HFCC to Present “Snow White and the Dwarves” as Theatre for Young Audiences Production

HFCC’s Theater Arts Department will present Snow White and the Dwarves as their Theater for Young Audiences production this fall. Public performances are offered on weekends in addition to matinee showings for students in the K-12 school system. The low cost for students and free admission for chaperones has made the program highly attractive to educators throughout southeastern Michigan for over twenty years. Opening night is scheduled for Friday, November 15.

Snow White is based on the story made famous by the Brothers Grimm, a pair of German scholars who collected fairy tales in the early 1800s. This particular adaptation was written by theater faculty member Judith Fletcher, who will also direct. Fletcher earned a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in Acting from Wayne State University and took several classes in Theatrical Costume and Makeup as part of her program of study. She studied scenic painting in New York and even owned her own studio for a time. In addition to her duties as director, she will serve as the show’s costume designer, a position she has held for many other shows here at HFCC.

“Snow White is personally my favorite fairy tale”, Fletcher said. “It has been since I was very young. I remember [in the Disney film] seeing the scary witch, and hearing the wonderful songs. We hadn’t done Snow White here, so I decided the time was right for it.”

There have been countless dramatic retellings over the years, including two live action movies released in 2012: Mirror, Mirror and Snow White and the Hunstman. So what makes this one different? “Even though the setting is period, it’s contemporary,” Fletcher said. “The language is more current than in the Grimm Brothers’ story, and the Disney version. Snow White is more empowered, but not to the extent she is in Snow White and the Huntsman. She learns to stand on her own two feet and take care of herself and find her inner strength, which is not always present in many of the other versions.”

An original score has been commissioned from Anthony Lai, a music faculty member, who has written for several other productions in the past. Besides the music, “there will be scenery, fog and lights, and the Mirror narrates and interacts with the audience. The ‘dwarves’ are all shapes and sizes, really quite diverse.”

Performances run November 15-24. Showtimes are at 7 pm Fridays, 2 & 7 pm Saturdays, and 2 pm Sundays. For tickets, please call (313) 845-9817 or visit http://theatre.hfcc.edu.