Beauty

About

Tina Landau’s Beauty is a contemporary, adult adaptation of Sleeping Beauty, drawing on Perrault and the Brothers Grimm. Developed through university workshops and a compositional directing process, the production blends medieval and modern worlds, using a flexible scenic design by Riccardo Hernandez, costumes by Melina Root, and lighting by Scott Zielinski. Original music and sound by Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen (including several songs that mix medieval lyrics with new material) deepen the work’s dreamlike atmosphere. The piece interrogates the happy-ending myth and the very idea of beauty, reframing the tale through Constance, a crone whose perspective complicates power and desire. With an ensemble that included UCSD MFA students from early workshops, the staging aims for a primal yet stylized dreamscape. The result is a visually rich, collaboratively built theatre work that explores agency, love, and awakening across centuries.