My thesis work dealt with how we can still feel the presence of fairy tales in our adult lives, and I was consistently asked when talking about this work why I didn't work with children.  My short answer to this was that I don't have children of my own to photograph.  I had this conversation with Dr. Michael J. Emme of the University of Victoria while sitting next to him at a conference, and he so generously suggested that I work with child actors.  I met with Roseanne Sheridan and Terry Kerr of the Children's Theater of Madison, who graciously accepted my proposal and allowed me access to their summer drama camp in 2008 which was producing, coincidentally enough, "Once Upon A Mattress". 

Each actor sat for a session with me on the afternoon of June 27 2008 and was asked to act, for the camera, three different characters culled from a list of literary/fairy tale keywords (i.e. wicked, princess, dragon, ogre, king, brave.)  The models were challenged to react in a way that would communicate their character in a still photograph - a knowledge of fairy tale themes and archetypes were necessary to make each image successful.  

The title of this series comes from the fairy tale tradition of children in the woods (Babes in the Wood, Hansel and Gretel, Snow White, Baba Yaga, etc.) and the Stephen Sondheim musical of the same name. 

Special thanks to CTM interns turned photo assistants Kelly Schmidt and Brian Cowing, and to  Nick Potts for creating the backdrop.