Interview: Women's Theatre Festival Artistic Director Ashley Popio Combines Art Forms to Elevate GOBLIN MARKET

"Morning and evening

Maids heard the goblins cry:

Come buy our orchard fruits,

Come buy, come buy."

So begins Christina Rosetti's poem "The Goblin Market," which explores the themes of temptation, sacrifice, and the loss of innocence and has been the subject of varied interpretations and creative adaptations ever since its publication in 1862.

One such adaptation is a musical version by Polly Pen and Peggy Harmon which premiered in 1985 and had a successful run off-Broadway at Circle in the Square.

This week, Pen and Harmon's piece opens at Burning Coal Theatre as part of The Women's Theatre Festival, and Director Ashley Popio says Rosetti's poem is as timely as ever.

"Here are two sisters that are coming of age and what happens to them is they dare to step off the path and they are attacked by goblins," she says. "And isn't that sort of a metaphor for what happens to us as women today if we dare to stray from the path."

"So, one of the reasons we chose to cast this show with one black sister and one white sister, is we wanted to show that through intersectional feminism, women supporting each other no matter what, putting sisterhood first, that we can indeed fight those goblins together and emerge triumphant," she adds.

The show, which marks the first time The Women's Theatre Festival has embarked on a musical, combines elements of theater, ballet, and classical music to create an air of magic, which Popio calls addictive.

"As a matter of fact, the poem came second to me," she says. "I found the musical first and the stunning orchestrations really grabbed me."

"It has these soaring melodies and harsh dissonance. It takes classical music and makes it relevant and contemporary."

And it's the synergy between the actors, the chamber music orchestra, and dancers from The Carolina Ballet that makes the production special.

"I think that combining art forms not only elevates both but opens the door to creativity and some solutions that you wouldn't necessarily consider if you remained in your own wheelhouse," she says. "Plus, when you combine two art forms, you combine two audiences. You get a show that appeals to both lovers of ballet and lovers and musicals."

Popio says while the poem can be interpreted as tackling timely subjects such as sexuality, addiction, and recovery, children will be able to appreciate the costumes, music, dancing, and set of this production.

"The goblins are both entertaining and slightly scary, and the set is this incredible treehouse with magical glowing fruit, so I think children would actually enjoy it a lot, as long as they're not the type of kid who gets scared."

"One of the things I think makes it appropriate for both children and adults, is that it can be understood on multiple levels," she says. "I think when children go, what they will see is goblins and dancers, and when adults go, I hope they catch some of the underlying structure that we have built into the small moments that reveal the multiple levels that are there in the poetry itself."

GOBLIN MARKET runs July 13 - 22 at Burning Coal Theatre. For more information visit:

https://www.womenstheatrefestival.com/goblin-market

Photo by Proctor Photographics.

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