High school senior Ashley St. Helens
has suddenly found herself living a fairy tale life....
Which is not as much fun as it sounds.
Until... the other shoe drops.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Ping the Dwarf

 

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Les Contes de Perrault


Sunday, June 10, 2012

Re-hashing My Story to Death



AsHP
Ashley St. Helens Prince

February 1, 2011

Dear Kristen and Michael,
I was an English Major and love to write, and I certainly have had some experience re-hashing my story to death, so I do feel comfortable writing, and I’d like to do it right for once and for all. I may need to break it into chapters —it’s long—but I know that, with a musical, you also need to break a story into scenes and acts.
I want you to know how excited I am getting about this!
Professor March used to say in her classes that by writing our stories we weave the threads of events together and discover the greater meaning in our lives. She says it’s how we create our own personal mythology. I had a little help with this from whatever powers design the events of our existence, but there are still some aspects to it that are a mystery to me.
I will start typing tonight. Hopefully you’ll hear from me within the next month or two. Thank you again for your support. I hope I will not disappoint!
Yours,
Ashley St. Helens Prince

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Your Personal Fairytale Life


Fairy Tale Reality
January 27, 2011

Dear Ms. Prince,

We’ve actually received more Cinderella stories than anything else (it is truly inspiring to learn how many people feel their lives have taken a miraculous turn!)—but like that poor prince in the legend, we are finding a lot of poor fits. We are especially interested in hearing your story, however, since your recommendation from Professor March was so compelling. You were very modest in your letter, mentioning nothing about drag queens or big feet or self-esteem—but we know from her that there is more to your story than just “rags to riches!”

You sound like a fun person to work with, Ashley, and we would definitely like to offer you that other shoe; we’re actually quite grateful to you for offering your memoirs. If you have the time and energy, or if you feel ready to fully disclose the warts-and-all intricacies of your personal fairytale life, we are, we confess, simply dying to hear your story, and we hope our project is a good fit for you!

There are several ways we could go about this, and it depends on what kind of storyteller you are. First, if you feel comfortable, we could just ask you to write as much as you can (starting from the beginning) in as much detail as you can, and as quickly as you can, keeping in mind the arc of the story and the important elements of the myth, and we’ll just pop in here and there for clarification. We could also start a questionnaire; we could also interview you. Do you have an idea for how you might like to proceed? Keep in mind we want as much psychological detail as possible, since our musical must be an emotionally satisfying experience for an audience that thinks they know what’s going to happen next, which is how we all feel about fairytales.

Please let us know your thoughts.

Best,

Kristen Caven and Michael O’Dell
www.fairytalereality.com