Cinderella

director’s note from the 2023 production:

Every person that has had a hand in this production remembers the show that introduced them to the magical world of live theatre. In this world, larger than life characters in beautiful costumes broke into song and dance in the middle of conversations, and none of us batted an eye. We were enamored by the ease, the enthusiasm, and the emotion that was so inherent to the stage. We felt inspired. We felt at home. 

I hope that this show is that show for someone. I hope that a child in the audience tonight sees the magic of this show on this stage and leaves the theatre thinking, “I want to do that.” I hope they see themselves as a girl who can choose her own destiny, or as a prince who just needs to believe in himself. There is magic in this possibility.

And, if your first exposure to the theatre has long passed, I hope this show invites you to revisit that first time, when all of that magic felt a little more real. Allow yourself to experience that childlike wonder once more. After all, it’s possible.

Ella struggles with the possibility of going to the ball, not because she doesn’t believe in magic, but because she believes that someone with her past, her status, her situation, doesn’t deserve to experience it. Every one of us could say that at one point, something felt out of reach, impossible, for the same reason. 

“Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella” exists to show us that nothing is impossible. If we’re kind, and stronghearted, we deserve the magic. We can go to the ball. The world can be as lovely as it is in musicals.

So, as Marie so wisely says, “Go, with the promise of possibility!”