The Washburn theatre department had audience members laughing on the edge of their seats during the public debut of their student-produced play “The Write: Cinderella” at the Neese-Gray theatre in Garvey Fine Arts Center Thursday, May 5.

The adaptation of the famous fairy tale Cinderella centers around two step-sisters, Jessie and Robin, who want to get to know each other better and bond by reading the book “Cinderella” together. However, the story takes a turn when the younger sister, Jessie, decides to put her own imaginative spin on the story.

People who attended the show were treated with a number of unique and creative fairy-tale personalities, all written with the intent of putting smiles on peoples’ faces and showing them an overall good time.

The show built upon a number of tropes, showcasing Jessie’s creativity and pondering the various ways that Cinderella might find her prince charming. The show featured a large cast of interesting characters, such as knights, princesses, dragons, fairy godmothers, undercover spies and even a muffin man who is tired of his own theme song.

One of the actors, Josh Staats, helped write, produce and act in the show. Staats and the crew wanted people to leave the show entertained:

“We were pushing for a ‘moral of the story’ but we really wanted to just make people laugh and have a good time. If we can provide you with even an hour where you can be entertained, then we’ve done our jobs well,” Staats said.

Staats played a number of characters in the show including, but not limited to roles such as a frog, a club bouncer and even a charming prince.

“You just have to be able to adapt and go from mindset to mindset,” Staat said. “I love acting and I really wanted to just make people laugh and think, ‘Wow, they wrote this?’ Hearing the feedback of laughter after working so hard to put it together was a great feeling.”

Assistant Professor Julie Noonan worked with the students to help them prosper in their playwriting talents and develop the show into something special.

“I was so glad to help direct and guide them where I could,” Noonan said. “There came a point where I could just sit back and watch them make their own creative decisions and I think they’re really happy with the results.”

The Washburn theatre department plans to take “The Write: Cinderella” overseas to perform at the upcoming Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland this summer.

“They worked really hard on this show and I’m really excited for them to take the show to Scotland,” Noonan said. “Thousands of people from all over attend the festival and we want to be able to make them all laugh with our show.”

Edited by: Glorianna Noland, Simran Shrestha