Discussion Series
Join us for a Book Club-style Page to Stage with the Portland Public Library. Check out your copy of the script and join us two weeks before opening of each Mainstage Production. Scripts are available at the reference desk at the Main Branch of the Portland Public Library. This year discussions will be held in the Rines Room at 1:30pm two weeks before a show opens. Feel free to come and chat about the plays with Literary Manager, Todd Brian Backus; his Directing and Dramaturgy Apprentices, and special guests. Visit portlandlibrary.com/programs-events/ for more information.
The Artistic Perspective, hosted by Artistic Director Anita Stewart, is an opportunity for audience members to delve deeper into the themes of the show through conversation with special guests. A different scholar, visiting artist, playwright , or other expert will join the discussion each time. The Artistic Perspective discussions are held after the first Sunday matinee performance.
Curtain Call discussions offer a rare opportunity for audience m embers to talk about the production with the performers. Through this forum, the audienc e and cast explore topics that range from the process of rehearsing and producing the tex t to character development to issues raised by the work Curtain Call discussions are held after the second Sunday matinee performance.
All discussions are free and open to the public. Show attendance is not required. To subscribe to a discussion series performance, please call th e Box Office at 207.774.0465.
HannaH Cordes, Paula Vogel, anita stewart, and todd Brian BaCkus in a talkBaCk, Portland stage ComPany
The Snow Queen
Adapted by Portland Stage from a Hans Christian Anderson fairytale with music by Hans Indigo Spencer With Arrangments and Orchestrations by Lauren Jeanne Thomas
PlayNotes Season 51 Editorial Staff
Editor in Chief
Todd Brian Backus
Contributors
Charlie Bowen, Sadie Goldstein, Micki Demby Kleinman, Kimmarie McCrann, Larsen Nichols
Copy Editor
Adam Thibodeau
Cover Illustration
James A. Hadley
Portland Stage Company Educational Programs, like PlayNotes, are generously supported through the annual donations of hundreds of individuals and businesses, as well as special funding from:
The Simmons Foundation
Susie Konkel Harry Konkel
Harold & Betty Cottel Family Fund
Letter from the Editors
Dear PlayNotes Readers,
We're so excited to have you with us for our 51st season holiday show!
In this issue, we explore the world of The Snow Queen, a story of friendship and bravery that takes us through many seasons on a hero’s journey. Kai and Gerda have been best friends their whole lives, but when a shard of a magic mirror gets caught in Kai’s eye, he sees the world in a different light. He can no longer see the good in the world around him, so when the glorious and sparkling Snow Queen arrives, Kai is mesmerized. He hitches his sled to her sleigh, and vanishes and our adventure begins. Gerda strikes out to rescue Kai making many new friends and rivals along the way. But will she find the Snow Queen’s palace in time?
Want to learn about this production of The Snow Queen? Head over to our "Interview with the Directors: Anita Stewart and Todd Brian Backus” (Pg. 10), and meet our actors in "About the Characters" (Pg. 8) and "Community Connections: Interview with the Youth Ensemble" (Pg. 12). Intrigued by Hans Christian Andersen? Learn more about his life and work in "About Hans Christian Andersen" (Pg. 14).
Curious about the literary tradition of the play? Check out the article "The Hero's Journey " (Pg. 24) or learn about the poetry that inspired the music in "Emily Dickinson and Hans Christian Andersen: Complementing Voices" (Pg. 18).
When compiling each issue of PlayNotes, we strive to provide articles and interviews that give you insight into what the process has been like behind the scenes (see articles in "Portland Stage's The Snow Queen"), contain pertinent information about the play’s setting and major themes (“The World of The Snow Queen”), and provide deeper dives into specific subjects that compelled our literary department (“Digging Deeper”). We include a list of books, plays, and other media that we hope audiences will access for more cultural content that relates to the play (“Recommended Resources”).
We are delighted to have you join us for this magical adventure, and we hope you enjoy seeing The Snow Queen.
Sincerely yours,
The Portland Stage Literary Department
Todd Brian Backus
Micki Demby Kleinman
Kimmarie McCrann
Larsen Nichols
About the Play
by Shannon Stockwell
How far would you travel to save someone you loved? How would you get help along the way? And who would help you? The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen explores all these questions, as it follows a young girl, Gerda, as she searches for her best friend in the world, Kai, who has been bewitched by the Snow Queen. Along the way, Gerda is assisted by a variety of characters and creatures: a prince and a princess, flowers, crows, a reindeer named Ba, and a river, just to name a few. All of these characters are willing to do whatever they can to help her find her friend.
One might expect a fairy tale to be simplistic, moralistic, and directed primarily at children, but The Snow Queen is a surprisingly complex story. The story was first published in 1845 as Sneedronningen: Et eventyr i syv historier (The Snow Queen: A Fairy Tale in Seven Stories) in the collection Nye Eventyr (New Fairy Tales). The themes of The Snow Queen are universal, and the story is as much for adults as it is for children. Near the end of the story, we learn from the Finn Woman, the last person Gerda goes to for help, why everyone has been so keen to aid Gerda: “She already possesses a power far stronger than any spell I might give her... her passion is true. She has the strength of her heart, her love guides her completely.” Gerda represents the power of goodness and love; every character in The Snow Queen is ready to help her simply because she is a good person, and this is what carries her through to the end of the story.
Gerda’s warmth as a person contrasts directly with the icy logic of the Snow Queen herself. The Snow Queen steals away Gerda’s friend Kai, who has already been struck by the Mirror of Reality, making him sarcastic and cruel—a metaphor for adolescence. The Queen’s palace is empty and cold, and she gives Kai puzzles to solve to pass the time. She represents the power of reason and logic, and Kai, who is already infatuated with puzzles and multiplication tables, falls under her spell. This battle of goodness and warmth against reason and coldness is central to the conflict of The Snow Queen. Gerda, who is driven by love and warmth, must prevail over the iciness
of the Queen. It is a tale about growing up, but learning to retain the unconditional, loyal love one has when one is a child. Gerda’s true heart makes others want to help her, but her adulthood makes her independent and able to travel to distant lands. When Kai disappears, Gerda is faced with an impossible journey (in which she travels from Denmark to the far North of Norway)—and she’s not even wearing shoes for most of it. Nonetheless, she is driven by the power of love and, as the saying goes, “Love conquers all.”
With its universal themes of love and friendship, The Snow Queen story is often regarded as one of Andersen’s greatest accomplishments. Literary critic Wolfgang Lederer writes that The Snow Queen has its place “at the pinnacle of [Andersen’s] creativity. Not only is The Snow Queen one of his longest stories; it is also the most inventive and inspired. It is also his most profound. . . . It is the most consummate expression of what he knew and of who he was.” Indeed, The Snow Queen was fueled by pure inspiration; Andersen wrote it in a whirlwind of five days. He wrote to a friend, “It has been a sheer joy for me to put on paper my most recent fairy tale, ‘The Snow Queen...’ It permeated my mind in such a way that it came out dancing over the paper.” The same can be said of reading the story: the descriptive words, entrancing plot, complex characters, and fantastic imagery come together on the page in such a way that The Snow Queen begs to be performed on the stage. Its message about unconditional love and traveling to the ends of the earth for friendship is one that will enchant children and grown-ups alike.
early 20tH Century illustration for The Snow Queen By franz waCik.
Pre-Show Activites
by Charlie Bowen and Sadie Goldstein
1. In The Snow Queen, Gerda is helped by many people and creatures on her mission to save Kai. Who is someone that has helped you achieve a goal or conquer a fear? What was it about the way they acted that empowered you? Write a thank-you note to the person you have in mind.
2. The lyrics of songs in The Snow Queen are based on the poetry of Emily Dickinson. Read her poem “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers.” Why do you think Dickinson chose a bird to represent hope? How does this poem make you feel? Discuss these questions with a partner.
