They’re hoping for a happily-ever-after.
A pair of comediennes will host a night of funny, fractured fairy tales to raise cash for kids who have been lost in the woods of government bureaucracy. “Pretty Grimm,” at Littlefield in Gowanus on Aug. 8, will raise awareness and funds for the Florence Project, a group that helps detained immigrants in Arizona. The show’s creators hope that the fairy tale characters will make audience members think about their own childhoods, and about the plight of immigrant kids torn from their parents.
“I was thinking about the detained kids, and how to keep them at the forefront of people’s minds when they’re donating,” said Carroll Gardens resident Alexandria Iona, who created the show with fellow comedian Kate Villa, of Manhattan. “We thought we could do that by giving people a fun, boundless show that was generally untapped in comedy.”
During the show, more than 30 performers will each deliver a two-minute monologue as their favorite fairy tale character, with appearances from the Little Mermaid, Captain Hook, the Big Bad Wolf, and Cinderella’s evil stepsisters, among others. Several performers will also sing original, fairy tale-inspired songs.
Iona hopes the format will allow the funny people to tap into their more creative sides.
“This is very much about the whole character and using their voice and the body and costume — it gives them a little bit more freedom than just telling jokes,” she said.
Iona will take the stage as the title character from “The Princess and the Pea,” searching for a comfortable bed in a mattress store. And Villa will perform as a “hipper-than-Cinderella’s” fairy godmother who gambles away her savings at a casino, she said.
“Basically I’m taking this character who I know so well and putting her in the situation of that friend who’s always like, ‘I left my wallet at home,’ ” she said.
Villa hopes that when the audience finishes laughing, they feel spurred to help children who are still in immigration custody.
“I think it’s really important that they don’t fall out of the news — when they do fall out of the news, they fall out of the public consciousness,” she said. “We shouldn’t be moving on until something is fixed.”
“Pretty Grimm” at Littlefield (635 Sackett St. between Third and Fourth avenues in Gowanus, www.littl
