It is Iyana’s special tenth birthday, the birthday that every child in the Kingdom receives his or her magic singing shoes from her father, the Shoemaker. But her father has fallen on hard times and is too poor to buy new material for Iyana, so he cobbles together a pair of shoes with the old scraps found in his ragbag.

 

But ugly or not, the shoes are made from magic. 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 lining came from Cinderella’s glass slipper; the ribbons were plucked from the dancing shoes of twelve princess; and the laces were handmade by the elves who helped the Shoemaker!

 

As Iyana’s shoes dance her from tale to tale, Iyana learns to both respect the history of her ragbag shoes and to feel empowered to dance the shoes into a story of her own. She is reminded to respect the past and remake the future; 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 familiar and forgotten tales of footwear.