Entertainment

By Mary Therese Biebel mbiebel@timesleader.com
Features Writer
Mary Therese Biebel on Facebook   |   @TLTLMaryTBiebel on Twitter

If any part of your feminist soul rebels at the idea that Prince Charming liked Cinderella because her dainty feet fit little glass slippers, a different version of the traditional fairy tale may make you rejoice.

click image to enlarge

Janine Tomaszewski, Michelle Blamire, Sarah Blamire and Alyssa Blamire rehearse for ‘Cinderella Wore Combat Boots,’ to be presented at Phoenix Performing Arts Centre in Duryea.

click image to enlarge

The ‘Deathtrap’ cast, looking pretty threatening, includes (seated) Judy Fried, Alicia Nordstrom, and Gerard Angeli and (standing) Walter Mitchell and Joe Sheridan.

Additional Photos Below

Select images available for purchase in the
Times Leader Photo Store

In “Cinderella Wore Combat Boots,” the title character is “more modern. She’s more of a tomboy. Other than that, she’s still the underdog. She’s still a gentle soul who doesn’t take offense at anything her mother and sisters put her through,” said Jill Sherinsky, who is directing the play for Phoenix Theatrics at the Phoenix Performing Arts Centre in Duryea this weekend and next. “She’s definitely a more casual Cinderella.”

While Cinderella is cheerfully putting up with her family’s demands – “Slop the pigs! Clean the cesspool! Pick up my comb! Answer the door!” – Prince Charming is professing “no interest in the whole dating thing. He would prefer to hunt dragons rather than meet girls or dance with girls,” Sherinsky said.

Nevertheless, these two will meet and fall in love at the ball, an energetic party filled with “kind of a sort of a waltz, kind of a sort of a tango and some disco.

“It’s a great family show,” Sherinsky said. “Any child who knows the Cinderella story will find it captivating.”

Cinderella will wear her combat boots – a genuine pair on loan from a veteran -- at 7 tonight, tomorrow night and June 19-20 and at 2 p.m. Sunday at Phoenix Performing Arts Center, 409 Main St., Duryea. Tickets are $12. Call 457-3589.

Meanwhile, there’s quite a bit of conniving in Nuangola, where Masque Productions is putting on Ira Levin’s “Deathtrap.”

Aging playwright Sidney Bruhl, played by Joe Sheridan, has hatched a plot to kill a younger writer and pass his work off as his own. Pretty bad, huh?

But the younger writer, played by Gerard Angeli, has something up his sleeve, too, director Christa Manning said.

“Therein lies the plot. We don’t want to give it all away,” she said. “They all have their own agendas.”

For comic relief, look to Judy Fried as Helga Van Dorp, the medium from the cottage next door who comes over whenever she’s “having bad vibes. She’s hysterical,” Manning said.

Tonight’s performance at 8 will be preceded by a tailgate reception at 6:30. “You can park on the lawn,” Manning said, and bring your own refreshments or buy them from a vendor.Shows continue at 8 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday at the Grove, 5177 Nuangola Road, Nuangola. For tickets call 208-7679.