We talked to the playwrights and composers behind the shows selected for Fringe Encores, here's Danny K. Bernstein, the talented composer and lyricist of Far From Canterbury (our review).

How did you end up picking Geoffrey Chaucer as the inspiration for your musical?

I read "The Wife of Bath's Tale" the first time in my eleventh grade British Literature class in high school, and the story just really stuck with me. A few years later, in college, I wound up adapting it for my Story Theatre final in my Directing I class. I always found the premise of the story so compelling, and expanding on it has been the most fun part of the process.

Even though "The Wife of Bath's Tale" is already considered to be quite progressive in terms of its stance on feminism, you go ahead and remove mentions of King Arthur and give Queen Guinevere command over the kingdom. Can you elaborate on the changes you made to the original tale and why it was important for you to make it the ultimate "girl power" musical?

Adapting this tale was a really interesting experience; in some ways, it was a strong feminist story that was way ahead of its time, and it other ways, it actually kind of wasn't. The original tale is about a knight who does rape a young maiden, and still walks free with the girl of his dreams by the end of the story - I found that super problematic, so that had to change. I also felt that the character of the old woman who provides the knight with the answer was super underdeveloped. Why does she give him the answer, especially if he's guilty? I wanted to explore that some more, and that eventually turned into Dolores backstory. As for making Far From Canterbury a "girl power musical, my goal wasn't actually to empower women, as much it was to invite other men to empower women. I think most women in the audience know "what women desire most." I think this story is less about one young man's journey to figure it out, but rather his journey to understand how easy it can be to take it away, and how important it is to realize it, and then to give it back. My hope is that everyone in the audience, particularly men, can identify with John, and feel welcome to empower the women in their lives as well. This answer has a lot of implied spoilers; let me know if you need something better.

How did you develop characters that play with fairy tale archetypes but are also very recognizably human?

I think the idea I wanted to play with is how one-dimensional fairy tale archetypes can be, and yet how much we idolize them, growing up. I wanted to create characters who just didn't quite fit into the fairy tales they aspired to star in, so I gave them all flaws, flaws that kept them all from fitting into a cookie cutter happy ending they all wanted; I think ultimately, flaws are what make most characters onstage human, and allow us to relate to them.

As a writer how did you avoid didacticism or heavy-handedness when making your points?

I think I'm still learning how to do this! I don't think I've perfected it yet. However, I do think that focusing on the characters and making sure every single character is a person, not a plot device, is how I tried to avoid the story becoming too allegorical. I think that's how you keep the show a story with a message, rather than a message with a story, if that makes sense.

In terms of the score, perhaps because it's a Middle Ages existentialist tale, I could hear references to Pippin spread through the melodies. Was that in my imagination? Can you comment on some of the musicals you drew influence from for Far From Canterbury?

My biggest influence for this show wasn't technically a musical, but it was actually Peter and the Starcatcher! That show played a huge role in my inspiration for Far From Canterbury. I adored the Story Theatre aesthetic and the bare bones design techniques they used to effectively convey their piece, and watching those actors create the world around Peter really shaped how I wanted to create a fairy tale around John.

Since you wrote the book/music/lyrics how open were you to collaboration from the ensemble? Were you open to changing characters to fit the actors playing them or added lines they came up with? Or was this off-limits?

Back when I was workshopping the musical my senior year at Cornell, I was constantly looking for ways to collaborate with people, particularly with the actors. I really wound up writing all three components because there weren't really any other musical theatre writers at Cornell when I was there, so I was always really open to having help, especially from actors; some of my favorite moments in the show happened organically in the rehearsal room!

I found the show's structure to be brilliant. You have flashbacks, stories within stories, foreshadowing. In times when we're told that people like simple stories on stage you demand a lot from your audience. Was this a conscious move on your part to avoid them from mentally drifting into other worlds, or worse, taking their phones out and texting?

I'm so glad you liked the structure! I think something I was really going for was to give the musical re-watch value. I remember rewatching one of my favorite TV shows of all time Arrested Development, and loving that you could go back, knowing all the silly twists and turns that were on their way, and catching little moments of foreshadowing, and have a completely different viewing experience, having seen the show already. I've already gotten feedback from people that have seen it more than once that they get a little more out of it, each time, so that's really encouraging!

Can you elaborate on the importance of your education in helping you find your voice? Did college just fine tune it, or did it spring from studying?

I had a really unconventional college experience. My time at Cornell definitely shaped me as an artist, and as a writer, but that time wasn't spent in the classroom, as much as it was spent putting on student-produced shows with my friends. I absolutely loved Cornell, but it isn't a school that teaches musical theatre academically, so there were really only three or four classes that really helped me grow in that respect, like my Directing class, and a few higher level music theory classes. I think I gained the most out of my education just by making theatre with my colleagues around campus, every semester. By the time I'd graduated, I'd done sixteen musicals, and I'd done everything from writing, to directing, to music directing, to acting in them, and each of them really helped me grow in really different ways. So I guess that was really my education, and it really helped me find my voice, and taught me a lot about what it really means to create something new.

What are your favorite Broadway shows?

Into The Woods, Urinetown, Company, Guys and Dolls, and A Little Night Music are my all-time favorites, I think.

What's next for Far From Canterbury?

After Encores hopefully we're going to record some sort of album soon. After that, I'm not quite sure, but from the feedback we've received, it seems like everyone's ready to see this show on a bigger stage. Who knows! We haven't hit any ceilings yet, so the sky is still the limit!

For tickets and dates visit the Fringe Encores website.