Three views of happily ever after

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Jun 14, 2002 by Bill Blankenship Capital-Journal

Tickets

"Cinderella: The World's Favorite Fairy Tale," by Lowell Swortzell, will be staged by the Topeka Civic Theatre & Academy Children's Academy at 7 p.m. today and Saturday, June 14-15; 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, June 21-22; and 2 p.m. Sunday, June 23, in the Children's Theatre of TCT, 3028 S.W. 8th. Tickets, which are $6, can be purchased by calling 357-5211.

Auditions

Auditions for TCT's Children's Academy's next production, "Les Miserables School Edition," a youth theater version of the Broadway musical, will be Wednesday and Thursday, June 17-18, in the Children's Theatre. The play's run dates are Aug. 2-11. Youths ages 8 to 18 can audition for the play, a fee will be charged if cast. For more information call 357-5213.

MIKE SHEPHERD/The Capital-Journal

Jessica Stacy, right, who plays Pear Blossom, the Cinderella character in the Chinese version of the fairy tale, speaks to three white doves played by Ashley Appelhanz, Jacqueline Johnson and Matthew Miller during a rehearsal of "Cinderella: The World's Favorite Fairy Tale," which opens tonight at the Topeka Civic Theatre & Academy.

By Bill Blankenship

The Capital-Journal

A young woman doesn't need a fairy godmother or a Prince Charming to live happily ever after.

The Children's Academy at Topeka Civic Theatre & Academy will show a girl can be a Cinderella without slipping into an evening gown and glass slippers.

The youth acting troupe will stage Lowell Swortzell's "Cinderella: The World's Favorite Fairy Tale," in which the classic tale is told as it's known in three other cultures.

In the Chinese and Russian versions, there are mean stepmothers and stepsisters. There isn't a mean stepmom in the American Indian version from the Algonquian tradition, but there is one brutal stepsister and one who is more or less a doormat.

Three doves and a cow come to the rescue of the Chinese Cinderella so she can attend a royal procession where she meets a rich man who falls in love with her. A doll comes to life in the Russian version to help that Cinderella with her chores so she can escape a wicked witch and meet and wed the czar. And in the Algonquian version, the Cinderella character is the one who sees the Invisible Hunter who takes her into celestial bliss.

Jessica Stacy, a 14-year-old Topeka High School sophomore who plays all three Cinderellas, says although she gets the guy in all three versions, how she does it is different than in the fairy tale best known to Americans.

"It seems to me in the traditional 'Cinderella,' when she goes to the ball she's all dressed up with all the glitz and glamour so she's kind of stepping into this identity that's not really her," Stacy said.

However, in the three non-U.S. versions, Cinderella meets her man while still clad in rags, so her future groom falls in love not with her outward appearance but with her true beauty.

Jamie Stires, the play's assistant director who took over the production when director Michael Bannen took a new job three weeks ago, said that's the moral of all three versions.

"Everybody knows the story of Cinderella --- rags to riches, happily ever after --- but it's more a story that if you're a good person at heart, that's what really matters," Stires said. "It's not beauty. It's not external features."

Which isn't to say there isn't a place on the stage for the Cinderella most of the audience knows best.

Kayla Bunker, a 15-year-old Washburn Rural High School sophomore, plays that character.

Here are the casts of the three versions:

- "Chinese Cinderella" --- Wing Woo (Claire Ludwig), Pear Blossom (Jessica Stacy), Lin Yun (Nicholas Stacy), Property Men (Katie Fankhauser and Ruby Perske), Stepmother (Jade Enoch), Stepsister 1 (Tiffany Brink), Stepsister 2 (Emily Emmerson), Three White Doves (Jacqueline Johnson, Ashley Appelhanz and Nikki Lee Halverson) and Cow (Matthew Miller).

- "Russian Cinderella" --- Narrator (Claire Ludwig), Vaslisa (Jessica Stacy), Doll (Megan Piel), Stepmother (Hannah Cowger), Stepsister 1 (Alex Coker), Stepsister 2 (Lauren Scott), Baba Yaga (Jennifer Honeycutt), Blue Horseman (Peter Lowry), Orange Horseman (Peter Ludwig), Grey Horseman (Matthew Miller) and Tsar (Sam Johnson).

- "Native American Cinderella" --- Narrator (Claire Ludwig), Blue Fox (Hadley Beir-Green), Grey Seal (Ashley Estrada), Broken Wing (Jessica Stacy), Caribou (Adam Vossen), Morning Star (Francesca Johnson) and Voice of the Invisible Hunter (Nicholas Stacy).