David Clark premiere plus works by Michael J. Collins, Cecilia Condit and Emjay Wilson The magic of fairy tales is in their power to convey moral instruction that is recognized as oddly familiar. For this reason, the structures of the fairy tale have served artists as a kind of shorthand, capable of tapping into the intuitive recognition of the viewer. In This Is a Dead Boy (1992, 14 mins), Michael J. Collins creates a fresh tale of a child's first inkling of mortality. The archaic language, mysterious menace, and the fetishized significance of body parts alert us to its darkly charming tutelage. Cecilia Condit's musical Not a Jealous Bone (1987, 11 mins) also broaches mortality, but now a brittle bone contains the power to halt the inevitable decay. The magical shard becomes a bone of contention between its elderly possessor and a youthful contender. A somewhat sinister reading, performed by Dale Hoyt, of a traditional fairy tale is the basis for Emjay Wilson's Donkey Skin (1989, 5 mins). The King's quest for a new queen becomes a tabloid of child abuse and forced marriage. Jack and Jill, an innocent accident, or the splitting of childhood subjectivity? David Clark's highly ambitious Broken Crowns (Canada, 1992, 49 mins) uses the nursery rhyme as the nexus for a wide-ranging look at the periodic table, Marat Sade's assassination, PT109, and Goethe's Elective Affinities. The conceits, conspiracies and connections come falling down Bardon Hill in England, Jack and Jill's very own grassy knoll.-Steve Seid