It's taken me a while to get this out, and I think I can make it work well. At least I can get the logistics worked out later.

Once Upon A Time [just a working title]

Katelyn [12] and Sam [14, male] are playing a game, and a girl, Lily, [15] is sitting in the corner reading a book of fairy tales. They are playing by a mushroom ring, which turns out to be a portal to the world of fairy tales. When Katelyn and Sam are transported there after they run into the ring to retrieve their ball, they, and Lily, are transported to the fairy tale world by those in charge - because there is a strike on fairy tale characters - the protagonists at least. Lily, who is also sent there, is the one who reads each upcoming tale that Katelyn and Sam are to star in. It is through their intervention in the tales, and in some cases, rewriting them, that the fairy tale characters return to rectify this and keep their places, and tales intact. It is by ending this strike that the children are able to return home, for there is a law/prophecy type thing that says if there is ever a strike, two young children are to step in to stop it in the way that Katelyn and Sam are able to.

I'm not sure yet what will happen to Lily - but I just wanted to share cause I was so excited I had worked it all out!

lol well if I were you I would double lily as a different character in the fairytale land and one of the other 2 can comment "you look really familiar" and she can say something like "well I was just in a scene with you. the costume people are really good" "ssh the audience is supposed to believe that we don't know they're there" "but we do know they're there"

this is just an idea that probably is rooted in my abnormal obsession with breaking the fourth wall and/or How I Met Your Mother.

but if you do like it feel free to snag my idea

I quite like that - my original plan was to have her, I think I said, reading the upcoming tales that Katelyn and Sam have to act out, and was to do with the dare to always have someone reading and not talking, but now I'm wondering if I shouldn't have her interact with them like you suggested...very interesting idea though!

LOL - the cool part would be if Lily was a bad character in disguise (like the Wicked With, Troll, Muggle - whatever) who happened to be the head of the fairy tale union from which all the lead characters are striking from! ANd they are striking because Lily has just struck a deal with the "devil" A Hollywood Producer who wants to redo all the fairy tales for a new generation of kids - but he wants to change all the stories and make all the characters different in ways they don't like. Maybe he wants to make Cinderella into Cinderfella to appeal to all the transgender teens. Maybe he wants the Three Little Pigs to be the Three Holy Cows to appeal to the Hindi market. Or maybe he wants to change Hanzel and Gretel to Sigfried and Roy - the alternative lifestyle fairytale. Maybe he wants to make Little Red Riding Hood - Lil Kim Rides the Hood - a slightly more adult version for more mature kids.

Lily sees the big money to made since kids have grown up too fast these days and interest in fairy tales has dwindled. She knows a strike would ruin the deal because that means the stories can't be read. BUT if she can get two kids to reenact the stories the way SHE rewrote them - the stories will be changed forever. But they have to do ALL the stories before time is up. The crux is that if Lily finds two "good" kids - she's lost because they won't want to act in those kinds of stories. So she finds two kids who are borderline - they can go either way. And they are leaning towards "bad." So she gets them near the ring and the story starts.

She tells them in order to get out of this place - they have to perform all these fairytales and she hands them a MASSIVE book. They rebel at first because they don't take orders from anyone. Lily tells them they have a certain amount of time to do these tales or they'll be stuck there forever. They don't believe her. But as time goes on and time starts to run out - they realize they better get cracking. So they start the first fairytale - Cinderfella (formerly Cinderella) and they complete it. Lily is excited - things are going as planned.

BUT - eventually, Katelyn starts to remember some of these fairytales and notices that some of these stories just don't seem right. So she starts to remember the stories from when she heard them as a small child when her mom and dad read them to her (oooh - maybe she stopped believing in fairytales after her dad was killed and she couldn't listen to those "cheesy" stories anymore since he could no longer read them to her. But now she starts to remember the amazing stories as her dad would have read them to her). Katelyn then has an incredible desire to do these stories the RIGHT way - and once the Lead Characters see that her imagination is alive again - they line up to help her complete the stories the right way.

Sam sides with Lily for a time because he's lost all hope - growing up from a broken home where he was never read any fairytales so he doesn't see what the big deal is. Maybe he can be redeemed - maybe he can't. He goes along with Katelyn for a while, but as time goes on he gets annoyed with her nitpicking and (because of Lily's prodding) believes that Katelyn is stalling on purpose to trap them both there. He now works against her trying to sabotage the fairytales so he can get out of there. IN the end - Sam and Lily are defeated. Katelyn is successful and she returns home. The Hollywood producer (amid massive press scandals and backlash from gays, blacks, women, jews, chrstians, muslims, schools, etc) has a change of heart and remasters all the old fairytales in their original style and has a HUGE success.

By now Sam has gone all the way over to the dark side. He and Lily are thick as thieves and plotting revenge. At the end - they spy the next bully and give that audience the knowing glance that this story may be done NOW (on stage), but it's certainly not over. Driving home the point that as long as there are bad kids in the world - "happily ever after" will always be just ONE side of the story.

ANYWAY - sorry for the long post! I read your plot and got super excited!! I'm not trying to write your story or anything - you just inspired this from me though. I kinda would love to read your play. It sounds like it would be awesome.