Poets Will Tell a Different Story : Performance: All-male fairy tale is part of a program at Chapman University that will explore traditional gender roles.

Once upon a time, in a castle on a hill near a small hamlet, lived a handsome prince. The prince had everything that money could buy, but he was very, very sad and he never, ever laughed. Then one day, the prince met a fetching young man who made him chuckle, and, after some travail, the two lovers lived happily ever after.

Not exactly your typical fairy tale? That’s precisely the idea, says Peter Cashorali, who will recite his all-male version of “The Golden Goose” here Saturday during an evening of readings exploring traditional gender roles--or, to put it another way, asking whether what’s good for the goose is in fact not fine for the gander, or vice versa.

“Our culture sends a message that (male and female roles) are the same, all over and always,” Cashorali said. “But in Tahiti, for instance, the women fish and gather coconuts while the men stay home and take care of the kids.”

Saturday’s event, which also will feature performance artist-poet Linda Albertano from Los Angeles, will be part of Chapman University’s monthly “Steel & Ivory: Poetry at the Guggenheim” series. It also will be one of about 80 poetry, music and dance performances nationwide celebrating International Women’s Day (which was last Sunday) during a monthlong observance coordinated by Rock Against Racism and Voices for Choice, two Bay Area consciousness-raising groups that fight racism and sexism.

“The evening is intended to honor women’s rights, to generate funds for reproductive freedom, and to promote voter registration” to support pro-choice candidates in 1992, said “Steel & Ivy” organizer Michael Logue, adding that a portion of the evening’s proceeds will be donated to the North Orange County Chapter of the National Organization for Women.

Cashorali, who lives in Los Angeles and writes and recites poetry and short stories, has focused on fairy tales lately, adapting “Hansel and Gretel,” “The Ugly Duckling,” “Beauty and the Beast” and other standards. His versions usually delve into the homosexual psyche, dealing with such issues as a man’s dawning sexuality and immature versus mature love, as well as gender roles.

“Fairy tales talk about the psychic development of the personality, or the soul, and they do a great job of dealing with the developing psyches of women, but when it comes to gay culture, they leap right over it,” Cashorali said during a recent phone interview.

Cashorali often adapts an old favorite by weaving in “a developmental theme in the gay personality that I’ve experienced or that my friends have.” His “Golden Goose” melds the Brothers Grimm tale with his perceptions of “what the culture says you have to do if you’re a guy,” and sharply questions those requirements.

As in the original story, Cashorali’s male protagonist, Simpleton, is offered a reward for making the king’s dour offspring laugh. But in this case, the offspring is a prince instead of a princess and Simpleton wants a kiss as his reward. This outrages the king, who tries to do away with Simpleton. Love prevails, but not without effort.

Cashorali said that gay audiences, finally hearing homosexual versions of the heterosexual fairy tales they heard as children, have “gratefully” accepted his work, and that heterosexual listeners haven’t rejected it. At a recent reading at Fullerton Museum Center, he reported, “I was expecting (hostility), but the audience was very generous in its response.”

Albertano, who often deals with issues of power and subordination, takes a twist of her own in the material she’ll read Saturday, excerpts from “Goldminer!,” a piece she first performed on a Los Angeles radio station in 1986.

Her main character is a female Hugh Hefner named Sugar Reynolds, the powerful publisher of hugely successful Goldminer Magazine, which Albertano describes as “a combination of Playboy and Forbes for ambitious women.”

A “neo-feminist,” Reynolds wants to do away with female oppression and exploitation of women. So she plots to bring about “a world slanted toward women” where perky stewards would replace female flight attendants, and advertisements would feature “nubile boys in bikinis.”

“This is all tongue-in-cheek, of course,” Albertano said. “But sometimes people are startled when you just switch the genders, and they can see something (new) about the situation.”

Albertano, who is known for her intense performances, also plans to do a short piece about domestic violence called “The Last Male Basher.”

She said she expects a good reception here, but she hopes it won’t be too good. “I think there are a lot of really wonderful, progressive people in Orange County . . . but I’m not doing my job if I’m not making people uncomfortable.”

Peter Cashorali and Linda Albertano will read from their works Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Guggenheim Art Gallery, Chapman University, 333 N. Glassell St., Orange. An open reading session, and discussion of women’s issues by Barbara Jackson of the North Orange County chapter of the National Organization for Women, will follow. Admission: $3. Information: (714) 441-1820.