R2P Closes 2011 Season with Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella

Running to Places Theatre Company finished their 2011 season at Ithaca’s State Theatre with Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella in late August to the delight of adults and children, many of whom came dressed in costume for the event and greeted the characters after the shows.

The starring roles went to Engy Hassan as Cinderella and Matt Avery as Prince Christopher.  Both these young performers have strong beautiful voices and added grace and magic to the stage. Whether in quiet moments alone in the stepmother’s house as in “In My Own Little Corner” or in duets like “Do I Love You Because You’re Beautiful”, both Engy and Matt gave wonderful performances.  Todd Petersen’s choreography, as always, had these two floating across the ballroom floor as enchanted lovers should.

Extremely strong supporting performances were brought to life in the characters of the stepsisters, Grace and Joy, played with such humor and delight by Haley Evanoski and Natalia Rathburn, and guided by their mother, played by Allison Mollenkamp. The girls you love to hate were great fun in their disgusting habits and hilarious costumes. Kudos to Michelle Roy for great costume design. Grace and Joy won my heart with their great duet, “Stepsister’s Lament”. Fabulous, girls!

Another marvelous performance came from Jewell Payne as the Fairy God Mother.  Her powerful voice and elegant stage presence gave wonderful life to the character. Lisa Podulka also gave great supporting performances as Leona the Steward, with strong expression and energy and showing her talents both singing and dancing. Rebecca Woods and Felix Fernandez-Perry played the roles of the King and Queen with delightful duets and good humor.

Tyler Perry designed beautiful sets, simple and effective, to bring us into the story book production complimented by lighting by Max Doolittle and the pit orchestra led by Richard Montgomery brought the story alive with great music.

A wonderful family production and great finish to an amazing season. Hats off to all the cast and supporting crew, to Gail and Joey and everyone who works so hard to support this great local company of performers. Our community appreciates you and are lucky to have you all. Now, onto next season, bound to be even better if that’s possible. Congratulations Running To Places on a great season!

All images are Copyright © George Cannon. Images from this show and all Running To Places season shows are available for purchase at http://imageguy.zenfolio.com with a portion of the sales going back to support Running To Places. Order your favorites today.

Maybe you can be as lucky as I am….

As much as I appreciate what the internet has done for us all, I am constantly amazed at my continued good fortune, which I would have never known about without the online community. Let me elaborate.

Like many people I know, I set up a gmail account to use as my alternative when contacting people I really don’t want sending me piles of unsolicited stuff. The gmail account is sort of the dumping ground account where spam will accumulate or bogus offers can be sent. Little did I know how such an account would open the door to all those people who were searching for me in order to simply hand me millions of dollars.

For instance, just in the last couple of days I have been contacted by a Swiss woman living in South Africa who wants to give me 10% of her father’s estate just for providing an account where she can transfer the money.  Then I was contacted by Swiss lawyers telling me I am next of kin to one of their clients, recently deceased, and I should contact them to claim my inheritance.

Within another two hours, Mr. Tani Oude from the Bank of Africa, notified me that he would like to give me 18 million dollars that’s been lying unclaimed in his bank. I guess he just wants to help me out, though I have never met the man. How generous!

Then Ms. Mary-Rose, who is currently hospitalized with a spinal cord injury, decided that I would be a good person to help distribute 2.5 million dollars to help charities and individuals, particularly the motherless and widows.  She’ll release the funds as soon as I contact her. Better get on that one.

Next, the United Nations Office of International Oversight seems to think I should be compensated to the tune of $550,000.00 for being a victim of Nigerian scammers. How lucky am I?

This was followed by a message from my friend, Dr. Frank Nana who is a bank manager, notifying me that he wishes to share 25% of the hidden unreported profits from his bank, with me. Can you believe this?

So today, Barrister Mohammed Zahman emailed to say that a client with the same last name as mine, who left behind 17.5 million dollars, lost all his remaining family in a tsunami in Sumatra. The money will be listed as unserviceable should he not distribute it soon, so, I’m in luck again. I wonder what the tax laws are for that kind of gift.

Also, Mr. Gamal Kassim , a wealthy merchant from Dubai, wishes to share 15 to 20% of his wealth if  I will just assist him in giving the rest to charity. I can do that while assisting the widows and motherless people. It’ll be a snap.

Terry Sutton then contacted me from a bank in Scotland where he is Finance Manager. He asked me to join him in a deal to move 12 million British Pounds that some Kuwaiti corporation was over invoiced for. I would get a percentage. This one seems like a risky deal, but it’s an awful lot of money. Not that I really need it now. But maybe more for charity. I could even get a humanitarian award or something.

Finally, Mr. Stanley Brown just needs some information in order to arrange my daily  Western Union transfers of $4500 per day until all of my $1.7 million dollars can be sent.

So, thank you Mr. Internet and the wonderful vehicle of email for delivering this continuous stream of good fortune and wealth. I don’t know how these wonderful people keep finding me, but I know my financial future is secure and my retirement years will be filled with wonderful opportunities.

I wish all of you similar luck.