Olivia

On January 31, 2004, DEBORAH ANN (nee Moersdorf); beloved wife of Wayne A. Cunfer; devoted sister of Kathleen L. Coulson; step-daughter of Frank Darney; aunt of Olivia Coulson.Visiting at the E. F. Lassahn Funeral Home, P.A., 11750 Belair Rd., (Kingsville) on Tuesday 2 - 5 and 7 - 9 PM. A Memorial Service will be scheduled at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, 6608 Blackhead Road, Middle River, MD., 21220.

Ellicott City now has its own "Idol," and her name is Olivia Nagel. Like Fantasia Barrino, her more famous counterpart on Fox television's American Idol, Olivia took the top prize last week in the Ellicott City version of the talent contest. Olivia, 14, who will be a freshman next fall at Wilde Lake High School, edged out dozens of talented contenders to sing her way to the top spot. But unlike Barrino, who won a record deal and acclaim from fans far and wide, Olivia received only $100 and the enthusiastic applause of about 70 spectators at the Miller library branch.

During her more than 25-year association with Anne Arundel Community College's Moonlight Troupers, performing arts department Chairwoman Barbara Marder has not witnessed a single Shakespeare production at the college, recalling that A Midsummer Night's Dream was offered about 30 years ago. From what I observed at last Thursday's rehearsal of Twelfth Night, it is about time the Bard got on the boards. The play looks to receive fine treatment from the drama club cast when it opens April 13 for a brief run at the Pascal Center for Performing Arts.

Following intermission in Center Stage's production of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night," Feste the clown comes out and hams up a series of famous speeches from Shakespeare's greatest hits -- "Hamlet," "Romeo and Juliet," "Othello," etc.It's like a TV ad for a cassette of classical favorites -- except Feste, played by former circus clown Robert Dorfman, throws in a few bars from "West Side Story" and even a reference to "Tea and Sympathy."The point -- stressed during the stand-up comedy routine with which Mr. Dorfman introduces the play -- is that in "Twelfth Night," anything goes.

Next month, Stan Wojewodski Jr. ends his brilliant 14-year tenure as Center Stage's artistic director and heads for New Haven to become the new dean of the Yale School of Drama and the new artistic director of the Yale Repertory Theatre.If you want a measure of the strength of the institution he leaves behind, go see Center Stage's current production of William Shakespeare's festive and philosophical comedy ''Twelfth Night,'' which runs through May 12. Irene Lewis directs. When Mr. Wojewodski leaves, she will take over as acting artistic director for the 1991-1992 season.

A former Morgan State University student who was drunk New Year's Day when he plowed into a stalled car on Interstate 95, killing a Gaithersburg man and his 7-year-old daughter, was sentenced to 14 years in prison yesterday after an emotional hearing that included tears, apologies and pleas for a harsh sentence. Sirron Lamar Farmer, 26, had pleaded guilty to two counts of vehicular manslaughter hours earlier, but the defense and prosecution agreed to a quick sentencing because the victims' relatives, who packed the courtroom, had come from up and down the East Coast.

"Men in Black," by Scott Spencer. 321 pages. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. $24Sam Holland aspires to be a serious novelist, but he writes junk for money. His latest, "Visitors from Above," a potboiler about UFOs, has touched off a freakish enthusiasm among readers and is about to make him rich.Wealth and fame come awkwardly. Holland is ashamed of the book, which he wrote under the pseudonym John Retcliffe. Tensions with his wife, Olivia, have tipped him into an affair of some months with a woman he met while writing the UFO book.

"A Woman Like That!" leaves no doubt as to what kind of woman we're talking about. When a femme fatale named Olivia Dark struts her tight-skirted self across the stage of the Lyric Opera House, she truly is "a woman like that." When this devilish character sets out to seduce a married preacher, she wiggles her way into a secretarial job in his church before you can even say along with the rest of the audience, "Don't do it, Rev."A musical comedy like that doesn't mess around with anything subtle when matters of sin and salvation are at hand.

There's another skirmish tonight on the battlefield of acceptable language in new network shows.BEarlier this month, "Uncle Buck" and "The Trials of Rosie O'Neill" raised the issue of vulgarity with their attention-grabbing openings. In "Married People," which debuts tonight at 9:30 on WJZ-TV (Channel 13), it is the ending that contains the questionable language.The new sitcom, starring Baltimore native Bess Armstrong, features three couples living in a brownstone building in a portion of Harlem that real estate agents are calling Central Park North and yuppies are gentrifying.

A FRIEND was telling me she is going to Rome this month, and before I thought, I said, "Too bad it has to be in August."She looked dejected but rallied to say she is grateful for the trip, no matter the weather or calendar.I rallied, too. The truth is that I love old seedy August, hot and dusty and brassy as it undoubtedly will be. The summer season is winding down. The cool breath of autumn will touch our sweat-damp brows any day now.The July flies will step up their chorus in the trees at sundown, the plumes of goldenrod, not yet ready to show color, will nonetheless be plumping up.School supplies and shoes and sweaters are appearing in back-to-school ads. My old-time country neighbors, most of whom have moved away or died, would be very busy in August canning or freezing the fruits from their gardens.