Interview: World Premiere ELLA ENCHANTED Author Gail Carson Levine Illuminates Magical Worlds

On a Sunday morning at Milwaukee's Intercontinental Hotel, First Stage hosted a brunch featuring world premiere Ella Enchanted author Gail Carson Levine. Levine answered questions from her primarily youthful audience alongside Director John Maclay's warm hospitality to the delight of her fans. After a charming duet from the show sung by Taylor Kass and Cole Winston Ella and Prince Char in the Brilliant Cast on stage later that afternoon, the audience eagerly anticipated hearing from Levine.

Levine's tiny frame belies her powerful vision for children's fiction, magic she conjures and attributes to her pursuit of "relentless revision." Currently Levine has published 23 children's books, including one debuting at the end of April, a prequel to "Two Princes of Bamarre," titled "The Lost Kingdom of Bamarre." Levine's illustrious career began with her first book, the one currently on stage "Ella Enchanted," published when she turned age 49 after ten years of writing. Begun as a project for one of Levine's writing classes, her teacher initially disliked the story, although her husband encouraged her to keep writing, he enjoyed her fairly tale with a twist. After countless revisions, Levine won her teacher over to finis and publish the award-winning book.

In the beginning, Levine wrote after working her full time job with the state of New York, which she did for 27 years. On her hour and a half commute to her home in Brewster, New York, she wrote from the age of 39 almost every day... something she continues to do, and told the children, she "can write anywhere, on a plane, in an airport, anywhere." Currently, she still resides in Brewster, living in a 1790 farm house where she describes, "the land is glacial," a secluded place to further her subsequent profession, author. A career which includes Levine's recent graduation from New York University with a Masters of Fine Arts in Poetry where she wrote her first edition of adult poetry. also in publication titled "Transient." This brings Levine's grand total of published work to 25 books.

After learning about her beginnings, someone asked what her favorite children's books were,what she read when she was a child. Levine admits she enjoyed "Anne of Green Gables," and was personally enamored with J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan." "I loved Peter," Levine told the audience, "And thought Wendy was an idiot for going back home."

Amid chuckles from the children, Levine adds. "I think we're in a 'Golden Age of children's literature right now...Lucky you."

Yes, lucky for First Stage audiences who attended the world premiere Ella Enchanted, continuing in the Todd Wehr Theater through May 1. Levine work shopped the first draft of the stage adaptation with Karen Zacharias and Deborah Wicks LaPuma, who wrote the play, music and lyrics for First Stage in collaboration with Maryland's Adventure Theatre MTC. Maclay explained that transitioning a full length novel into a 73 minute Theater for Young Audiences production requires streamlining the story.

In the First Stage Ella, several characters are condensed into Ella's friendship with Prince Char, so he takes on a greater role and place in the stage story, a challenge for the actor. Levine commented she loves the fact that when Ella opens her mother's book of magic in the play, the book is actually lit from within, and illuminates Ella's face, as if the magic of reading illuminates children's lives. She also commented that because the novel was optioned for a film, and actually produced, the 2004 movie continues to bring other children back to the book.

When personally asked about her novel Ella, Levine thoughtfully told her young writers she often finds inspiration in fairytales, asking the question why to what she finds difficult to understand in these stories. She began by explaining her questions regarding "Snow White" "Love at first sight in fairy tales in very peculiar. A kiss is a very serious thing. You don't walk away from a kiss. When the prince kisses the sleeping princess, all he knows about her is she is pretty and she doesn't snore. That might be the problem."

Amid a roomful of smiles, Levine expounded further regarding her Ella, a variation of "Cinderella." "Why did Cinderella need to be so obedient, I wondered,. .And when I did [think about this], the Fairy Godmother's gift, or curse, solved the problem [of Cinderella's obedience.] Then I love to revise, to make the story better. I often toss out hundreds of pages . In one book, I tossed out 900 pages. When I revise, the most i do is cut [pages]."

Then Levine answered a question about how she discovers all her problems for her writing-" I can't start writing until I have a problem....My job as a writer is to make my characters suffer, so my readers suffer, and they keep turning the pages to get out of their [the reader's] misery." Fairy tales are full of misery."

While there's plenty of misery in Ella Enchanted, there's girl power, too.... Levine mentioned, "All my books have girl power..Girls have agency in my books."

Levine's young women certainly grow and find their own personal way to thrive through these fictional worlds. In fact, the author mentioned her next book regards another young woman, the writing in process, will be titled "Ogre Enchanted." A reverse of "Beauty and the Beast" taken from the fairy tale "The False Prince." Levine retells this tale when she says, "In the original, the girl is turned into an old lady, and for personal reasons, I objected to that (the audience smiles)... And so I turned the old lady into an ogre. The problem with "Beauty and the Beast" is the Beast will return to a prince when someone, a young woman, says they will marry him. Well, what happens if the person who says she'll marry him is an awful person, or he doesn't like her. So, that's the problem I begin with trying to understand."

While the audience awaits Levine's next children's novel, the author signed her very first book as the brunch concluded before everyone moved to the Todd Wehr Theater for another thrilling performance of Ella Enchanted. At 1:00 p.m. the entire Brilliant Cast created fairy tale magic for new audiences. Featuring Kass and Winston playing the romantic leads, and Madison Penzkover and Mari Duckler performing the stepsister roles of Hattie and Olive, both casts present a delightful version of Levine's characters who eventually overcome their suffering through courage, pluck and perseverance. Whether someone be very young in age or merely in heart, First Stage and Levine create a thousand magical afternoons to believe in the ever- enchanted enlightening worlds of reading and theater.

First Stage continues to present the World Premiere Ella Enchanted in the Todd Wehr Theater at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts with the Brilliant Cast, Taylor Kass and Cole Winston along with the Ogres, pictured in the photo. For further information regarding the First Stage 30th Anniversary 2016-2017 season, or tickets please visit: www.firststage.org.

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