Cinders is a play about a fairytale in a less-than-fairytale setting.

This not-so-classic version of Cinderella will be performed by the Penn State School of Theatre at 8 p.m. tomorrow through Feb. 18 in the Pavilion Theatre. Tickets for the shows are $14.

A preview performance will be held in the Pavillion Theatre tonight at 8, for which tickets can be purchased for $10.

Kevin Murphy (graduate-theatre), who plays a film director in the show, said Cinders has a lot to do with power and what people are capable of doing when they are in control.

"[In the play,] there's a struggle for power, and power can corrupt people even when they have good intentions," Murphy said. "It is a struggle to maintain our innocence."

The play is set around the 1980s in an all-girl reformatory school in a small town near Warsaw, Poland, where the students are staging a production of Cinderella. A film director decides to come into the school and record the girls' production process, hoping that he can portray the school in a good light to the rest of the world.

Murphy said that preparing for this role has a lot do with considering others' perspectives.

"As far as getting information and evaluating your point of view, it's what you need from the other characters," he said. "What the other characters on stage want and what I want."

As the director of the documentary, Murphy said his character tries to capture the essence of the process of putting on a performance.

"He records the rehearsal process, messing with it, with monologues from the girls, making it his own art," Murphy said. "He has the best of intentions to save the girls and tries to elicit sympathy from the world. All but the Cinderella girl cooperate, and he has to get her to start to open up to the girls."

So why won't the girl who was cast as Cinderella in the reform school cooperate?

"You just have to see the play to figure it out," Murphy said.

Amelia Nutter (sophomore-theatre), plays the girl in the reform school who gets cast as Cinderella.

Nutter also said she enjoys her role in the play.

"It's a lot of fun," she said. "I think it's fun because she's also playing a character within the play. She's pretty sarcastic."

Nutter said the parts of the play with the full cast are the most enjoyable for her.

"I like the ensemble aspect of it," Nutter said. "A lot of the time, you're onstage and just get to have fun interactions with the girls."

Julie Danni (freshman-theatre) said she is excited to have a part in the six-girl ensemble featured in the performance of Cinders.

"It's a really great experience, because a lot of freshman don't get to be in a main-stage show," Danni said. "Usually, there's a lot of graduate students, but it's a lot of undergrads in this one. I learned a lot from the directors -- a lot."

She said she sees Cinders as more like a movie within a play than a play within a play.

"It's actually like you're on an actual movie set," Danni said. "We needed to learn how everything worked -- the camera and lights. It was kind of confusing, but you learn."

Danni said the production of Cinders is like nothing else.

She also said she hopes many people come to see the play this weekend.

"It's really different, different style," Danni said. "It makes you think. It's kind of like one of those 'wow' endings. It's just something different that a lot of people don't get to see very often."