Huntsville’s Old Town Theatre and The Company presents Cinderella Waltz a comedic twist on the classic Cinderella story.

    The playshowed Oct. 12-Oct. 14. Written by widely published playwright Don Nigro anddirected by The Company’s artistic director Ron Dodson. The play featuredseveral Sam Houston State University students including Psychology major Bethany Welsh and SHSU English teacher Bruce Chabot.

    The play was set in a country style front yard and the Cinderella character was named Rosey. Welsh played Mother Magee who represented the fairy godmother. There were two step sisters but unlike the normal Cinderella story they stood up for Rosey. Chabot played Mr. Snow who was Rosey and the sister’s Dad.

Welsh made her debut performance at Old Town Theatre.

”The most fun role I have ever played is probably this one,” Welsh said. “It was so much fun to act as a fairy-godmother and just be as wild and crazy as I wanted to be to portray her.”

Her character was the most colorful of the performance. She wore a rainbow wing and fell out of a well every time she entered the stage.

“My character is very loud and boisterous which is the exact opposite of me,” Welsh said. “Mother Magee is a woman that doesn’t take any crap from anyone and is unafraid of being her true self.”

She received many laughs and did not break character. She explained her process that helps her get into character for the show.

“My process to getting ready for the show is to run through my lines one more time and to take a deep breath to calm my nerves,” Welsh said. ” I get into character by picturing myself as a crazy fairy-godmother and forgetting my own self overall.”  

Chabot’s character was a goofy dad who could not find his pants for the first half of the play.

“My Character is Father Snow, the dad of the Cinderella family,” Chabot said. “His humor is bawdy, but I relate to him because I truly enjoy being a dad inreal life.”

Chabot has experience in directing as well.

“The most fun I’ve had in recent years in community theatre was directing King Lear here in Huntsville in 2015,” Chabot said.

    Acting is a skill that is learned but can help with different aspects in daily life.

    “I teach English, which is similar to acting, in that communicating meaningfully is the heart of both.” Chabot said.

    At the end of the play instead of Rosey running off with the prince like most Cinderella stories she stayed behind with the village idiot. The prince instead chose one of the step sisters

    Cinderella Waltz is goofy, clever and eye opening interpretation of the classic Cinderella story. All the SHSU members were enjoyable to watch and represented the performing arts program well.