The Fairest
High School Edition
available
The women at the Disney Studio rush to finish Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in time for Christmas, 1937.
There's little time, little pay, and no air conditioning.
It was called "The Nunnery," a separate building where women did the final inking and painting of frames. Only men were allowed to animate.
A talented young painter, Frances, feels emotionally connected to her work, but distant from her colleagues.
After workplace upheavals, she gets an important task: changing the color of Snow White's dress. Frances must repaint the original Disney princess frame by frame.
Exhausted by overtime into the hot California nights, she begins imaginary conversations with Snow White, who only echoes Frances' toxic shame, tells her confounding predictions about generations who will love and hate the movie, and doles out friendship advice, all to disastrous effect.
Can Frances become friends with anyone, her colleagues, or even herself? Or is she the very first of billions to seek refuge in the imaginary friendship of a Disney princess?
Written by Cameron Darwin Bossert ("a keen observer of the American media landscape" - The New York Times), The Fairest was first produced by Thirdwing at The Wild Project Theater in NYC in 2021, and at the 2024 Ohio Thespian Conference by Akron School for the Arts.
"Fantastic. Enchanting.
A richly drawn and thoroughly absorbing look at the women in Disney's ink and paint department as they crunch to finish Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The Fairest may not offer a happily ever after, it instead provides a deft mix of humor and psychological drama inflected by its historical specificity, and it keeps surprising the audience right through its striking ending." -Thinking Theater
"Excellent. Fascinating. Provocative.
The show provides a mirror to many of the problems and expectations in the workforce today, augmented by a disdainful attitude towards women. The Fairest isn’t an indictment of Walt Disney or the studio, per say, but it functions as a safe place to air out our current angst." -Reviews Off Broadway
"Fascinating.
A really compelling story told with a feminist angle, and still sadly relevant today. [Bossert] has written a smart and polished script, and treats his subject with the utmost respect."
-Round the World Stage
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