By Ashley M. Casey
Associate Editor
Like many children of the ‘90s and early 2000s, Jes Denson and Ashley Daddona dreamed of being Disney princesses.
“We both are Disney freaks. We both grew up on it,” said Daddona, who hails from Tully and studied communications at SUNY Geneseo.
“I really grew up being kind of shy watching TV and movies and wanting to be in ‘High School Musical.’ I would think, ‘I want to be that confident one day. I want to be able to sing like that,’” recalled Denson, a military veteran who now lives in Parish.
Now, Daddona and Denson are living out their childhood dreams through their new business, Royal Promise Productions, which they founded in July. The company provides live, costumed character entertainment in which Denson, Daddona and their stable of 10 performers dress up as fairytale characters made popular by Disney.
Copyright regulations prevent Royal Promise Productions from naming trademarked characters, but fans and their families will readily recognize the “Winter Sisters” — the icy blond “Spirit Queen” and her redheaded kid sister, the “North Queen.” Characters in the public domain, like the Little Mermaid, Rapunzel and Sleeping Beauty, are part of the royal repertoire as well.
“Our goal is truly to bring these characters out into real life and convince people that they’re real,” Denson said.
Daddona and Denson made their first in-person appearances for RPP in October as part of Halloween in the Park at Jamesville Beach. Their next gig is the B’ville Connection’s “A Drive-Thru Christmas Celebration!” Dec. 6 at the Fireside Inn, and they will be appearing at Lights on the Lake on Dec. 19 with two new friends: Peter Pan and Tinker Bell.
On Dec. 20, the Winter Sisters will hold a livestream event called “Ring in the Season,” featuring songs and holiday traditions from around the world.
The two met a few years ago while working as independent contractors for another local character entertainment company. They played the Winter Sisters, and soon they were as close as their characters.
“Our relationship blossomed out of this pretend sisterly relationship,” Daddona said.
While Daddona has studied dance since high school and took voice and acting lessons throughout college, both she and Denson are largely self-taught performers. They have researched costumes, hair and makeup, and acting techniques; followed successful cosplayers on social media, and watched their favorite movies over and over until they get every gesture and mannerism exactly right.
“I spent so much time researching characters and researching poses and how to speak like this person and how to act like this person,” Denson said. “I finally get to live out this dream from when I was little.”
Denson designs many of RPP’s costumes and accessories — including face masks — and styles the princesses’ wigs.
“Each of our costumes is worth at least $500 with some of our most popular characters over $1,000,” Daddona said.
“Those wigs can be very, very expensive, so it’s a little cheaper when we style them ourselves,” Denson said.
Behind the glamour is a lot of hard work.
“On our surface, especially on our social media, we try to make it look like magic and pixie dust,” Daddona said.
Launching a business in 2020 has been challenging, but Daddona and Denson have been working their magic with personalized video greetings, one-on-one video calls, social media contests and a few carefully planned, socially distanced events.
“We haven’t been able to do any in-person huge events. We want to strive to be safe and still be able to provide magic,” Denson said.
RPP isn’t limited to just princesses. For the holidays, the company has been recording personalized messages from Santa Claus.
“We have one client who asked if we could have Santa explain about Elf on the Shelf, that she was stuck at the North Pole because of COVID,” Denson said.
Daddona and Denson want people to celebrate magical moments every day instead of waiting for a special occasion. One of their slogans is “Real magic in every moment.”
The pair also started the Royal Promise Fund to be able to fund future appearances for libraries, schools, hospitals, nonprofits and other good causes.
Royal Promise Productions is actively auditioning new cast members, especially performers who are Black, Indigenous or people of color. Daddona recalled a transcendent casting workshop she and Denson attended earlier this year in which a Black woman portrayed the Little Mermaid.
“She embodied Ariel — her personality and her spunk,” she said. “We want to acknowledge that you can be that character no matter what the color of your skin is.”
Interested performers can send their resumés and headshots to [email protected]. To learn more about RPP’s offerings and upcoming events, visit RoyalPromiseProductions.com or follow @RoyalPromiseProductions on Facebook and Instagram.