3. Take the poem “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers” and stand up and recite it in a small group. What changes when you hear the words spoken out loud? Did you find yourselves acting out certain words physically, or emphasizing some words over others?
4. In The Snow Queen, there is an inventor who creates a magical mirror as a way to make money. If you could invent something with magic, what would you create? Draw a blueprint of your creation.
3. When Kai gets the shard of glass stuck in his eye, he becomes a worse friend to Gerda and hurts
About the Characters
Actor: Lauren Jeanne Thomas
Character: Storyteller
Storyteller: The storyteller welcomes us into the world of The Snow Queen acting as narrator and musician throughout.
Actor: Shannon Campbell
Character: Assistant, Princess, Little Robber Girl, Crone
The Assistant: Assistant to the intrepid Inventor.
The Princess: A very well-read princess.
The Little Robber Girl: Daughter of the queen of a robber band; she likes stories and her knife.
The Crone: A magical woman who can give someone the power of ten men.
Actor: Roland Ruiz
Character: Inventor, Grandfather, Crow, Ba
The Inventor: An alchemist looking to make gold. Grandfather: Kai's grandfather.
The Crow: A well-mannered crow, engaged to be married. Ba: A reindeer, long held prisoner by the Little Robber Girl.
Actor: Thomas Ian Campbell
Character: Kai, Prince
Kai: A little boy, best friends with Gerda. One day a shard of glass from an ancient mirror gets stuck in his eye.
The Prince: A very well-spoken prince.
Actor: Breezy Leigh
Character: The Snow Queen, Grandmother, The Flower Queen, The Tame Crow, The Lapland Woman
The Snow Queen: A dazzling woman who searches for shards of an ancient mirror. She rules from a castle in the Arctic.
Grandmother: Gerda's grandmother.
The Flower Queen: A woman who can conjure and would love to keep a child for herself.
The Tame Crow: A crow in the Princess' court, engaged to be married.
The Lapland Woman: A woman on the way to the Snow Queen's palace.
Actor: Laura Darrell
Character: Gerda
Gerda: A little girl, best friends with Kai. Sets out to find him after he disappears with the Snow Queen.
An Interview with the Directors: Anita Stewart and Todd Brian Backus
Edited for length and clarity by Kimmarie McCrann
Directing and Dramaturgy Apprentice
Kimmarie McCrann sat down with the director and associate director of The Snow Queen, Anita Stewart and Todd Brian Backus, to speak about their work adapting and directing this story.
Kimmarie McCrann (KM): How did you first encounter the fairytale “The Snow Queen?” What inspired you to create this adaptation?
Anita Stewart (AS): We were looking at stories that felt in the right season, and we wanted it to be something that was in the public domain. Frozen was a big thing, and I knew that Frozen was based on The Snow Queen, but it’s not the same story. And so I was really curious about saying, “Well, let’s look at the real story,” and I started to look at it and realize that it’s this young girl that’s a hero, and it’s a hero’s journey. I love the seasonal quality of it, but it’s not Christmas-oriented, and a lot of our population, especially in the schools, isn’t necessarily Christian. And so, it was a way of doing something that was rooted in Hans Christian Andersen with Christian roots, but we sort of softened that and made it a bit more universal.
direCtor anita stewart and assoCiate direCtor todd Brian BaCkus at tHe first read-tHrougH of The Snow Queen.
KM: Can you talk about the editing process for this adaptation? What is it like directing a play where you have the artistic freedom to make cuts or changes to the script?
Todd Brian Backus (TBB): When Anita brought me onto this project, we were talking about different things that excited us about this script, and different things that we had struggled with with the script. I wanted to make sure that we were on a similar wavelength before saying, “Yeah, let’s do this together,” because if we had fundamentally different ideas about the play, I didn’t think this would be great for the two of us to do. And, just about every note that I had, [Anita] either said “Yes” or “Yes, we can fix it that way,” or “I don’t like that fix, but I do see that problem, does this fix work instead?” and so that was really lovely. There’s this sequence near the end of the play where Gerda, overwhelmed by the forces of the Snow Queen, drops to her knees and prays, and a host of angels comes down and saves her. It was a holdover from Hans Christian Andersen, but also felt really out of left field, and what excited me more was not Gerda being rescued in this moment, but Gerda finding her own strength and saving herself. She’s gone on all these adventures, met all these people, and finding her own inner strength in this moment was really exciting.
KM: What drew you to using Emily Dickinson poems throughout this adaptation?
AS: It felt like the story needed music in it. I’m not a lyricist, Hans [Indigo Spencer, the composer] is not a lyricist, and so, I was thinking about who else was writing in this time period. So many of the themes that Dickinson writes about are nature and nature personified in a way, and they’re sort of quirky and weird in the same way that this tale is quirky and weird. So, it felt like it was a good fit. And, the more I dug into Emily Dickinson poems, the more I found poems that directly connect to the story.
KM: Why do you think The Snow Queen has been retold over and over?
AS: I think part of it is, it’s a complicated story. Most of the stories that we follow that have been told over and over tend to be one single track, and this is actually seven little ministories that got rolled into one. We’re getting to go to all these different worlds, and they’re all connected, but they’re each a different flavor. It reminds me a bit more of The Nutcracker, where there’s different worlds, rather than those unitrack fairy tales. It’s a little bit more complicated for very young people.
TBB: Yeah, it’s definitely more episodic than most fairy tales are. But, there’s a bunch of stories that Hans Christian Andersen wrote that we now think of as canonical, like “The Emperor’s New Clothes” or “The Ugly Duckling.” I think this is him reaching a bit, but there’s a bunch of interesting parts where we have a strong female protagonist, we do get to go to all of these places. One thing that has been hitting me a lot working on this are the parallels between Kai and Gerda. Both of them get tempted by a magic woman who offers them comfort and solace, and to be cared for forever. Kai accepts that, and Gerda eventually rejects that and continues on her journey. I think that that’s interesting, that we get to see these two characters struggle in similar ways, and push past that.
AS: Speaking of that, beyond it being a hero's journey with a girl, all the strong characters in this play are women. And to me, that’s really exciting. It’s not kings—it’s princesses and queens and crones. It’s women as a source of strength and seeing strong women who are leaders and in charge. It’s curious to me that Andersen would have written this back when he did, because that was not the way of the world.
KM: What is your favorite part of the rehearsal process?
AS: For me, it’s fun to work on something that has so much physical action within it. I’m not crafting where everybody’s going. I’m letting them sort of organically tell me where they want to be and how it wants to sit. Most of it is
really a partnership and [the actors] feeling out a general idea of where to be onstage, rather than me telling them exactly where to stand and spiking all their marks. It’s more of a loose thing, and seeing what we get out of different people’s physicality. And, having done it before, every actor’s different. So, you can’t just set what was done with somebody else years ago with a completely different personality or skill set. So, it’s trying to assess “What is going to make you really strong, and how does that now shift the whole thing?” That’s a really interesting process to me. Taking what the actors are bringing to the table is what makes it feel alive. You find happy accidents, and have to trust the process.
TBB: I think, for me, what’s exciting is that Anita has worked on this show three times before and there’s definitely changes that we’ve made, but there is a structure and an idea of how things work. As someone who normally is trying to figure out all the stage pictures on my own, it’s really cool to figure out this time how to jazz things up a bit, and make it more exciting for the actors or the audience. I’ve felt like I’ve been watching Anita sculpt, and then asking, “What if this happens here?” And that’s been really fun for me, because that’s what I thrive off of.
KM: Why do you think it’s important to share this story in 2024?
TBB: I think it’s lovely to tell a story about how even when things seem impossible, moving towards a goal, and while you don’t need to change the world, you can change it enough for one person.
AS: To me, in this world where we’re so divided, and people do have really diverse views of what is right, it’s this notion of knowing in yourself where you sit and persevering and being kind and seeing that that can change somebody’s perspective. By staying true to what you believe in, and following your heart. It’s not about battling anybody, it’s “I’m bringing good, even to you, who are seeing things with this vision that’s shrouded by a shard of glass.”
