Village Fable, A (90-Minute Version)
by James Still, John Gardner, Michael Keck

"This is a song about some stories that you've never been told/Stories kept secret from the young by the old/There's a Village in a Valley next to mountains in the sky/A Village in a Valley where a River ran dry."

An incredible journey of humor, heart and heroes, A Village Fable is a musical fable about three souls who are shunned for being different: Chudu the Goat-Man, Armida the blacksmith's daughter, and Prince Christopher the violin-playing heir to the throne.

These three stories weave in and out of each other, intertwining and finally overlapping when each character is pushed to the brink by pressures to conform to social, political and gender roles.

Individually, Chudu, Armida and Prince Christopher head up into the mountains to jump.

Once on the road, their paths not only intersect with each other and the dreaded Six-Fingered Man,they also come face-to-face with,them-selves!

Originally commissioned by the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum and premiered by the Honolulu Theatre for Youth, A Village Fable was developed in part with the support of New Visions/New Voices at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and in part with the support of the Sundance Playwrights Laboratory.

Area staging.

Approximate running time: 90 minutes.