With a wave of a wand and a dash of fairy-tale magic, students at Manheim Central High School will bring a beloved classic to life on stage. When the curtain rises on "Cinderella: The Enchanted Edition," audiences will step into a world of glass slippers, royal dreams and a girl who dares to believe her happily-ever-after is within reach.

"Cinderella" will be performed at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, March 26, 27 and 28, and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 29. A senior-citizen-invited performance will take place at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, March 25. Performances will be in the high school auditorium, 400 E. Adele Ave., Manheim.

"To research my character, I've been watching almost all of the Cinderella films and taking small parts from each character and adding it to my own," said Allie Parke, who will play the title role in the Thursday and Saturday performances. "My main goal for this character is just to have kids in the audience see a princess on stage and make them all super excited."

Lydia Sensenig will portray Cinderella in the Friday and Sunday performances.

Allie acknowledged that portraying such a well-known character has been fun but also a bit stressful.

"I feel some pressure because she is such an iconic role and so many people know her, and it's scary to think if I mess this up, I'll mess up the magic," she said. "It's a really magical experience. We all put a lot of work into this show. In act one, there is a whole transformation scene where Cinderella goes from her rags into her beautiful ball gown, and we have a bunch of stage lights and fog and costume changes, and it's super cool."

For Lilie West, playing the role of a villain in the show has been fun.

"You get to put a lot on stage that you wouldn't normally do as a regular person," she said of her character, the Stepmother. "It's just fun to be so unhinged and as charismatic as she is, and I find that very exciting."

For the students portraying the stepsisters, it's also been a fun challenge to get into character.

"This is a role where I get to be ditzy, stupid and mean at the same time," said Katherine Kolesnik, who plays Joy. "It's really fun to put that out there. It takes a lot of work to figure out how to do that and get it across onstage."

Both Katherine and Rae Stannisch, who plays the other stepsister, Grace, are excited to wear some outlandish and loud costumes on stage and to embrace their characters.

"I'm approaching it by being as annoying as possible," Rae said with a laugh. "It's not hard to act as Grace. You just have to channel your inner teenage girl."

Judah Stoltzfus portrays Prince Christopher, a role that has more depth in the stage show than in the original movie.

"The prince always wants what he doesn't have, and he has everything except true love," Judah explained. "He's looking for someone he can open up to and really connect with."

That's been a bit of challenge to portray, he said, but he's embraced it.

"My personality is kind of like the prince's," he said. "He's reserved, and he's kind, and I feel like I'm not personally too outgoing, either. This character fits me. The hardest part is having to show that I'm in love with someone, because that's something I've never felt before."

The show features all of the expected fairy-tale moments, but it adds details to both the plot and the characters, Katherine said.

"It's really funny, and that's why people should come out and see it," she said, noting that the show has a lot of humor. "It's not your typical Cinderella in a way. She has more of a backbone in this, so it's a different take than what you might normally think of as Cinderella, but it keeps the original ideas."

Rae noted that all of the students have worked hard to present a quality show.

"The crew is putting in a lot of work on this show," she said, noting that the set in particular has a lot of moving parts. "You're going to have a fantastic time. We're having so much fun on that stage, the stepfamily is having such a fun time and I think our energy and the whole cast energy, we'll just feed it to the audience."

Tickets for "Cinderella: The Enchanted Edition" may be purchased in advance at https://events.hometownticketing.com and will be sold at the door before each performance.