Play helps Roanoke students learn that it's OK to be different

This Cinderella wasn’t looking for a Prince Charming, and she didn’t have a glass slipper or a fairy godmother, either.

Instead, she had basketball sneakers, a silly fairy godfather and was a high school exchange student from Puerto Rico looking for acceptance from her peers.

“Cinderella Eats Rice and Beans,” is the modern retelling of the classic fairy tale and it’s being performed for students at five Roanoke elementary schools. The first performance was Friday at Westside Elementary School.

The Roanoke Children’s Theatre and its Young Professional Ensemble, along with the help of elementary school students that include English language learners, are putting on the show through a grant from the Roanoke Arts Commission.

“It’s about accepting people for who they are. A lot of the kids make fun of her at first because she doesn’t speak English,” Meghan Griffith, the theatre’s director of education, said of the modern Cinderella in the play.

Cinderella’s classmates soon find, though, that while she may speak another language, they have plenty in common, including basketball.

Through the play, students learn about accepting one another’s differences.

Fourth-grader Shayanna Lewis said after the performance her favorite part was “the entire thing.” She connected with it.

“When I was the new kid, I sort of got picked on,” she said. “You shouldn’t judge someone before you get to know them. If you do that you’re being a bully.”

Before the play, the Young Professional Ensemble, consisting mostly of area high school students, worked with the elementary schoolers in preproduction workshops.

In the first, students were taught about what happens behind the scenes in a play and got a chance to draw costumes for the play’s two main characters.

The second workshop was with students who are English language learners. They helped with some of the translation — several of the play’s songs are in Spanish — and even performed in the production.

“In Roanoke city, the Spanish-speaking population is really growing,” said Griffith, who helped to direct and encourage students during the Westside production Friday. “This project is just sort of to bring awareness to that growing population.”

At Westside, there are about 100 English language learning students among the school’s more than 700 students. The schools chosen for the play’s performance are among those with the highest portion of English language learners.

Judy Marlow, one of the school’s two teachers who work with students who are learning English, said many of the students in the play were nervous to get on stage but did wonderfully.

“They’ve come so far,” she said. “Both with speaking English and learning the life skills you want elementary students to learn. I’m so proud of them.”

De’Shawn Riley, a Patrick Henry High School graduate and member of the Young Professional Ensemble, helped guide the younger students. Riley played, among other parts, the play’s comical godfather character, who keeps students in fits of laughter.

He said the reaction from students motivates him to continue his outlandish, silly moves. After the play, being more serious than his character, he said the play’s message is an important one.

“It helps them understand being different is OK,” he said.

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