Community Connections: Interview with the Youth Ensemble
by Charlie Bowen
Education Apprentice Charlie Bowen sat down with the the youth ensemble of The Snow Queen to talk about their experiences in rehearsals.
Charlie Bowen (CB): What have you learned from your time working on Portland Stage’s 2024 production of The Snow Queen?
Finn, 13: I learned how to be more enthusiastic and how to meet new people.
Piper, 15: To watch.
Evangeline, 16: I learned how to work together as a team. I learned how to be more supportive and how to be supported in return.
Seraphina, 13: There are many different ways to use your voice to depict a character.
Lydia, 10: How to engage with the character and feel what they are feeling.
Freya, 8: I learned how to interact more with friends.
Angelina, 6: I learned how to sit out and be a good listener.
Stella, 9: How to project my voice so that the audience can hear it. My mom is going to be sitting in the back row, so that’s important.
Lily, 16: I have always known that focus is important in a theatre setting, but during this rehearsal process I have learned how to balance that focus with having fun with castmates.
Asa, 9: The people at Portland Stage are super nice. There is no stress at all. You can count on them.
Anna, 13: I have learned it’s really easy to make friends with other theatre people.
Soph, 14: To try new things and take risks.
Una, 10: I’ve learned to act like a flower.
CB: What has been your favorite memory from the rehearsal process thus far?
Finn: I’ve really liked being a flower.
Piper: I liked watching Tom do all the different voices and movements for the princes. That was funny.
Seraphina: Everyone saying “beep beep beep” when the cart gets pulled backwards
Lydia: I really like rehearsing the intro where the inventor creates gold.
Freya: Everything! It is so cool to learn how a big theater runs.
Angelina: Eating snacks during break time.
Stella: My favorite memory has been meeting new people and making new friends.
Lily: Getting costumed! Also when I learned what a “moo-off” is.
(A “moo-off” is used to break a tie in acting games. Opponents will kneel on the ground in cow formation and stare into each other's eyes. Whoever can moo the longest without running out of breath or laughing wins.)
Anna: Posing with the flower headdresses and being goofy.
Soph: Anytime I’m on stage with adult actors. Lily and I have created a game with the snowballs where we guess how many points each snowball hit would have.
Asa: My favorite memory was when me and Little Gerda got to play tag a lot one rehearsal day.
Una: I drew a hilarious drawing and me and Anna started laughing at it.
CB: Would you rather have a lifetime supply of hot chocolate or have a talking reindeer as a pet?
Finn: Hot chocolate!
Piper: Pet talking reindeer. I need that.
Evangeline: Hot chocolate.
Seraphina: Hot chocolate.
Lydia: Reindeer. I would only want hot chocolate in the winter. Reindeers are good all year round.
Freya: Easily pet reindeer. I don’t like hot chocolate.
Angelina: Both! I can’t choose.
CB: You have to choose.
Angelina: If I had to choose I’d choose a talking pet reindeer!
Stella: A talking pet reindeer! She’d fly me to the North Pole.
Lily: A lifetime supply of hot chocolate.
Anna: Chocolate.
Soph: A pet talking reindeer. I’d have someone to chat with.
Asa: Pet reindeer.
Una: Pet talking reindeer. Definitely!
tHe Cast of Portland stage's The Snow Queen.
About Hans Christian Andersen
by Shannon Stockwell
Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark, in 1805, to Hans and Anne Marie Andersen. Andersen himself was a classic “ugly duckling:” he was awkward, ugly, gawky, and his head was always elsewhere. Other children in Odense would often make fun of him. Nonetheless, and although Andersen did not know it yet, growing up in Odense was crucial to his development as a writer. Odense was the fourth largest town in Denmark, but far more rustic than Copenhagen. Odense was still rooted in folk culture, and Andersen was exposed to folk tales and storytelling as a child. As a regional center, Odense also had a theater, which many scholars believe was a major factor in his success. Andersen first attended a play in 1812, and he became passionate about the stage. He began writing plays, singing, dancing, and acting. Had the town not had a theatre, scholars believe that Andersen would never have been driven to move to Copenhagen to pursue a career on the stage.
In 1819, when Andersen was 14, he left home for the biggest city in Denmark to make it in the theater. He didn’t have much money to his name, and he didn’t know anyone who lived there. Andersen nearly starved and froze, and he lived in slum lodgings. He took to knocking on the doors of well-known townspeople, thrusting himself into their homes and presenting himself as an aspiring actor. Eventually, Andersen knocked on the door of Giuseppe Siboni, the choirmaster and conductor of the Royal Theater, who invited him in for something to eat. Andersen proceeded to sing, perform some scenes, and recite some of his own poetry. Siboni, however, was most impressed by his voice, and offered him free singing lessons.
In 1822, Andersen submitted several plays to the Royal Theatre, but they were rejected, due to his lack of education and therefore lousy grammar and spelling. Jonas Collin, a director of the Royal Theatre, noticed him and took an
interest. He worked with the other directors of the Theatre to pay for Andersen to be educated at a school in Slalgelse.
In 1827, while Andersen was still in school, he wrote a poem called “The Dying Child.” It expressed a child’s point of view as he died, and when published, it became immensely popular. This was the start of Andersen’s literary success. Once he had started, it seemed as though he could not stop.
Andersen’s first published book Improvisatoren ( The Improvisatore in English) was released in 1835. Andersen began writing his fairy tales while the novel was being printed. He published his first book of fairy tales, called Eventyr, fortalte for Børn ( Tales Told for Children ), in 1835. It included the stories “The Tinderbox,” “Little Claus and Big Claus,” “The Princess and the Pea,” and “Little Ida’s Flowers.”
Initially, critics responded negatively to his fairy tale collections: they felt the tales were too conversational and unorganized. One critic thought Andersen had more talent and wished that he “would not waste him time writing
Hans CHristian andersen By tHora Hallager, 1869.
fairy tales for children.” Popular opinion, however, was enormously positive. Andersen’s tales were seen as new and interesting; previously, tales for children weren’t exciting or fantastical. They were “humorless moralizing prose meant to educate rather than amuse young readers,” according to Jackie Wullschlager, a biographer of Andersen. Andersen’s tales, however, were fun to read, and they were more amusing than didactic. The tales became immensely popular, much to the delight of Andersen: “My name is gradually starting to shine, and that is the only thing I live for,” he wrote in 1837, the same year he wrote “The Little Mermaid” and “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” two of his most famous tales.
Now well known in his home country of Denmark, and soon in Germany and England as well, Andersen’s fairy tales had done what his novels and plays could not: they had made him a celebrity. On his first trip to England in 1847, the reception was overwhelmingly positive, and Andersen could not have been happier.
In the later years of his life, in the early 1870s, Andersen began suffering from liver cancer. Always desiring attention, craving to meet celebrities, and without family since his mother died in 1834, Andersen would welcome almost anyone that came to see him while he was ill. Andersen published his last tales in 1872; by now, he had long since dropped the “for children” part of the title of his collections of tales. His later stories, like “The Ice Maiden” (1861), “The Psyche” (1861), and “Aunty Toothache” (1872) were decidedly darker. When he became too ill to write anymore, he took to creating paper cuttings, which were like large, ornate, intricate snowflakes. When he turned 70 in 1875, it was obvious that this would be his last birthday, so it was celebrated both nationally and internationally. The celebrations “had the tone of obituaries,” according to Wullschlager, which made the vain Andersen extremely happy because it meant he could read them himself. The complimentary tributes thrilled him, and he died a happy, recognized man on August 4, 1875. A far-reaching figure in fairy tale and literary history, Andersen gave us stories like “The Ugly Duckling,” “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” and “The Little Mermaid.”
