>
> If you want the real deal, start from the original texts in German,  
> and if
> you can't read it, the best you can do is find a direct translation  
> from
> German to English, without any censorship.
>
> One such book is:
> THE COMPLETE FAIRY TALES OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM,
> translated and with an introduction by Jack Zipes.
>
> I have it, and it's full of the stuff fairy tales used to be made of.
> In one particularly gruesome story, an innocent maiden lets her loving
> father cut off her arms to spare him the fate of being taken away by  
> the
> devil. Which he does! Later she asks someone to strap her arms to  
> her back,
> just in case she finds a way to reattach them someday...
>
>
> Mostly, I see them as very graphic cautionary tales against the  
> cruelty that
> is part of the world.
> The modern versions have so little of the original "meat" that often  
> they
> become pointless and useless.
>
> If you use the originals, even if you have to censor for your  
> audience, at
> least you'll have the full version and get to decide what you can cut.
>
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