Thanks to the generosity of Peter Schneider, Stone Circle Pictures and Red Shoes Productions, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is thrilled to offer a special sneak preview to friends of BC/EFA of the much anticipated WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY, director Don Hahn and producer Schneider’s behind-the-scenes look at the decade that saw a transcendent resurrection of animation giant Walt Disney Studios, on Tuesday, March 16.
This exclusive 7:30PM screening will be held at The Directors Guild of America, 110 West 57th Street, between 6th and 7th Avenues.
Following the screening, there will be a discussion and Q & A with Don Hahn, Peter Schneider and Patrick Pacheco.
A very limited number of complimentary seats have been made available to BC/EFA friends and supporters.
Waking Sleeping Beauty is no fairytale. It is a story of clashing egos, out of control budgets, escalating tensions... and one of the most extraordinary creative periods in animation history.
Hahn and Schneider, key players at Walt Disney Studios Feature Animation during the mid 1980s, offer a behind-the-magic glimpse of the turbulent times the Animation Studio was going through and the staggering output of hits that followed over the next ten years. Artists polarized between the hungry young innovators and the old guard who refused to relinquish control, mounting tensions due to a string of box office flops, and warring studio heads create the backdrop for this fascinating story told with a unique and candid perspective from those who were there.
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Peter Schneider, Roy Disney and Jeffrey Katzenberg
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“It’s really a classic Hollywood story in that it reminds us that this town was built by a bunch of ambitious, eccentric and passionate artists, which included Walt Disney and his successors,” says veteran journalist Patrick Pacheco, who conducted the films interviews. |
Through internal memos, home movies, and a cast of characters featuring Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Roy Disney, alongside an amazing array of talented artists that includes Don Bluth, John Lasseter and Tim Burton, Waking Sleeping Beauty shines a light on Disney Animation’s darkest hours, greatest joys and its improbable renaissance.
In the recording studio, images from Waking Sleeping Beauty (left to right): The Lion King’s Nathan Lane;
Beauty and the Beast’s David Ogden Stiers, Angela Lansbury and Jerry Orbach; and from The Lion King, Matthew Broderick.
To learn more about Waking Sleeping Beauty and view a preview, click here.
We look forward to seeing you on March 16!
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Since 1994, the extraordinarily generous support of Disney Theatrical Productions has played a major role in Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS’ success and its ability to fulfill its mission.
The story of the creation of the animated films Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid and The Lion King as told in the documentary Waking Sleeping Beauty is the genesis of what became the acclaimed Tony Award winning Broadway incarnations of these beloved tales. Ironically it was the move in the mid 1980s of one of Broadway’s most promising composer and lyricist team, Alan Menkin and the late Howard Ashman, into animation with Disney that sparked the remarkable renaissance of the once fabled animation studios and would, a decade later, launch the extraordinary success of Disney Theatrical Productions on Broadway.
For the last 16 years, the theatrical companies of these three acclaimed musicals – Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid and The Lion King, along with the Disney Theatrical Productions of AIDA, Tarzan and Mary Poppins – have raised millions of dollars for BC/EFA and helped tens of thousands of people facing the challenges of HIV/AIDS and other serious health issues and social concerns.
Waking Sleeping Beauty is the story of how it all began and one we know you will enjoy.
BC/EFA is deeply grateful to the men and women whose creative genius and commitment to excellence has supported and enriched our outreach to those in crisis and need.
This special screening for BC/EFA’s “Angels” and our friends and supporters in the Broadway community is presented in memory of Howard Ashman who died of AIDS related complications in 1991. We remember his genius as a librettist, playwright and director and salute him for the brilliant work that has made so much of our work on behalf of people with AIDS possible.
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