It’s been 13 freaking years since I decided to read the Tale of Tales. Almost three years since I actually started reading it and realized I wanted to adapt, like, all of it. Nearly a year since I had to read it all over again because I realized I was reading an incomplete translation. Which is why it is with no small amount of pride and maybe a little relief that I tell you that, after all these years of research and prep and talking about it, I’m finally getting ready to reveal this monster project to the world.
But while I’d love to be able to dump the whole giant mess out onto the floor at once with a flourish and a “Tada!” I’ve come to realize that’s a stupid plan. So while the full length play is what first got me excited about this project, while the full length play is the play I wanted to write in the first place, it just doesn’t make sense to focus on the full length first. That’s why, instead of following my original plan, which was to finish the full length version and then chop it up so that each story is a standalone one-act, I’ve realized it makes a ton more sense to do it the other way around.
To that end, I’m taking all of the stories that will feature in the full length and turning them into standalone one-act plays first. This way, instead of having to wait until the whole full length project is done, I can start to get these plays out as I finish them. Not only does this give me some plays to submit and get produced while the full length is shaping up, it also ensures that the pieces of the show will be stage-tested and polished as much as possible before they go into the full, making for a better show all around. While this is making for some mental rearranging, as I’m specifically cutting out parts that I know I’ll be adding back in later, I know it’s for the best for the quality of both parts and whole.
While it will get its own post later this week, the first of these adaptations is already available here with more to come in the near future. Ideally, I’d like to finish polishing two more plays before the end of the month so I can use November to take a break (HA!) and work on a novel rewrite but we’ll see how it happens. But all of these one-acts will be looking for world premieres and all are very school friendly with huge casts, lots of female roles and the perfect length for competition so if you think you’d be interested in being notified once they’re released, please make sure you’re on my mailing list.
Lastly, I realize this whole project is so massive that it’s getting really confusing but, for now, everything in-progress that’s based off the Tale of Tales will go under the Tale of Tales category on the blog when I talk about it. This will include all these individual one acts, the eventual full length they belong to, and a few other projects I have coming up as long as I am talking about them generally. Once a project is finalized and has a real title, such as Goosed, it will get its own category. The cherry on this whole confusing pie is that I am leaning towards actually calling one of these plays Tale of Tales but we’ll cross that rabbit hole when we get to it.
I have a “use the whole animal” philosophy when it comes to research and, for how long this project took me in prep work, I see nothing wrong with getting as many plays out of it as I can. Someday I’ll probably look back at this fondly as my fairy tale obsession days but, for now, I’m fine with being a one-trick pony as long as that’s what the muse and my audience wants!
Hillary DePiano is a playwright, fiction and non-fiction writer who loves writing of all kinds except for writing bios like this.
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