Jenji Kohan Is Making A Series About A Renaissance Fair Because Why Not
There comes a point in every showrunner’s career where they no longer have to pander to the masses and can finally work on the weird, freaky, niche material that they’ve always wanted to make. For Jenji Kohan, that time is now.
Kohan is the creator of the wildly successful shows “Weeds,” “Orange Is the New Black,” and, most recently, “GLOW.” It seems that everything she touches turns to gold — and that’s probably why, when she signed on to a show about a Renaissance Faire troupe, Lifetime immediately issued a green light.
The series, created by Jamie Denbo and titled “American Princess,” centers on an Upper East Side socialite who flees her countryside wedding after finding out that her fiancé is cheating on her. She happens upon a Renaissance Faire troupe in a meadow somewhere and, as one does, joins them as their newest “wench in waiting” to escape her ruined life.
Will this particular Renaissance Faire be set in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I or King Henry VIII? Will the protagonist’s new life involve participation in the classic Renaissance Faire game “Drench A Wench”?
And most importantly, will “American Princess” do for Renaissance Faires what “50 Shades of Gray” did for light BDSM?
For the sake of the American entertainment economy, let us hope so.
Becky Scott is the editor of The Schmooze. Follow her on Twitter, @arr_scott
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Dive In
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 3
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
- 4
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Pennsylvania Jewish groups condemn ‘genocide’ slogan on Gisele Fetterman’s charity
-
Fast Forward A Republican senator called Chuck Schumer ‘Fuhrer’
-
Fast Forward The Ben of Ben & Jerry’s is asking Unilever to let his ice cream brand go
-
Fast Forward 80 years after Auschwitz, kosher food will be sold in its town of Oświęcim
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.