Director’s Notes
This is my first year at Ayala and my first production with this amazing cast and crew. From the moment I arrived, I’ve been welcomed with heart, enthusiasm, and support. It’s a gift to join a community that values the arts, and an honor to step into this space with such a committed team.
There’s a boxing analogy I love: “Styles make fights,” a phrase credited to matchmaker Teddy Brenner. Theater works the same way. If the play is one boxer, then the actors and audience are the other. Each style demands something different. You have to respond, move, and adapt.
A musical brings spectacle and precision. Shakespeare demands language and emotion. Brothers Grimm? What you’re about to see is a meta, comedic fairy-tale mashup that reflects how we experience stories now. It asks you to lean in, let go of logic, and enjoy the chaos. The mess is intentional.
This show is an orchestrated mess, and that’s its charm. It feels like doom-scrolling through social media at midnight: one clip leads to another, some funny, some confusing, some oddly familiar. The Brothers Grimm first published their tales in 1812. Don Zolidis reimagined them for today. And we, the Ayala Theatre Company, bring them to life with full commitment and a healthy dose of absurdity.
It might not have big musical numbers or Elizabethan poetry, but it has its own challenge. Characters, props, and storylines fly by fast. That’s what makes it the right show for 2025—chaotic, playful, and a little weird, yet somehow it all works. Like watching a TikTok reel explode on stage in the best way.
At its core, this show deconstructs the fairy tale. It flips patterns, rewrites endings, and pokes fun at stories we think we know. Beneath the humor, it asks: What happens when stories get retold? What sticks? What disappears? Are we telling these tales to understand something, or just to entertain?
We hope this show connects the past and the present, bringing “once upon a time” into the now. Most of all, we hope you laugh, engage with the madness, and see something old in a completely new light.
Thank you for being here. Enjoy the show.
Let’s get ready to rumble!
Mr. Jaime Tintor
Director
