Inspired by THE SNOW QUEEN by Hans Christian Andersen
a winter adventure
When a young boy disappears on a winter’s day in the heart of Appalachia, his best friend sets out to bring him home. So begins a journey through snow and ice, leaving the everyday world behind, as a magical winter time path leads deeper into a frozen kingdom. Inspired by the classic Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, this adventure for audiences of all ages transports the story to the highest peaks of the Blue Ridge. From the creators of Brother Wolf, Beautiful Star, Bloody Blackbeard and Providence Gap, Snow Queen weaves music, magic and make believe to celebrate the courage of a brave young girl.
Prented By: VF Corporation
With Additional Production Support Provided By: Cone Health, Ice Age Management/McDonald's, & Graffiti Ads
It takes many elements to tell a good story: facial expressions, inflection at just the right time, dramatic pauses. And costumes. Costumes not only submerge the audience in the story and set the tone of the play, but they also tell the bigger story: the time period and the surrounding setting. The costumes in Triad Stage’s Snow Queen tell these stories and much more.
There is a profound trichotomy at play in the production that aids its theatrical effectiveness. The merging of music, text and visual stimuli work in unison to achieve a richness and complexity often unreached when retelling folklore for the main stage. Dossett’s beautiful musical arrangements — perfectly executed by musicians Scott Manring, Faye Petree and Ben Singer — are without question treasures not only in terms of the play itself, but also in the overarching arena of folk music as a whole. The music alone is incentive enough to fill the audience seats.
When Triad Stage artistic director Preston Lane decided to stage his original musical, Snow Queen, last December, he fully realized that a play of this magnitude presented a number of technical challenges. Chief among them were five animal puppets that had to move in very specific ways for which there was no template, no reference point. Each had to be built from scratch, using trial and error, ingenuity, imagination and innovation. Lane, however, did not hesitate in going ahead with the production for he knew he had the perfect man for the job. In fact, he had the man who wrote the book. Literally.
I was minding my own business, seriously, when one of the foodies at Scuppernong Books asked this exceedingly polite woman standing next to where I was sitting if she was “going to rehearsal.” It was one of those times where being a reporter allows me to be nosy. As she waited for her order, I decided to ask her what type of rehearsal she was attending. I assumed music, and being an amateur musician, I was interested in the twominute conversation. “I’m in a production at the Triad Stage,” she said with a posh London accent. “What’s the play called?” I asked. “The Snow Queen,” she said. “Do you have a big part?” I asked. “I’m the Snow Queen.” This, ladies and gentlemen, is the demure and humble Emily Gardner Hall.