Fear, fairy tales and Frozen vibes: Wilma’s “Snow Queen” aims for all ages

Act One Scene One A step creaks Children huddle in fear Oh please let it be grandmother coming up and not someone something evil Adults in the audience of Russian playwright Evgeny Schwartz theatrical version of The Snow Queen would have experienced the children s terror viscerally In Russia fear is everywhere in when Schwarz wrote The Snow Queen commented Yury Urnov who is directing Schwartz play at the Wilma from Nov through Nov Russia was in the midst of Stalin s repressions One of the darkest years disclosed Urnov who was born in Moscow Who is coming up our actions Are they coming for me For my neighbor People were being taken away and never came back The youngsters in the audience still innocent might have a different response to the opening scene in Schwartz play based on Hans Christian Andersen s fairy tale Yes they see the frightened children and hear that ominous sound on the stairs Maybe they are a little scared or even a little thrilled but knowing fairy tales and still unafraid of life the young theatergoers expect a happy ending That dichotomy with all its allusions to what we are experiencing now in this country is exactly what Wilma is aiming for with The Snow Queen its first production planned to appeal to both the youngest of children the Disney hit Frozen is based on this tale and adults including parents and grandparents Yury Urnov is co-artistic director of the Wilma Theater Photo by Johanna Austin Wilma has a reputation Urnov announced for producing works that tend to be edgy and maybe not the greater part inviting for children But last year Wilma rented its space to a traveling company TheaterWorksUSA which brought the hit Broadway musical Dog Man The Musical to the theater From their offices overlooking the lobby Wilma s leadership band saw an atypical sight its lobby bustling with excited kids We saw the kids and we commented We want that stated Urnov who is one of Wilma s three co-artistic directors But what they didn t want he noted was the stereotypical kid-friendly show where parents take their children to the theater and basically sit through or maybe endure minutes of something intended for the young audience We want the parents and the kids to go together and both get something out of it even if what each person sees in the play is different Urnov announced That s the target That s the hope Another hope of module is building audiences for the future not that there s anything wrong with dedicated audiences of baby boomers buying theater tickets But both the children and their parents represent younger generations of prospective patrons Theater is an eternally dying institution Urnov explained We keep surviving only when the younger generations are going to the theater working in the theater and being interested in the theater A big part of that is tradition A lot of it is habit and a lot of that habit is formed when you are pretty little seeing plays as a child Urnov remembers seeing his first theater production at the age of It s not necessary to bring a child to the show even though both children and adults will appreciate extravagant sets and costumes designed to evoke the multiple places the heroine Gerda played by Bi Jean Ngo travels in her journey to save her close friend almost a brother from the cold world of the Snow Queen The adults in the audience with or without children will recognize the Snow Queen and her emissary the Councilor Urnov explained They ll see a lot of capitalism and how power and money are intertwined and how money serves the evil There is a lot of sensitivity in this interpretation Urnov disclosed It has something that becomes recognizable in how people feel and behave in a totalitarian state For the children it s the story of a little girl who goes on an odyssey who travels the world to save her brother In the center is a small small scared but strong little girl fighting with her fear Her journey is hard scary and fun and sometimes seductive Urnov revealed It s a scary world and an thought-provoking world funny and wonderful and silly And she keeps going and going to where she necessities to be to defreeze the heart of her brother FYI The Snow Queen Nov - Wilma Theater S Broad St Phila - - Shows for attendee groups are available at a m on several days during the run Chats and talkbacks after various shows The post Fear fairy tales and Frozen vibes Wilma s Snow Queen aims for all ages appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY