Central Texas’ most well-known children’s theatre company, Pollyanna Theatre, a resident company of the Long Center for the Performing Arts, presents The Ragbag Shoes by Katherine Gee Perrone. This new play, best suited for children ages 4 – 10, opens July 7 – July 15, 2017 at the Rollins Studio Theatre at the Long Center for the Performing Arts, 701 West Riverside, Austin, TX  78704.

The Ragbag Shoes tells the story of Iyana who is turning ten years old and can’t wait to see what kind of magic shoes her father, the shoemaker, has made for her. He makes special magic shoes for every ten-year-old boy and girl in the kingdom, and Iyana knows that hers will be the best of all. But Iyana’s father has fallen on hard times and is too poor to buy new material, so he cobbles together a pair of shoes with the carefully selected scraps found in his ragbag. Iyana absolutely hates them, but to Iyana’s surprise, the shoes come alive and take her on a fantastic adventure through their patchwork past. Every scrap in her shoes has come from a fairy tale: the sole is made from the iron shoes that saved the Sleeping Prince, and the satin top was plucked from the slippers of the Twelve Dancing Princesses.

As Iyana’s shoes dance her from tale to tale, she begins to appreciate the gift her father gave her—to both respect the history of her ragbag shoes and feel empowered to dance the shoes into a story of her own. She learns that what we’ve been given makes us who we are, but it does not determine what we become. The Ragbag Shoes is an unforgettable play that will have you tapping your feet as you travel through the familiar and forgotten tales of footwear.

“Have you ever wondered why there are so many fairy tales about shoes?” asks playwright Katherine Gee Perrone, “In my research, I realized shoes serve as an excellent metaphor both for the history we are born into and for the journeys we take in life. I hope that children will come away delighted by the familiar and new fairy tales they see and hear, but I also hope they learn from Iyana’s journey, that while we must respect where we have come from, we have the power to write our own stories.”

As with all Pollyanna Theatre productions, the cast is comprised of adult, professional actors, including Uyen-Anh Dang, Bethany Harbaugh, Hollis McNutt, Jake Salinas, and William Swift. The show is directed by Judy Matetzschk-Campbell with Sound Design and Stage Management by Andrew Perry, Costume and Puppet Design by Colleen McCool, Set Design by Chase Staggs, and Props Design is Eamon Fossi.

Parents, teachers and caregivers can download a free study guide to accompany the production by visiting http://www.pollyannatheatrecompany.org/teachers/lesson-plans/. The guide contains an overview of the play, educational objectives and pre/post discussion questions and activities.