"tHe little matCH girl" illustration By Paul Hey, 1939.
illustration By milo winter of Hans CHristian andersen's "tHe ugly duCkling."
Andersen's Denmark
by Nora Sørena Casey, edited and updated by Kimmarie McCrann
When the fourteen-year-old Hans Christian Andersen arrived in Copenhagen in 1819 alone and destitute, the city was in the midst of what would later be called the Golden Age of Denmark. Copenhagen was a hub for creativity, where artists, politicians, and businessmen could visit theaters, universities, museums, and even the home of the royal family. However, the majority of Danish citizens, like Andersen’s parents, lived in rural areas at this time and worked as farmers, fishermen, and craftsmen. In a time before electricity, running water, or cars, travel and higher education were a luxury. But during Andersen’s lifetime much would change in Denmark: daily life would steadily be transformed by inventions like gaslight in 1807, the steam engine in 1814, and the country’s first railroad in 1847.
Despite being bombed by Britain in the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815), Danish culture was thriving, with Copenhagen
as the epicenter of artistic and scientific development. The ruined city became a blank canvas, and Golden Age architects rebuilt Copenhagen in the distinct neoclassical style that is still its trademark. Men like Christian Frederik Hansen (1756–1845) and Caspar Frederik Harsdorff (1735–1799) designed government and office buildings and middleclass homes by mixing the antique styles of columns and arches with light, discreet colors, and sparse decoration. Hans Christian Ørsted (1777–1851) discovered electromagnetism there in 1820. In 1802, the German-Norwegian philosopher Henrik Steffens (1773–1845) began a series of lectures at Elers Kollegium about German romanticism, bringing theories about the importance of nature in its relationship to mankind to the leading cultural figures of the capital.
Although it was home to the majority of the kingdom’s cultural development, Copenhagen’s population was only around 100,000, with the result that most of the leading figures of the city knew each other. The accessibility of the artistic circle was not lost on the young Andersen, who immediately introduced himself to all manner of prominent men upon reaching the city in 1819. Although
a tyPiCal street in CoPenHagen, denmark, 2024. PHoto By kimmarie mCCrann.
Hans CHristian andersen museum in odense, denmark.
he arrived with no real plan, his persistence led to support from wealthier patrons in the city—Ørsted, poet Jens Baggesen (1764–1826), and composer Christopher Ernst Friedrich Weyse (1774–1842) were all among his supporters—who helped provide the young man with food, shelter, and a more extensive education. After Andersen finally achieved a measure of success, beginning with his popular novel The Improvisatore (1835), he received both artistic support and criticism. The philosopher Søren Kierkegaard’s first published criticism, From the Papers of One Still Living (1836), concerned Andersen’s early work: “Andersen sits and weeps over his unlucky hero, who must fail, and why? Because Andersen is the same person. Andersen’s own miserable struggle is repeated in his writing.”
Andersen’s work reflected not only the social but also the political turmoil of his era. A dispute with Prussia over territory led to the First Schleswig War (1848–1851) and inspired Andersen’s patriotic novel The Two Baronesses (1848) and his poem “In Denmark I Was Born” (1850), with lines like, “You windswept Danish strand,/For swans to build their nest in,/Green island home on earth, for heart to rest in,/‘Tis you I love—Denmark, my native land!” The poem was adapted into an inspiring wartime song and has been transformed many times since, remaining a popular, unofficial Danish anthem. Andersen’s patriotism came at a pivotal time for his country; continuing conflict with Germany culminated in the loss of about a third of Danish territory after the Second Schleswig War in 1864. For the land of the Vikings, a people who had once ruled as far afield as England, the shifting borders led to a bitterness toward the Germans and a movement declaring, “What is lost externally shall be regained internally.” After the war, the Danish proceeded to drain bays and inlets and to cultivate moorlands in order to increase the nation’s agricultural potential, making the 1860s a time for changes in Denmark’s territory, political identity, and geography.
But some elements of Danish life never change: the dominant presence of the sea was unshakable, and is reflected, along with other features of Danish geography, in
Andersen’s stories. Denmark is the smallest, southernmost Scandinavian country and consists of the Jutland Peninsula and 406 islands, 78 of which are inhabited. The mainland shares a border with Germany and the peninsula stretches between the North Sea and the Baltic, with the result that no point in Denmark is farther than 31 miles from the sea. One of Andersen’s most famous stories, “The Little Mermaid” (1837), begins by evoking the glory of the water: “Far out to sea, the water is as blue as the petals of the prettiest cornflowers and as clear as the purest glass.” This story became so well loved that a statue of its title character now sits in Copenhagen’s harbor. The enduring figure of the Little Mermaid, perched serenely in the city where Andersen made his fortune and known to children across the world, demonstrates how Andersen’s literary achievement responded to his own times, reflected his own environment, drew on his own life, and yet resonated with audiences across the globe.
The LiTTLe MerMaid statue By edVard eriksen. PHoto By kimmarie mCCrann.
Emily Dickinson and Hans Christian Andersen: Complementing Voices
by Shannon Stockwell, edited and updated by Micki Demby Kleinman
Emily Dickinson’s poems provide the lyrics in Portland Stage’s adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen, which places these two writers in an intriguing dialogue. Dickinson and Andersen were contemporaries of the 1800s living continents apart, in Massachusetts and Denmark, respectively. Andersen and Dickinson’s public personas were quite dissimilar, but the two shared many fears, concerns, and struggles in their personal and literary lives.
Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1830, the daughter of a well-known politician and lawyer. Dickinson’s writing benefited
from her education in classical literature, mathematics, and history, as well as from her admiration for poets like John Keats. Dickinson’s work is distinguished by its concise language, striking imagery, and emotion, which oscillates between wit, joy, and mourning. Dickinson’s writing was distinct from the wordy style widely used in the Romantic style of her time.
While Dickinson and Andersen are both wellknown writers today, only one achieved fame during their lifetimes. Andersen seized every available opportunity to get his work published or give public readings. In contrast, Dickinson crafted nearly 1,800 poems but chose to publish only ten in her lifetime, which received little attention. She formed friendships with several editors and continued to write prolifically, yet avoided fame and even common social interactions. Andersen was known to travel to foreign countries to meet other writers. Dickinson, on the other hand, spent only one year away from Amherst to study at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, merely one town over. Dickinson’s reluctance to
“Hope” is the thing with feathersThat perches in the soulAnd sings the tune without the wordsAnd never stops - at all -
And sweetest - in the Gale - is heardAnd sore must be the stormThat could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm -
I’ve heard it in the chillest landAnd on the strangest SeaYet - never - in Extremity, It asked a crumb - of me.
a restored PHotograPH of emily diCkinson.
leave home grew stronger with time, and by her mid-forties she had stopped leaving the house entirely, which was attributed in part to her iritis (a condition which makes it painful to see) and in part to her growing anxiety and withdrawing tendencies. Dickinson resided in her family home for the duration of her adulthood until age 55, at which point she died of severe hypertension. Many of her friends and family members died in the years preceding her death, which impacted Dickinson and her health. Dickinson experienced “nervous prostrations,” had a hard time breathing, and was confined to her bed for seven months before her death.
Dickinson died in Amherst in 1886; the first major publication of her work came posthumously in 1890 and the entirety of her work was not published until 1955. Although Dickinson did not pursue publication during her lifetime, the discovery of her work and its striking quantity and depth compelled her friends to seek publication. Until the mid-20th century she was not widely acknowledged as a major American poet; yet today, she is published in numerous poetry anthologies, is the subject of several plays, and is the source material for over 1,600 adapted songs.
Dickinson scholars remain intrigued by the beauty, sympathy, and originality of her elegant lines, and by the mysterious woman who found such inspiration, and such ability to inspire, within the confines of her Amherst home.
