Brush Creek will be opening our 2020 season on Friday, February 28 with The True Tale of the Sleeping Beauty, written by Emily Wood and Michael Wood. Director Linda Zellner and her two complete casts of young actors are hard at work preparing the production for stage.

This delightful take on the classic fairy tale returns to the Brush Creek stage, where it first appeared in 2014. The production will run for three weekends, with evening performances at 7 pm on Fridays and Saturdays and matinees at 2 pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets  cost $10 ($8 for children 12 and under, students, and seniors 60 and over) and are available at our two ticket-selling partners, Runaway Art & Craft Studio in downtown Salem and Books-N-Time in downtown Silverton). They will also be available at the door beginning 30 minutes before each performance.

The story of the Sleeping Beauty in her castle is a familiar one. The original tale recorded by the Brothers Grimm include some intriguing details — such as the lack of satisfactory tableware as the reason for the evil enchanter’s exclusion from the party (the original tale also includes a total of 13 “wise women” – Brush Creek’s production reduces that number to a more manageable seven).

The True Tale of the Sleeping Beauty gives each of the enchanters a personality of her (or his) own. The six “good” enchanters encounter mutual suspicion, misunderstanding, courage, and even nobility in the face of certain defeat by their powerful former comrade Crimson. Ultimately, though, the story remains the story of true love, and of the curse, which in turn provides a dramatic and powerful villain – a villain whose evil and magic ultimately must face the nature of love and the promises of past friendship.

The play is being produced by arrangement with Evander Dramatic Press.