Cinderella Who?

Plymouth Meeting Friends School Premieres New Musical Cinderella Who?
Friday, May 6 performance followed by Q&A with cast and playwright

Chances are, you not only know the Cinderella story, but have, at some time in your life, bought into the Cinderella dream and believed in the Cinderella promise that you would find your true love, get married, and live happily ever after. But what happens to your happy ending if you don't want the prince or don’t go to the prom? What happens if you yearn for other options?

 These questions and more are posed in the new musical, Cinderella Who?, premiering at Plymouth Meeting Friends School on Friday, May 6, 2011, and Saturday, May 7, 2011. The musical, written by PMFS theatre arts teacher and playwright in residence, Frumi Cohen, is held in the Steinbright Auditorium on the PMFS campus at 2150 Butler Pike in Plymouth Meeting at 7pm both evenings. The Friday, May 6^th performance with will be followed by an audience Q&A with the cast and playwright.

 Cohen’s Cinderella Who? is not just adaptation of the classic Cinderella story; it is a deconstruction. Cohen's version offers not only two Cinderellas [A and B], but weaves a very different story to explain why we see that classic Cinderella the way we do.

 The musical also explores the questions: What if the Cinderella we have believed in all this time isn't the real girl, but someone else who, through a series of circumstances, got the part? What if the "real" Cinderella when making her wish, chose to travel the world instead of get married? 

 “I’d like the audience to leave the theater questioning, as I have, what they have taken for granted as ‘the Cinderella story’,” says Cohen. “I hope that they feel they have the option to revisit and revise the story for themselves according to who they are now or even who they might be at varying times in their lives.”

 Cohen explains that the Walt Disney cartoon version of Grimm’s Cinderella was released in 1950, about five years before she was born. Thus she couldn’t avoid being inundated and saturated by the images, actions, and choices of the characters and absorbing them into her own psyche.  “I have become fascinated by the idea that no matter who you are or are becoming, whether male or female, young, middle aged, or even older, the Cinderella story exists inside you in some way whether you are aware of it or not. And that story affects your opinions, expectations, choices, and lifestyle whether or not you are a believer. “

 The 6^th grade musical is the culminating performance of the PMFS theatre arts curriculum. By interacting with a drama teacher who is also a published playwright, PMFS students learn about the creative process behind the works they perform and engage in a continuing dialogue and collaboration with their teacher/writer. By performing plays that are often adaptations from classical literature, students learn about literature and history and are exposed to uplifting themes and messages about our world. PMFS theatre arts students also learn lessons around cooperation, teamwork, self confidence, responsibility, and leadership.

 Plymouth Meeting Friends School is an elementary Quaker school serving children three years old through sixth grade. PMFS is situated on a 13-acre green campus at the corner of Butler Pike and Germantown Pike in Plymouth Meeting. For more information about the school, visit its website at www.pmfs1780.org or call 610-828-2288.