Fairy Godmother

Think of Helen Harkness as the fairy godmother of career reincarnations. She doesn't sprinkle magic dust or wave a wand. But the 76-year-old takes clients looking for a career change on journeys of the soul to find out what will feed their passions. Discover that, she said, and enjoy true success. "Many executives have gotten to the top by leaving parts of themselves behind," said Harkness, principal and president of Career Design Associates Inc. "There's a need for growth that they're not getting from the corporate world."

For its first production of the new year, Colonial Players presents a loopy fairy-tale retelling in Don Nigro's "Cinderella Waltz" that delivers laughs and leads to rethinking what constitutes a happy ending. Prolific playwright Nigro once told the Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism that he values "emotional truths, and every play is a new investigation into truth. " Presumably, his 1978 "Cinderella Waltz" is such a philosophical search for truth by examining the choices made by his quirky fairy-tale characters.

As a holiday treat, Olney Theatre Center is reprising its delightfully imaginative 1994 production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Cinderella." The only musical Rodgers and Hammerstein created specifically for television, "Cinderella" imparts an encouraging lesson for both adults and children as the Fairy Godmother encourages the title character to follow her dreams.Olney's revival is directed by Carol Graham Lehan, who choreographed the 1994 version. The cast features Erin Dilly as Cinderella, Terri Mazzarella as the Fairy Godmother and Helen Hedman, repeating the role of the Queen.

Ballet Theatre of Maryland launched its 30th anniversary season - and its most successful opener ever - with a sizable audience Saturday for the opening performance of Cinderella and a sold-out show Sunday at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts. The draw was a sparkling choreographic recreation of the fairy tale favorite by BTM artistic director Dianna Cuatto. Clearly relishing the project, Cuatto explained that she had "combined the best parts of favorite versions including Ever After, Disney, Rodgers and Hammerstein and others to create this version of the beloved tale."

Photographer William Wegman says it was quite a trick to get Fay Ray, who plays both Evil Stepmother and Fairy Godmother in his all-Weimaraner version of "Cinderella" ((Hyperion, $16.95) "to look benign and maternal after she's looked like Joan Crawford."Fay has a very wise, knowing, intelligent gaze, but that sort of intelligence can also be used to express wickedness."

Editor's note: Fanny Agnes is a farm girl who dreams of marrying a prince. But when her fairy godmother arrives, it's no Cinderella story.Once upon a time in a wild Wyoming town there lived a sturdy girl named Fanny Agnes. She worked from sunup to sundown on her daddy's farm, but she had her dreams.She was going to marry a prince.Or at least the mayor's son. He would be tall, handsome, and have a dozen carriages. If it could happen once upon a time, Fanny believed, it could happen again. After all, what were fairy godmothers for?

As grown-ups watch Martin Short snuffle, snort and grimace in the opening moments of "A Simple Wish," they are likely to compose a fervent wish of their own: Please, oh please, get me through this movie!The kids may warm to Short's genial turn as a hapless fairy godmother. Their parents will find him ceaselessly irritating, like someone in the next lunch booth who sneezes through the entire meal. Short is capable of hysterical caricature. With luck, one day he'll find the right movie vehicle.

"My favorite book is 'Sidney Rella and the Glass Sneaker' by Bernice Myers. It's like the story 'Cinderella' but about a boy named Sidney Rella. He has a fairy godmother who grants him some wishes. I like this book because it is a funny fairy tale."-- Brittany Bullock, Church Lane Elementary"In the book 'Vacation Under the Volcano' by Mary Pope Osborne, the main characters, Jack and Annie, take the Magic Tree House back to the days of the Roman Empire. A volcano is about to erupt, and Jack and Annie's mission is to find a lost scroll before it is destroyed.

Ballet Theatre of Maryland launched its 30th anniversary season - and its most successful opener ever - with a sizable audience Saturday for the opening performance of Cinderella and a sold-out show Sunday at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts. The draw was a sparkling choreographic recreation of the fairy tale favorite by BTM artistic director Dianna Cuatto. Clearly relishing the project, Cuatto explained that she had "combined the best parts of favorite versions including Ever After, Disney, Rodgers and Hammerstein and others to create this version of the beloved tale."

"There's nothing better than a good old-fashioned exercise for your imagination," the Fairy Godmother says at the beginning of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Cinderella." Director Mark Waldrop has taken that advice to heart in Olney Theatre's delightfully imaginative production.Near the start of the show, Deb G. Girdler, as the Fairy Godmother, inserts a large gold key into a stained-glass box on one side of the stage. When the key starts turning, the rest of the cast jolts into action, like figurines in a music box. But though the actors move like mechanical toys during the overture, there's nothing mechanical about the rest of this charming show.

