Revolution in Fairyland: Musical Theatre about Why We Need Democracy
Channel: GlassWingsProduction
Date: 2020-06-17

Creative Practice Showcase for the 15th International Conference on Arts in Society. 2020 Special Focus - Against the Grain: Arts and the Crisis of Democracy. My musical Revolution in Fairyland is set in the 1920s. It is inspired by A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain. A young woman whose mother was a suffragist finds herself trapped in a fairyland ruled by an elven tyrant. Simply vanquising that tryant will not be enough...what comes after? How can people share power? What is required to make a democracy work? What could sabotage that democracy? Our lead character's experience rallying with her mother to gain the vote helps the magical characters of this country create change. The process of creating stories that call of social transformation is a tricky one. The plays I have written that are based directly on reality can, due to their darkness, potentially leave people feeling hopeless. Many writers can feel so strongly about a subject that they begin to flatten characters in order to portray an overtly black and white world. This becomes propaganda and not an educational tool to help people make up their own minds...a much stronger outcome.I discuss my development of Revolution in Fairyland and the issues with which it grapples.