The general depiction of Emily Dickinson’s life is that of distinct loneliness. This was a quality that she and Andersen shared. Neither of them married; Dickinson is not known to have had any romantic relations, and Andersen’s romantic endeavors were consistently unsuccessful. The sexual orientation of both writers has been the subject of scholarly debate, but their feelings of isolation speak clearly through both their works and the many letters they each left behind. Although both writers were deeply imaginative, creating strong images and vivid descriptions, there is an undercurrent of sorrow that pervades their work. A sympathy for the beauty and the hardships of the world—perhaps inspired by the inner struggles they shared, living continents apart at the same time—helps the two voices complement each other in Portland Stage’s The Snow Queen.
emily diCkinson's family Home in amHerst, massaCHusetts.
Glossary
Alchemy: The ancient and medieval pursuit and science of attempting to transform baser metals such as lead or tin into gold.
Crone: A very old, withered woman; often a stock character in fairy tales. She can be either evil or good.
Daisy: A flower with white petals and a yellow center. They are a symbol of innocence, gentleness, and loyalty.
Esplanade: A large, leveled, open piece of land, usually intended for public use.
Finnmark: A northeastern region of Norway, above the Arctic Circle.
Holly: Either a tree or a bush that is commonly associated with Christmas. Holly often has pea-sized red berries and glossy, dark green leaves with several points. Despite the plant’s association with Christmastime and winter, younger holly plants struggle to survive in the winter months.
Lapland: Also known as the cultural region of Sápmi, Lapland forms the northernmost portion of the Scandinavian peninsula, which is made up of Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Russia.
Mooring: any permanent structure to which a seaborne vessel (such as a boat, ship, or amphibious aircraft) may be secured.
Morning Glory: A blue flower that blooms in the morning and dies at night. Due to their short lifespan, morning glories often represent impermanence and mortality.
No es tan elegante como el cuervo...¿hablas español?: "It is not as elegant as crow... do you speak Spanish?"
Northern lights: The northern lights, also called the aurora borealis, are a natural phenomenon, caused by gas from the sun meeting the earth’s invisible magnetic field. The meeting of the gas with the magnetic field causes bright, sparkling colors to appear in the night sky. The northern lights are seen more often in countries closest to the North Pole, and are usually spotted on cold, clear nights.
Snip snap snout: A different way of saying “The End” commonly found in early fairy tales, this phrase lets the listener or reader of a fairy tale know the story is over. It is probably Norse in origin. In the original Danish, Andersen wrote “Schnipp-schnapp-schnurre-basselurre.”
Spitsbergen: Part of a cluster of Norwegian islands known as Svalbard, Spitsbergen is roughly the size of Ireland. The entire cluster of islands is 60% covered in glaciers. Spitsbergen has a population of about 2,500 people (and 300 polar bears). The island is so far north that the sun disappears for four months in the winter.
Steppe: A cold, temperate grassland that receives just enough rainfall not to be a desert, but not enough rain to be a forest. Steppes are often uninhabited because there is little there but grass, and they become very cold in the winter.
Tiger Lily: A bright orange flower that symbolizes pride and wealth.
Tundra: Coming from the Finnish word tunturi, meaning treeless plain, the tundra is known for its cold temperatures and lack of diverse plant life.
a stePPe in finland, 2019.
Colder Climes
by Larsen Nichols
ÄkÄslomPolo, sáPmi region, finland, January 2024.
Hans Christian Andersen’s "The Snow Queen" takes audiences on a journey across the mysterious arctic landscape of the Nordic region. When Gerda decides to leave home to save her best friend Kai, she travels from Denmark to Lapland to Finnmark, and finally to the island of Spitsbergen in the Svalbard Archipelago. Each of these regions has their own unique culture, landscapes, and climates, from the native homeland of the Sámi peoples and the reindeer they herd to the snowy expanses where northern lights dance across the sky. But as beautiful and charming as these places are, they are some of the most vulnerable to climate change and global warming. Today, communities in the Nordic countries are facing challenges Gerda could never have imagined. The global cultural and environmental importance of these regions urges us to protect these fragile arctic landscapes, so they don’t vanish like snow in the warmer seasons.
Once Gerda begins her journey in Denmark (read more about Andersen’s Denmark on page 16) she has a long way to go: around 1,500 miles, give or take. She embarks on a journey northward, but once she meets the Robber Girl, we get a better sense of where she’s headed: Lapland, Finland. The region of Lapland is commonly regarded as the northernmost region of Finland, but actually
extends into Sweden, Norway, and Russia, and lacks easily definable borders. In recent years, the region has become a popular holiday tourist destination for those looking to experience expansive subarctic terrain, ski slopes, and the northern lights. But for thousands of years, Lapland has been the homeland of the Sámi people, an Indigenous ethnic group of (traditionally) reindeer herders currently numbering around 80,000. The name “Lapland” was ascribed to the region originally by non-Sámi Scandinavians, but the region is known as “Sápmi” by the Sámi themselves. The word “lapp,” which has disputed etymological origins, has been used by neighboring outsiders for years, and has evolved to have offensive connotations. The Sámi have never used the terms “lapp” or “Lapland” endemically, and the native words “Sámi” and “Sápmi” for the people and the territory (respectively) are preferred.
For many years, the Sámi were subject to assimilation in Sweden and Norway, similar to the processes that Indigenous peoples
sámi family in finland, 1936.
sValBard, norway, June 2009.
underwent in the United States and North America. These Swedish and Norwegian policies, which were based on nationalist, social Darwinist, and religious ideals that viewed the Sámi people and their culture as primitive and uncivilized, began in the 1700s and continued through the 20th century. The list of injustices included sending Sámi children to boarding schools, banning the use of native languages and cultural practices, religious conversion, and removal of access to land and natural resources. These policies have since ended and the Sámi have gained more protections as an Indigenous minority group, but there are still movements for restorative justice, and the impact of these assimilation campaigns are long reaching.
After Gerda receives a fish from one of Sápmi’s residents, she travels even further north to a place called Finnmark, the easternmost and northernmost county in Norway. The coldest winter temperatures in Norway are found here—imagine walking on the coldest ice in Norway with bare feet like Gerda does! Finnmark also includes part of the Sápmi territory, and is populated primarily by a combination of Sámi, Norwegians, and Kven, a Balto-Finnic ethnic group indigenous to the
region. Though the county of Finnmark is geographically the second largest in Norway, it’s the least populous county in the country. Most people live along the coast, and fisheries are the biggest source of income in these areas. As Gerda and Ba discover on their journey, Finnmark is also an aurora borealis region, and owing to the consistently clear skies and dry climate, the Finnmark’s city of Alta is a popular research location for studying the beautiful phenomenon. As Gerda leaves the beautiful region, she travels to her final destination: the Snow Queen’s palace, resting on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen.
Spitsbergen, which in reality is about 410 miles off the coast of Finnmark, is the largest and most populous island in the Svalbard Archipelago in Norway. There are more polar bears in Svalbard than people, and even more reindeer than polar bears and humans combined. Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen’s most populous town with a population of about 1,800, is the northernmost settlement in the entire world. Spitsbergen is also home to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which contains around 930,000 seed crop varieties in the event of a global disaster. But in 2017, due to
unusually high temperatures that melted the surrounding permafrost, the vault flooded, and guards had to be posted around the previously unprotected vault in the event of another disaster. Though the seeds were ultimately unharmed, it became painfully apparent how the growing threat of climate change was affecting preservation efforts.
From Sápmi to Finnmark to Spitsbergen, the regions that Gerda traverses have a couple things in common: they’re above the Arctic Circle, and they get a lot of snow. Due to the prevalence of the cold, the societies and economies in these places have adapted accordingly. The National Snow and Ice Data Center says that “Sámi reindeer herders in Northern Europe constantly monitor changes in snow conditions, so their herds can find areas to graze in a variety of different snow types and snow depths.” The people and animals that live in these areas (like Ba!) have evolved specifically and spectacularly for ice, snow, and cold. But due to the effects of climate change, the climate of these regions when "The Snow Queen" takes place is markedly different from the conditions of
these areas today. Places north of the Arctic Circle are bearing the brunt of climate change. Longyearbyen of Spitsbergen is the fastest warming town in the world, with average annual temperatures increasing approximately five times faster than the global average.