Fell's Point Corner Theatre is trying something different for the holidays - a British-style pantomime. "Pantos," as they are called, have nothing to do with mimes (although this one does include some actors in whiteface). Instead, these shows are slapstick comedies based on fairy tales and generally feature a couple of characters played in drag. Cinderella, the panto at Fell's Point Corner, actually originated in California. Written in 1999 by Kate Hawley, with music by Gregg Coffin, it includes topical references - some clearly updated here - ranging from Game Boys to Paris Hilton.

Opera fans have enjoyed a remarkable feast of fresh experiences so far this season served up by the Baltimore Opera Company and Washington National Opera, both presenting an appetizing assortment of works never before staged in this region. Now comes dessert, courtesy of Peabody Opera Theatre, which offers a rare staging of Massenet's Cendrillon. This endearing take on the Cinderella story had a glittering premiere in Paris in 1899 but never worked its way into the standard repertoire.

Think of Helen Harkness as the fairy godmother of career reincarnations. She doesn't sprinkle magic dust or wave a wand. But the 76-year-old takes clients looking for a career change on journeys of the soul to find out what will feed their passions. Discover that, she said, and enjoy true success. "Many executives have gotten to the top by leaving parts of themselves behind," said Harkness, principal and president of Career Design Associates Inc. "There's a need for growth that they're not getting from the corporate world."

The Howard County Ballet enthralled and awed children of all ages last spring with a production of Peter Pan, complete with flying special effects. This weekend, Jim Rouse Theatre at Wilde Lake High School will provide the backdrop for the company's full-length ballet version of Cinderella, the most enchanting fairy tale of them all. "It's the ultimate rags to riches story," says Kathi Ferguson, the ensemble's founding director, who recently received this...

A COMEDIC adaptation of Cinderella hits the stage this weekend at Northeast High School Eagles Auditorium as the Dionysus Drama Club presents its fall production of Billy St. John's Cindy Ella's Going to the Ball, Baby! Curtain times are at 7 p.m. today and tomorrow with a matinee at 2 p.m. tomorrow. Admission is $5. In this fractured fairy tale, poor Cindy wants to go to her senior prom at Castle Hill High and dance with the irresistible Joe, the object of Cindy's unrequited love. Our heroine's wicked stepmother and stepsisters do everything possible to discourage the teen-ager's attempts until a fairy godmother with an attitude and her crew of miracle workers show up to save the day. At the prom, Cindy finds love, not with Joe the cutie, but his best friend, Buddy.

NEW YORK -- The fairy godmother could belt 'em out. Voice, delivery, pitch, diction -- the sweet-faced soprano with the magic wand had the elusive "it," all right. Not that other troupers in the 1989 Idle Hour Elementary School production of Cinderella Revisited -- preserved on videotape -- were short on pre-adolescent oomph. But the Oakdale, N.Y., sixth-grader who crooned "Somewhere Out There" from the movie An American Tale, "Maybe" from Annie and "One Hand, One Heart" from West Side Story sounded as if she'd been singing cabaret since the crib.

Opera fans have enjoyed a remarkable feast of fresh experiences so far this season served up by the Baltimore Opera Company and Washington National Opera, both presenting an appetizing assortment of works never before staged in this region. Now comes dessert, courtesy of Peabody Opera Theatre, which offers a rare staging of Massenet's Cendrillon. This endearing take on the Cinderella story had a glittering premiere in Paris in 1899 but never worked its way into the standard repertoire.

There aren't any purple dinosaurs on skates in Dorothy Hamill's Ice Capades.Instead, like a fairy godmother, Ms. Hamill has turned the once flashy, carnival atmosphere of this popular ice show with its Las Vegas-inspired costumes into a class act with her substantive production of "Cinderella -- Frozen in Time" now appearing through Sunday at the Baltimore Arena.Local choreographer Tim Murphy, co-founder of the Next Ice Age along with Nathan Birch, have contributed their considerable choreographic talents to this delightful rendition of the beloved fairy tale.

The shoe fits. Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote "Cinderella" for television, but the theatrical touring version now at the Mechanic Theatre suits this 1957 musical as perfectly as a dainty foot gliding into a custom-made glass slipper. The production - adapted for the stage by Tom Briggs and directed by Gabriel Barre - isn't just a charming diversion for the kids at holiday time, however. It's also got a dash of sass and sophistication, as well as a new theme about the Fairy Godmother's relationship to Cinderella, which contributes an added level of poignancy.

She's difficult to categorize -- and proud of it. In a career spanning more than five decades, Eartha Kitt has been a member of the first major African-American dance troupe, an international cabaret singer (performing in 10 languages), an author of three autobiographies, and an actress with theater and screen credits ranging from Helen of Troy in Orson Welles' stage production of "Faust" to Catwoman on the 1960s ABC-TV series "Batman." People magazine dubbed her "one of entertainment's most enduring -- and enigmatic -- icons."