Prince Street Players

[slmlbl]

Posted: 6/20/10 at 9:35am

Hey all,

Just a curious question. Looking for any infor on 'The prince street players'. MTI licenses several of their shows and I am directing one in August. would love to more on the history of the group, if they are still around, reception of their shows, etc... any help would be appreciated.
Tried to look on google but only found MTI's website and a defunct webpage...

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/20/10 at 12:48pm

The Prince Street Players is one of the reasons why I love theater today. I saw their tours as a kid and have very fond memories of their shows.

They were a theater company that put on high quality children's shows using fairytales as their material. What was really great is that they knew how children's minds worked and the shows were geared toward them. They had a theater in NYC on Prince Street, although I've never been able to find anyone that could actually tell me the specific address. I saw all their productions during summers when they toured local high schools.

As for the actual material, I can't remember when it was good or bad, but I do remember certain things from their shows.

In The Emperor's New Clothes, the Empress was played by an older lady who was portrayed as a bit dotty. She carried around a trumpet and every so often would blow it in someone's ear. As a kid, that was hysterically funny. Thinking about it now, it sort of had a commedia dell'arte feel to it.

In Cinderella, when the footmen are going around trying to find out who the glass slipper belongs to, they went out into the audience and tried the slipper on three or four little girls.

I remember in The Swiss Family Robinson thinking that the set was the coolest I had ever seen. It was sort of like a fort with stairs, but it turned around (probably the actors had to shift it).

A couple of their shows were broadcast on tv in the 1960s. I have never been able to find copies of them. They may be sitting in the vaults at CBS.

Link

Updated On: 6/20/10 at 12:48 PM

[ggersten]

Posted: 6/20/10 at 3:54pm

Last year, I purchased DVDs of Pinochio, Jack and The Beanstalk, Emperor's New Clothes, and Aladdin. I got them from David Lile, who is/was the VP of Prince Street Players Ltd and was in the shows. The letterhead shows princestreetplayers.com, but it seems to be a dead page. He did not promise great quality - but the quality isn't too bad. His email is listed as [e-mail]. Don't know if it still works. He is/was in Florida.

Jack is great - as good as I remembered, Aladdin is kind of disturbing as it was done as a Chinese legend and well, none of the cast was Asian and it WAS the 1960s. Emporer is wonderous. Lile sent me cast lists and notes on the shows.