Collegiate Times

The creature, Katie Griggs, looks out from the stage as the queen, played by Tierney Jones, tries to talk to her.

The play “Rumplestiltskin” will be performed in Blacksburg for the next two weeks as a part of the Summer Arts Festival, made possible by the Virginia Tech School of Performing Arts & Cinema and the Town of Blacksburg.

The production of “Rumplestiltskin” is presented by the Department of Theatre & Cinema at Virginia Tech and is directed by Michael Anthony Williams.

The storyline is based on a familiar19th-century Brothers Grimm fairy tale about a miller’s daughter who is falsely said to be able to spin straw into gold.

When the king demands that she spin him gold in three days or be executed, the miller’s daughter is aided by a creature who demands her first-born son in exchange for his work in spinning gold. Seeing no other option, she agrees.

The creature performs the task, allowing the miller’s daughter to marry the king and bear his child. When the creature comes to receive his payment, the only way that the miller’s daughter can spare her child is if she can guess the creature’s name.

“Rumplestiltskin” opens Thursday, June 23 at 2 p.m. and will run through July 2.

Performance dates and times can be found on the School of Performing Arts & Cinema website. All performances  of “Rumplestiltskin” are free to the public and will take place in Squires Studio Theatre.

The Department of Performing Arts & Cinema is opening “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)” this week as well.

Directed by Gregory Justice, this production is a “hysterical comic parody of all of the
plays of Shakespeare… (in shortened form),” according to the play’s description.

“The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)” opens Wednesday, June 22 at 7:30 p.m. and runs through July 2. 

Performance dates and times can be found on the School of Performing Arts & Cinema website. 

All performances of “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)” are free to the public and will take place in Theatre 101 on College Avenue.

A version of this article appeared in the Jun 23 issue of the Collegiate Times.