Student Blog: Bringing a Fairytale to Life

Before my days of finding my passion for being on stage, three year old me had a routine of finding my family's Cinderella VHS tape. The movie would be played on our television daily, and I would sing and dance along with it. Eighteen years later and I got to play the princess herself in Plaza Theatricals' production of Cinderella at the start of 2022. What's even more exciting is that we will be having more performances throughout May.

Our production is of the Prince Street Players edition, which meant there was a whole new set of songs for me to learn that I'd never heard of before. However, it followed the same structure and storyline as any other version of Cinderella- a young maiden lives with her evil stepmother and stepsisters, a prince has a ball, a fairy godmother gives the girl a dress to wear although the magic runs out by midnight, the prince is left with her glass slipper and uses it to find the maiden he met at the ball, and the two of them live happily ever after.

Since this story is so well known and loved, it was important to me that my portrayal of Cinderella was one to bring nostalgia to audiences of all ages. I was able to wear a blonde wig and costumes with parallels to the classic Walt Disney Film. As much as I wanted our show to resonate with audiences due to it's popular nature, I also knew I wanted to add my own take and originality to the role. I thought it was super important to flesh out Cinderella's backstory with her parents as well as her feelings towards her stepmother and stepsisters and her desires for the rest of her life. Other thoughts I considered was my posture and body language, since I was playing a role who lived in a different era and had a different lifestyle than my own.

My favorite part about our performances so far were the ways the different audiences responded to us and what we did on stage. Throughout the show, we have various participation opportunities for people of all ages. We had a song in which they were welcome to sing and dance along with us from their seats, Prince Charming went into the audience and let different little girls try on the glass slipper before finding Cinderella, and there were even "yes" or "no" questions asked to the audience for them to respond to. In a way, it was a type of "Choose your own adventure" for audiences since they had the option to simply sit back and enjoy the show or to be a part of the story with us.

Additionally, every time it came to the moment where the Prince was about to put the slipper on my foot, I would hear children in the audience say things like "Please fit in the slipper!" and "I just know it has to fit this time!" As an actor on stage, it's common for a performance to be fueled by the audience, and this show was a perfect example of that. If anything, their enthusiasm and hope added stakes and urgency to everything I already felt on stage.

It was so lovely to see how much this story meant to the audience and I'm so glad I was able to bring this fairytale that's beloved by so many to life! Seeing how much it meant to different children reminded me of myself and I truly wonder if another little girl in that audience will now dream of being on stage and will get to play this role one day too.

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