“There once was a woman who wanted so very much to have a tiny little child, but she did not know where to find one. So she went to an old witch, and she said: “I have set my heart upon having a tiny little child. Please could you tell me where I can find one?”
“Why, that’s easily done,” said the witch. “Here’s a grain of barley for you, but it isn’t at all the sort of barley that farmers grow in their fields or that the chickens get to eat. Put it in a flower pot and you’ll see what you shall see.”
“Oh thank you!” the woman said. She gave the witch twelve pennies, and planted the barley seed as soon as she got home. It quickly grew into a fine large flower, which looked very much like a tulip. But the petals were folded tight, as though it were still a bud.
“This is such a pretty flower,” said the woman. She kissed its lovely red and yellow petals, and just as she kissed it the flower gave a loud pop! and flew open. It was a tulip, right enough, but on the green cushion in the middle of it sat a tiny girl. She was dainty and fair to see, but she was no taller than your thumb. So she was called Thumbelina.”
-Hans Christian Anderson, Thumbelina
The enchanting beginning of Hans Christian Anderson’s Thumbelina has the title character magically appearing out of a flower, and Dance Director Bev Wilson wanted to recreate this moment on stage in the Reif Dance production of Thumbelina!
The production staff of myself, Greg Johnson and Melanie McCoy along with the Artistic Directors, Bev Wilson and Katie Smith met to discuss the scenes and set pieces needed for Thumbelina. The piece that seemed the most complicated was having Thumbelina appear out of the flower. We batted around several ideas, including using puppets, shadow play or projections. Eventually Greg suggested a large flower prop that the dancer who plays Thumbelina would be in and then revealed by falling petals. Building the flower would fall upon Greg and he was excited because he loves a challenge!
We began by searching online for images of Thumbelina’s flower to help spark some ideas for the look of the flower. We also searched for any videos or instructions for making giant flowers with people inside! Sometimes you get lucky and find a video from someone else who has already built one. We did find some videos of a Thumbelina ballet that showed a couple of possible solutions. In one the dancer knelt down in the middle of some large petals and just stood up to reveal herself. In another video, the petals completely enclose the dancer. It appears she pushes out on them and all the petals fall flat to the floor for the reveal.
Greg took these ideas, filtered them through his own thoughts on the flower and came up with some plans of his own!
“During our Thumbelina production meeting, we discussed various ideas of how the reveal of Thumbelina would occur. I suggested having a giant flower open up to reveal Thumbelina. I didn’t know exactly how it would work, but I had a few idea! Luckily, the first production meeting happens early enough to give me time to think and do research before I begin building.”
“Shortly before building the flower, I talked with Bev to get more information about how she wanted to use the flower and any other requirements for it. Then I drew up some plans, built a mock-up of one of the petals, bounced a few ideas around with Buzz and showed Bev my concept to make sure it was what she wanted.”
“I usually have a favorite piece when I build a set. For Moana it was her outrigger boat, for Annie it was the New York City stoop, for Alice in Wonderland it was the giant foot-stomping Alice and for Little Mermaid it was Ariel’s grotto. If the flower works on stage like it does in my head, then it will be my favorite piece from Thumbelina!”
At the time of this writing, we are still five weeks away from opening night, so you will have to come to the show to see the final product!
In addition to Greg’s flower, Melanie is working on oversized cattails and flowers and I’m working on ideas for lighting! After appearing from her flower, Thumbelina has many more adventures! She is captured by frogs who bring her to their swamp, attends the Beetle Ball in a jazz club and goes to a wedding in a fairyland forest!
These will be some of the many magical moments in the Reif Dance production of Thumbelina, and we think the flower will be a highlight!
The Reif Dance production of Thumbelina is June 7th & 8th at 7pm and June 9th at 2pm!
