Photo Flash: Cinderella Gets Modern Spin In CINDY

Project Y Theatre Company presents World Premiere of CINDY, a new play for kids and families by Amina Henry based on Cinderella. Appropriate for ages 6 and up, the production is directed by Michole Biancosino. It will be presented through June 24 at IRT Theater in the West Village.

CINDY does not want to be a princess. She wants to be a pilot. Her best buddy, a friendly rat, understands her longing to fly, but the ghost of her dead mother and the charming fairytale prince have other plans to keep her grounded. In this kid-friendly modern re-imagining of Cinderella, Cindy struggles to define her own "happily ever after."

The production is presented as part of the 3rd Annual WOMEN IN THEATRE FESTIVAL, their first production ever for kids and families. It stars Starr Kirkland, Zach Fifer, Emily Ma, Veronica Cooper, Rachel Evans, Timiki Salinas, Joachim Boyle, and Caleb Green with set by Hallie Zieselman, costumes by Annie Ulrich and lighting by Christina Watanabe.

Founded in 1999, Project Y Theatre Company has been called the "smartest of the city's theatre troupes," by N.P.R. Project Y has had an unwavering presence in the New York Off-Off Broadway community and has been nominated for nine Innovative Theater Awards. Project Y has been the recipient of grants from NYSCA, ART/NY, The Nancy Quinn Fund, and the humanitarian Puffin Foundation. They have produced work, which includes Trump Lear, Gary Busey's One-Man Hamlet..., A User's Guide to Hell featuring Bernard Madoff, Connected, Fubar and Great Again, at venues including 59E59, A.R.T./New York Theatres, HERE, and Theatre Row Theaters. They have produced and/or developed work by playwrights including Hilary Bettis, Karl Gadjusek, Charles Mee, Lee Blessing, Chisa Hutchinson, Adam Szymkowicz, Caridad Svich, Johnna Adams, Lauren Yee, Crystal Skillman and Chiori Miyagawa.

Amina Henry is a Brooklyn-based playwright. Productions include: Ducklings at JACK, The Animals at JACK, Happily Ever at Brooklyn College, An American Family Takes a Lover at Theater for the New City, Water produced by Drama of Works and The Minstrel Show at the 2013 Bring a Weasel and a Pint of Your Own Blood Festival at 13th Street Theater/CSC (NYC). Her work has been developed by and/or presented at: The New Group, The Flea, Clubbed Thumb, National Black Theater, Barefoot Theater, Little Theater at Dixon Place, HERE, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Ashland, OR), Kitchen Dog Theater (Dallas, TX) and Interrobang Theatre (Baltimore, MD), among others. She has been a participant in Clubbed Thumb's Early Career Writers, Page 73's Interstate 73 writers group and is currently a member of Ars Nova's emerging writers group. She is also a recipient of a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) Space Grant. For more information, go to aminahenry.wordpress.com.

CINDY runs Sunday, 6/3 at 2pm; Saturday, 6/9 at 2pm; Sunday, 6/10 at 2pm; Saturday, 6/16 at 2pm; Sunday, 6/17 at 2pm & 5pm; Saturday, 6/23 at 2pm; and Sunday, 6/24 at 2pm. IRT Theater is located at 154 Christopher Street, between Washington & Greenwich Streets in the West Village. All tickets are $15. For more information or for tickets, visit www.witfestival.projectytheatre.org.