According to Nordic Cooperation, whose vision is to make the Nordic region the most sustainable place in the world, “the Nordic governments are deeply concerned about glaciers and sea ice melting faster than previously expected.” These Nordic countries are working together to find solutions, but they can’t do it without the support of the rest of the world’s citizens. Biking or walking instead of driving, eating more plant-based food, and buying second-hand all reduce our carbon footprint. We can also raise our voices by talking to friends and family, being vocal on social media, and calling elected officials to let them know we care about the warming climate. It takes a village to prevent Spitsbergen and the Nordic region from becoming places where it’s always summer like the Flower Queen’s garden.
aurora Borealis oVer sáPmi, finland.
The Hero's Journey
by Nora Sørena Casey
Although the magical world of The Snow Queen is Hans Christian Andersen’s own creation, Gerda’s journey to save her playmate is part of a well-established literary genre: the bildungsroman. A German word combining “education” (bildung) and “novel” (roman), the term describes novels about the development of a protagonist who goes out into the world and through adventures reaches a new level of understanding. While bildungsroman is not exclusively used to describe coming-of-age stories, the archetypal example of a child’s quest that ends in both new understanding and a loss of innocence pervades literature, perhaps because the journey to adulthood is one quest that no one can avoid.
Quests of self-discovery date back to the earliest known mythology, but the history of the bildungsroman as a way to classify and understand literature is more recent. Christoph Martin Wieland’s Geschichte des Agathon (1766–67; History of Agathon) has been cited as the first novel to explore the coming-of-age themes, but the most influential example of the genre is thought to be J.W. von Goethe’s Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (1795–96; Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship), the story of a young man’s rejection of bourgeois professions in an attempt to realize his true calling. Other famous examples include the adventures of a quirky orphan girl in Anne of Green Gables (1908) by L.M. Montgomery, J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye (1951) about a prep school runaway, and Khaled Hossenini’s The Kite Runner (2003) which follows an Afghan boy’s journey to adulthood amidst national turmoil.
Yet this wide variety of stories is united by a similarity in their means to personal discovery. In his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), Joseph Campbell outlines 12 major phases of the traditional quest, which he argues are “the basic motif of the universal hero’s journey—leaving one condition and finding the source of life to bring you forth into a richer or mature condition.” A number of folk tales, novels, and films fit his model perfectly— including The Snow Queen
After opening the story by showing “the ordinary world,” Campbell argues that the second phase of the hero’s journey is the “call to adventure,” where something changes the conditions of the hero’s life, initiating the need for a quest. In The Snow Queen, Gerda’s adventure becomes imperative once Kai disappears and she is left alone. In Star Wars: A New Hope (1977), the conditions first change when Luke Skywalker see Princess Leia’s message asking for help. Yet the “call” may not seem like it will lead to great personal transformation, as in Herman Melville’s novel Moby-Dick (1851): “Whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet . . . then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.” Off he goes, and what could have been a simple voyage leads to a vivid exploration of human nature.
In Campbell’s theory, meaningful adventure becomes possible once the hero “crosses the threshold” and leaves the ordinary world. In The Snow Queen this is the moment when Gerda is taken away from her home by the river, after which she enters into a world filled with “tests, allies, and enemies” (the sixth phase). Be it through fortune, fate, or magic, the world presents challenges and opportunities for heroes to learn and prove their worth. There are many religious examples of how a series of smaller tests are given before a person can achieve their
illustration from an early edition of moBy-diCk.
ultimate quest: the Gospels describe how Jesus encountered the devil three times in the desert before he emerged with his message, and a story of the Buddha says that he encountered the Lord of Lust, the Lord of Death, and the Lord of Social Duty, and only after his resistance to all three did he achieve illumination.
Andersen’s fairy tale environment similarly rewards inner strength: the river, the flowers, the birds, and the beasts all respond to Gerda’s innocence and goodness, and their support is pivotal to her mission. Andersen’s emphasis on the power of love over logic— symbolized by the icy Snow Queen versus the innocent child—ties into a larger discussion of romantic values. Gerda’s journey is one of many bildungsroman quests where a magical world allows children to encounter challenges with deeper symbolic meanings. This tradition has been continued through later works like C. S. Lewis’s series The Chronicles of Narnia, where a magical journey leads to maturity using Christian symbolism, or Philip Pullman’s series His Dark Materials, which responded to Lewis by developing the quest through a series of secular goals. By granting a deeper significance to the challenges the hero faces, each of these stories suggest a certain set of values that are important for adulthood.
After the protagonist has proven their worth, the ultimate challenge of the quest still remains: achieving the goal they initially set out for, and returning home. “You leave the world
that you’re in,” Campbell says. “You come to what was missing in your consciousness in the world you formerly inhabited. Then comes the problem of either of staying with that, and letting the world drop off, or returning with that boon and trying to hold onto it as you move back into your social world again. That’s not an easy thing to do.” Yet it is the achievement of both that creates the true development of the character, making the myth and the bildungsroman a story about personal growth, education, and maturity, not success.
The range of works that fit within the genre make it clear that these stories of maturity need not be about people of a certain age, from a certain society, or end a certain way. Rather, through their variety they are able to speak to different identities and different circumstances of the individual’s struggle to understand themself. For example, Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) ends with Huck’s declaration, “I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can’t stand it.” In contrast, Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) closes with Scout’s description of her father, Atticus, sitting by his injured son Jem: “He would be in Jem’s room all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning.” Both these novels end with a final realization about each character’s place in the world: Huck is a young man who has realized the need for his own independence, while Scout’s narration emphasizes the importance and security of her place within her family.
The variety of conclusions that a hero may draw demonstrates the importance of fairy tales like "The Snow Queen:" a child has a different perspective and relationship to the world than an adult. It makes sense that each story ends with a different portrait of maturity, because as we grow older the quests that speak to us—and the understanding that we achieve—must also change. These stories allow us a source of entertainment, but also a means to reflect on what is important. As Andersen wrote in "The Snow Queen," “Let us begin, for when we reach the end we will know more than we do now.”
The Snow Queen's gerda, laura darrell (aea) at tHe first readtHrougH.
Mother, Maiden, Crone
by previous Portland Stage apprentices, edited and updated by Larsen Nichols
In addition to the Hero’s Journey, Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen” calls on another archetype: the Mother, the Maiden, and the Crone. From Gerda to the Snow Queen, and many characters in between, the female characters in this story fit into three classic fairy tale tropes. The archetypes of the Mother, Maiden, and Crone (or Wise Woman) date all the way back to goddess worship in prehistory. The goddess is generally viewed not as a singular being, but as a triad, each representing a phase of the moon and a phase in the traditional female life cycle. Owing to their ancient origins and cultural importance, the Mother, Maiden, and Crone hold a powerful presence in fairy tales and folklore, and almost every female character in such stories falls into at least one of these three categories.
Many different world religions, past and present, use the triple goddess in their mythologies. The Greek pantheon has many combinations of goddesses portrayed as triple goddesses. One of the most notable of these triple goddesses is Hecate, goddess of magic and witchcraft, who fits into the archetype of the Crone and is often portrayed with three heads or bodies. But Hecate is also represented in other goddess triads with deities like Hebe, the goddess of youth and immortality (Maiden), and Hera, the goddess of marriage and childbirth (Mother). Another of these combinations includes Hecate as Crone; Artemis, virgin goddess of the hunt and the moon, as Maiden; and the moon herself, Selene, as Mother.
