Cinderella, her wicked stepmother and stepsisters, and ultimate rescue by Prince Charming is an iconic story and one that’s familiar to most Americans.

East Carolina University’s Story Book Theatre troupe will be performing the play Nov. 12 at Arts of the Pamlico’s Turnage Theatre in Washington, but this play has a twist — or seven of them, because it turns out that the fairytale is familiar the world over.

The play “Cinderellas Around the World” is an original script by Dylan Bailey, Story Book Theatre student director and new youth theatre director at the Turnage Theatre.

“It began in our play writing course for youth last year,” said Patch Clark, a professor with ECU’s School of Theatre and Dance and coordinator of the school’s Theatre Education and Theatre for Youth programs. “He wrote an adaption of the Egyptian version of ‘Cinderella’ and became very interested in how Cinderellas were portrayed around the world.”

Clark said Bailey began collecting and reading all the versions of “Cinderella” and settled upon seven different stories of the character from seven different countries: Egypt, China, Japan, the Appalachian version of “Cinderella” from the U.S., the Phillipines, Vietnam and France. Through ECU’s global linking classroom, where students can interact in real time with academics and students across the world, Bailey was able to consult with those familiar with the portrayal of the characters in varying cultures.

“He thought it would be interesting for audience members to see all the different ways Cinderella is represented and see the difference in cultures, but also the things we share through cultures,” Clark said.

Twelve cast members take on the task of performing the story, moving from culture to culture.

“The production itself has a somewhat minimalistic set to it, so we can quickly perform the scenes one after another,” said Dylan Ritch, a senior at ECU and one of the actors in “Cinderellas Around the World.”

Ritch said, as an actor, it’s a challenging process to accurately portray the same story through the prism of other cultures — each culture’s mannerisms, body language and pronunciations are all different.

“As actors, we’ve been trying to find the correct way each culture represents (the story) and tailoring it to each story,” Ritch said. “I would say it’s a good challenge for actors to have because it makes you very aware of your physicality as an actor and particularly your voice.”

Ritch described having to move from telling the Appalachian version of Cinderella and its set of cultural requirements to another in a short space of time.

“We have to adapt and adopt that dialect and then immediately let it go so it doesn’t bleed into the Asian story, where we’re obviously not going to have that accent,” Ritch said.

Clark said the event should have widespread appeal, not only for children, but adults as well.

“I think it will be of interest to many people to see the various cultures represented in this classic story,” Clark said.

For the children, however, there is an earlier event that may generate interest, as well: Theatre for Youth and Theatre Education students will lead a tiara- and crown-making workshop.

“They will make either a tiara or crown, so they can enter the theater royally,” Clark said.

Described as a family friendly event, the “Cinderellas Around the World” workshop begins at 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 12, while the play begins at 3 p.m. There is a $2 fee for materials for the workshop, and tickets for the play can be purchased for $5 at the door or online at artsofthepamlico.org.

For more information, call 252-946-2504. The Turnage Theatre is located at 150 W. Main St., Washington.