In this timeless fairy tale, we meet Beauty, a sweet young woman, the daughter of a wealthy merchant. Due to her father’s misfortune, Beauty is forced to live in a faraway castle with a Beast, an ugly creature under an evil sorcerer’s spell, as payment for his misdeed. Over time, Beauty realizes that looks can be deceiving and that true love is based on sincerity and honesty.
Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont (1711–1780) was the author of Beauty and the Beast and Other Classic French Fairy Tales. In 1746 she left France for London, where she had a successful publishing career. Her version of “Beauty and the Beast” has been retold countless times, both in film and on stage.
George Zarr is an award-winning audio dramatist currently based in Chicago. He is the producer, writer, director, and composer of the Hans Christian Andersen musical The Bell, the four-part comedy Hurry! Hurry! It’s Almost Christmas, the mystery collection Dark of the Moon Inn, and the Western comedy musical serial Hoofbeats in My Heart, all four available from Blackstone Publishing.
Noelle Dupuis is an accomplished voice actor and audiobook narrator based in Ontario, Canada. For Voices in the Wind Audio Theatre, she has read children’s classic stories, including The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, The Beatrix Potter Collection, Thumbelina, The Wild Swans, The Princess Collection, and The Hans Christian Andersen Collection, to name a few. Blackstone Publishing distributes all these titles. Noelle teaches drama and music at her local Elementary School when she isn’t narrating audiobooks.