But not all triple goddesses strictly represent Maiden/Mother/Crone; some represent different parts of the life cycle. In Hinduism, the Devi Shakti (or Divine Mother) is sometimes represented by three entities: Parvati (the Creator), Durga (the Preserver), and Kali (the Destroyer). Still some other triple goddesses, like the Irish war goddess Morrígan, who is often interpreted as three sisters, are more fluctuating in role division. All of these goddesses are extremely powerful and linked to essential forces such as life, creation, and destruction. These goddesses’ stories provide
HeCate, tHe greek triPle goddess.
tHe Hindu goddess durga, figHting maHisHasura, tHe Buffalo-demon.
surprisingly empowering portrayals of women in largely patriarchal societies.
A look at early goddess worship provides useful insight on portrayals of women in original fairy tales, including "The Snow Queen." In these original fairy tales, it is often the woman who seeks and saves: Gretel saves Hansel, Beauty becomes the Beast’s captive in her father’s stead. The maidens of older fairy tales have narrative agency; they are active transformers as well as those whose transformations we witness most clearly. In Gerda’s journey in "The Snow Queen," other modern-day misconceptions about women in fairy tales are shattered as well. Both of the women she encounters in Sápmi on her quest are supportive, helpful and accommodating. Each character that Gerda encounters comes around to helping her, and even the Snow Queen herself doesn’t particularly hinder her, a departure from the conniving characters of many other fairy tale crones.
The idea of powerful women, however, was a threat to the sexist order of older societies, and a sense of danger frequently accompanies such female figures. Storytellers often compensated for this sensation with the creation of stunted, passive maidens, or embodied it in cruel, wicked older women. Maiden characters tend to be passive, adopting a “Someday, My Prince Will Come” attitude. The examples are numerous: Sleeping Beauty, trapped in endless slumber until her true love’s kiss; Cinderella, stuck in servitude until the intervention of a fairy godmother and
Prince Charming; and Rapunzel, locked in a tower until her prince arrives.
Wise women appear most often in one of four guises: royalty, witches, crones, and, of course, the infamous stepmother. Whether enchantress or queen, all of these women are characterized by both their wits and the value they place in logic and order. Over the course of their journeys, maidens are often pitted against these older and wiser women, like Rapunzel and the sorceress who imprisons her, or Snow White and the Evil Queen. Gerda’s journey in "The Snow Queen" follows in this tradition, where Gerda must face the Flower Queen and her enchanted garden and rescue Kai from the Snow Queen’s spell.
Whether or not other female characters are successful like Gerda, the women in fairy tales are strong, seeking, and saving. No matter if they are cold and reasonable or warm and maternal; or standing on the brink of their own transformation or sparking that transformation in someone else, the women of fairy tales are challenging and complex characters. On the stage, it's rare to find a play with as many strong central female characters as The Snow Queen. As these vibrant women step out of the story and onto the stage, their power is sure to be transformative.
tHe eVil Queen from disney's Snow whiTe, 1937.
illustration of Hansel, gretel, and tHe witCH.
Fairy Tales
by Micki Demby Kleinman
Myths, folktales, fables, legends, and fairy tales: these stories have been passed down orally from one generation to the next for millennia. Fairy tales are beloved by many, although what defines the genre is a bit elusive. At first glance, a simple definition of a fairy tale would be a story that contains a magical element such as witches, spells, enchantments, and creatures. Marcia Lane, the author of Picturing the Rose: A Way of Looking at Fairy Tales proposes a definition for fairy tales by explaining what it is not. Lane asserts: “If it happens ‘at the beginning of the world,’ then it is a myth. A story that names a specific ‘real’ person is a legend (even if it contains a magical occurrence). A story that happens in the future is a fantasy.” Jack Zipes, a distinguished fairy tale scholar, argues that a fairy tale is unique in that it is a story of the oral tradition which is written down. Zipes details the fairy tale’s journey from its humble beginnings to its canonized present version.
Current perception of fairy tales is of sanitized, moralized stories with happy endings for the heroes. However, this is not how fairy tales began. The stories that we currently know and love in the Western canon began as “wonder tales” in the late Middle Ages. Wonder tales were stories for people of all ages passed between those in Europe’s lower class. These stories spoke of wish fulfillment and hopes for personal advancement. In contrast to society’s value for tradition, rationality, and logic, wonder tales valued the spectacular beauty of the world, curiosity, and exploration. The lower class would pass along these stories to their employers in the upper class, although the tales were ultimately not considered fit for “polite society.” Travelers, wanderers, sailors, and merchants told these tales as a way to entertainment, amuse, and connect. Eventually, due to the stories’ popularity, priests began Christianizing wonder tales and incorporating them into sermons.
Scholar Jack Zipes argues that a key element to fairy tales is their dialogue with society and
its values, and whether fairy tales perpetuate or subvert these values. Zipes argues that another distinguishing aspect of fairy tales as a genre, is their being written down. In France in the mid-1600s, upper-class women would hold literary salons and share wonder tales regarding love, courtship, and power, as a way of commenting on society. Additionally, they would often write their tales down beforehand, and practice them to appear as quick-witted and intellectual as possible in the moment. Throughout the 1600s, fairy tales continued to be written down and the category of “literary fairy tales” expanded. These “literary fairy tales” often were used by the upper-class as a means of entertaining and critiquing political powers. There was a chasm in the way in which the lower class and the upper class would engage with fairytales.
Another way that fairy tales evolved was in their content matter. Originally fairy tales were for
Fairy TaLeS By Hans CHristian andersen Book CoVer, 1872.
all ages, including adults; the content would sometimes be bawdy or erotic or anything in between. However, over the course of the 1800s, fairy tales for upper-class children were often made more moralistic and Christian than they had been, and aimed to instill good manners. With the rise of the middle class, and the romanticized notion of childhood, fairy tales as children’s entertainment began to take hold.
The sanitization of fairy tales can be seen through the work of brothers Jacob and Wilhem Grimm. The Brothers Grimm were German philology scholars, scholars who worked to preserve history and culture through literature. In 1812 the Brothers Grimm published their first book, an amalgamation of fairy tales they gathered from friends and scholars alike. Throughout the course of their career they published six more anthologies. These publications were meant to be a tool in the study and preservation of German Volk culture, rather than entertainment. The earlier editions contained stories with adult themes, while the later editions were more sanitized and childfriendly to appeal to upper-class audiences.
Another prolific fairy tale writer living and writing at the same time as the Brothers
Grimm was Hans Christian Andersen, although their approaches to the literary tradition are quite distinct. Unlike the Brothers Grimm who aimed to record and preserve existing fairy tales, Andersen sought to create original works. Drawing on humble wonder tales from his childhood, Andersen created new fairy tales which became sensational hits. Well-known Andersen originals include “The Emperor's New Clothes,” “The Little Mermaid,” “The Princess and the Pea,” “The Ugly Duckling,” and “The Snow Queen.” In his fairy tales, Anderson managed to balance morality, entertainment, and Christian sentiments in a way that enthralled readers young and old alike.
Portland Stage is continuing the tradition of keeping fairy tales alive and full of wonderment, curiosity, and magic, while adapting them for our current times and values. Our script for Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen strikes some of the religious salvation themes, instead empowering Gerda and giving her the agency to save herself and her friend Kai. With this adaptation, Portland Stage keeps the legacy of "The Snow Queen" alive, while empowering women and young people, and allowing it to resonate with our current time.
illustration of hanSeL and GreTeL, a german fairy tale written By tHe BrotHers grimm.
PHotogrPH of tHe BrotHers JaCoB grimm and wilHem grimm, CirCa 1847.
Post-Show Activities
by Charlie Bowen & Sadie Goldstein
1. By the end of the play, Gerda and Kai have grown older. What kind of person do you want to be when you are older? What goals do you want to achieve? Draw a picture of an older version of yourself that illustrates how you have changed and what you have achieved.
2. In the pre-show activity section you are asked to read the poem “Hope is the thing with feathers" by Emily Dickinson. Has the way you feel about this poem changed after watching The Snow Queen? How does Gerda’s journey connect to what is being spoken by the narrator of “Hope is the thing with feathers?" Are there specific scenes in the show that remind you of certain lines in the poem? Discuss these questions with a partner.
