Today we spend a few minutes with Natalie Coca who is returning to the Rose Marine Theater's stage after last years flawlessly delivered performance of Carla in the regional premiere of In the Heights! This season she takes the stage in a flashy pair of shoes as everyone's favorite princess, Cinderella.
"Not making a decision *is* making a decision." -?
"What good are dreams without action?" -?
I’ve always struggled to find a way to relate to Cinderella, probably because in the Disney version she was a whiney twig who clearly lacked self-worth and needed someone to save her. (First her fairy God mother swoops in, then her prince). It always pains me to see men and women who value themselves so little... but well that’s another story never mind. ;)
Fortunately for me, Sondheim designed this Cinderella to be a tad bit different. Though she struggles to make decisions, and ultimately doesn’t know what she wants, she is driven by an inherent understanding that her life is meant to be so much greater than it is. This Cinderella may not know where she’s going but she knows she’s gotta get the heck out of her stepmother’s house if anything’s going to change! With that being said, once she finally gets her "way out" she is then faced with a series of decisions and consequences she never dreamed she’d face. As the story develops we see that she’s frightened to make decisions, any decisions, for fear of making the wrong ones. In the beginning that drove me nuts! I couldn’t grasp my brain around why someone would just let life pass them by. But then I realized that in not making a decision (i.e. about standing up for herself, about opening up to the prince) she is putting her faith and ultimate decision-making powers in something greater than herself. What a concept. Be that faith in her mother’s guiding spirit, God, the Universe, Cinderella is a good person and knows that life will continue to unravel before her eyes whether or not she takes the lead. It will be liberating at times and painful at others but at least she’s living and it all started with a wish and an action. She could’ve said "I wish to go to the festival", gotten her golden slippers, and then chickened out, but she didn’t; she went. And with that first step she hit the reset button on her life and set it in motion. 
The funny thing about this Cinderella is that she’s real, she’s scared of making the wrong choices and she’s longing for a life far different from the one she leads… In some ways I think we can all relate, but my question to you is, what are you gonna do about it?
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