Gretchen Zimmer of West Windsor is portraying the Fairy Godmother in “Cinderella: The UGGly Version,” a British panto production presented by Princeton Variety Theater in conjunction with the Arts Council of Princeton. Performances are at Stuart Country Day School’s theater on Saturday, March 7, at 2 and 7 p.m.; and Sunday, March 8, at 4 p.m. Tickets are $15.
“This is a family comedy and invites interaction from the audience, who are invited to boo and hiss at villains,” says Zimmer. “There are colorful costumes and music and the characters speak directly to the audience, not to each other.”
Zimmer sings with the chorus at First Presbyterian Church of Plainsboro and with the Kingston Women’s Chorus. “I’m used to being in front of people because I sometimes do solos and read scriptures from the Bible at church,” she says.
Last year she played the back of the cow in “Jack and the Beanstalk” in the British pantomine. “I got a lot of laughs,” says Zimmer. She next sang and danced in the adult ensemble at “Meet Me in St. Louis” at Kelsey Theater.
“This is the first time I had a speaking part in a play,” she says. “I’m very excited about it. They have given me a lot of lines and I’ve been busy practicing and memorizing.”
Zimmer was raised in Pampa, Texas, a city in the panhandle. She left when she was 18 to attend Lehigh University, where she earned a bachelor of arts degree in information science. She began working as a computer programmer at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in Plainsboro in 1984.
Her husband, John, is a middle school teacher in North Brunswick. Their dogs, all female, include Nellie, Willo, and Rennie. The Zimmers lived in Plainsboro from 1987 until they moved to West Windsor in 1995.
In 2001 she founded Rocky Top Dog Park and it was Zimmer’s full-time job until she sold it in 2010. “I still visit and often find some original members and we catch up on things,” she says.
“This show is a uniquely Princeton creation: it’s live theater, live music, original script, original music and dance, Avalon Walk and Dinky jokes, we poke fun at the Princeton High School, we shill for local businesses,” says the press release. “This not your auntie’s amateur dramatics. This is an irreverent, knee-slapping, eyebrow-raising, laugh-out-loud conflagration . . . and we have two men in dresses.”
Cinderella, The UGGly Version: A Panto in the British Style, Arts Council of Princeton, Stuart School, 1200 Stuart Road, Princeton. $15. 609-924-8777. www.artscouncilofprinceton.org.