3. In the Focus Questions, you are asked to consider what you think of when you hear the phrase “fairy tale.” Did The Snow Queen meet your expectations? Was there anything about The Snow Queen that surprised you? Was there anything that confused you? If you were to rewrite the story, is there anything you would change?
4. The Snow Queen includes music, composed by Hans Indigo Spencer, that is sung throughout the show. Why do you think there was music at these points? How did the music make you feel? Discuss these questions with a partner.
sHannon CamPBell & Breezy leigH (aea) at tHe first readtHrougH of The Snow Queen.
Draw Your Own Ice Castle
Unscramble The Jumbled Words
Snow Queen Word Search
Help Gerda Find Kai
Snow Queen Recipes
Ba’s Bark
A treat loved by Reindeer the world over.
Gluten Free!
Baked Snowballs
Prep: 10 minutes. Cook: 40 minutes. Ready in 50
• Wax paper
• Large Ziplock or plastic bag
• Double boiler or microwave
Directions:
1: Remove wrappers from candy canes and coarsely chop, or put them in a bag and hit them with a hammer.
2: Melt white chocolate in a double boiler or microwave.
3: Add enough green food coloring to the melted white chocolate to reach a pale green color.
4: Stir in 2/3 of the chopped candy canes.
5: Pour into a 9 x 13 inch dish that has been lined with wax paper sprayed with a little Pam. Refrigerate until set.
6: Melt the semi-sweet chocolate and spread over the white chocolate.
7: Sprinkle on the remaining candy canes, pressing gently into the chocolate. Refrigerate until set. Break into pieces to eat!
• 12 vanilla or chocolate wafer cookies, or six
• Chocolate syrup, sprinkles, and Maraschino
1: Break each cookie or slice of cake into several small pieces and divide them evenly among six 3-inch ramekins, pressing them into the bottom of each. Fill each ramekin with ice cream. Place the ramekins on a cookie sheet in the freezer while you prepare the snow (meringue).
2: Heat the oven to 500º. Place the egg whites in your bowl and whip them with the beater at medium-high speed until they resemble soap bubbles. Add the cream of tartar and continue beating until soft peaks form (now it will look like shaving cream). While you continue beating, add the sugar 1 tablespoon at a time and then the vanilla extract. Continue beating until shiny, stiff peaks form, about 2 minutes.
3: Remove the ramekins from the freezer and spread the snow meringue over the top of each with a spatula, taking care to completely cover the ice cream. Bake the snowballs on the cookie sheet until the tops are golden brown, about 1 to 3 minutes, watching carefully. Garnish the snowballs with chocolate syrup, sprinkles, and cherries, and serve. Makes 6.
Read
Recommended Resources
by Editors
“The Snow Queen” by Hans Christian Andersen
“The Emperors New Clothes” by Hans Christian Andersen
“The Little Match Girl” by Hans Christian Andersen
“The Ugly Duckling” by Hans Christian Andersen
The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson
The Grimms Brothers Fairy Tales
Watch
Hans Christian Andersen by Charles Vidor
Disney’s Fantasia 2000
The Red Shoes by Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell
Disney’s Frozen
Apple TV’s Dickinson
ABC’s Once Upon a Time
Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine
The Lure by Agnieszka Smoczyńska
Get Involved
Volunteer at the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine
Volunteer with The Locker Project
Get involved with The Telling Room
tHomas ian CamPBell & laura darrell (aea) at tHe first readtHrougH of The Snow Queen.
Portland Stage Company Education Programs
Student Matinee Series
The Portland Stage Student Matinee Program provides students with discounted tickets for student matinees. Following the performance, students participate in a conversation with the cast and crew, which helps them gain awareness of the creative process and encourages them to think critically about the themes and messages of the play.
Play Me a Story
Experience the fun and magic of theater on Saturday mornings with Play Me a Story! Ages 4 – 10 enjoy a performance of children’s stories followed by an interactive acting workshop with Portland Stage’s Education Artists for $15. Sign up for the month and save or pick individual days that work for you. Build literacy, encourage creativity and spark dramatic dreams!
Shakespeare Teen Company
In April and May of 2025, students will come together as an ensemble to create a fully-staged Shakespeare production in Portland Stage’s studio theater. Participants in grades 7-12 take on a variety of roles including acting, costume design, marketing, and more!
Vacation and Summer Camps
Dive into theater for five exciting days while on your school breaks! Our theater camps immerse participants in all aspects of theater, culminating in an open studio performance for friends and family at the end of the week! Camps are taught by professional actors, directors, and artisans. Students are invited to think imaginatively, critically, and creatively in an environment of inclusivity and safe play.
PLAY Program
An interactive dramatic reading and acting workshop tour for elementary school students in grades pre-k through 5. Professional education artists perform children’s literature and poetry and then involve students directly in classroom workshops based on the stories. Artists actively engage students in in small group workshop using their bodies, voices, and imaginations to build understanding of the text while bringing the stories and characters to life. PLAY helps develop literacy and reading fluency, character recall, understanding of themes, social emotional skills, physical storytelling, and vocal characterization. The program also comes with a comprehensive Resource Guide filled with information and activities based on the books and poems.
Directors Lab
Professional actors perform a 50-minute adaptation of a Shakespeare play, followed by a talkback. In 2025 we will be touring Hamlet to middle and high schools. After the performance, students engage directly with the text in an interactive workshop with the actors and creative team. In these workshops, students practice effective communication, creative collaboration, rhetoric, and critical analysis. The program also comes with a comprehensive Resource Guide filled with information and resources about the play we are focusing on. Directors Lab puts Shakespeare’s language into the hands and mouths of the students, empowering them to be the artists, directors, and ensemble with the power to interpret the text and produce meaning.
Portland Stage Company
Anita Stewart Artistic Director
Martin Lodish Managing Director
Artistic & Production Staff
Todd Brian Backus Literary Manager
Jacob Coombs Associate Technical Director
Ted Gallant Technical Director
Myles C. Hatch Stage Manager
Meg Lydon Stage Manager
Elliot Nye Props Coordinator
Mary Lana Rice Production Manager, Lighting Supervisor, & Resident Lighting Designer
Seth Asa Sengel Asst. Production Manager, Sound Supervisor, & Resident Sound Designer
Susan Thomas Costume Shop Manager
Administrative Staff
Paul Ainsworth Business Manager
Beka Bryer Audience Services Associate
Covey Crolius Development Director
Chris DeFilipp Audience Services Associate
Erin Elizabeth Marketing & Communications Director
Cassie Endicott Audience Services Associate
Allison Fry Grants Coordinator
Aressa Goodrich Marketing and Graphic Design Associate
Lindsey Higgins Development Associate
Katie Hodgdon House & Concessions Manager
Savannah Irish Marketing Assistant
Jennifer London Company Manager, Apprentice Coordinator
Renee Myhaver Assistant Box Office Manager
Carrigan O'Brian Audience Services Associate
Stacey Salotto-Cristobol Education Assistant
Don Smith Audience Services Manager
Julianne Shea Education Administrator, Apprentice Coordinator
Adam Thibodeau House Manager
Michael Dix Thomas Education Director
Apprentice Company
Charlie Bowen Education Apprentice
Kevin Commander Stage Management Apprentice
Renata Cortés Costumes Apprentice
Sadie Goldstein Education Apprentice
Micki Demby Kleinman Directing & Dramaturgy Apprentice
Kimmarie McCrann Directing & Dramaturgy Apprentice
Larsen Nichols Directing & Dramaturgy Apprentice
Casey Pitts Company Management Apprentice
Jessica Podemski Costumes Apprentice
Sierra Riley Electrics Apprentice
Grάinne Sheehan Props Apprentice
Charlotte Teplitz Stage Management Apprentice
