Director Jeannette Thomas was asked in an interview whether she, as a theatre arts instructor, ever feels that, like that ancient Greek sculptor, her work has helped bring student acting careers to life.
She answered modestly. “Sometimes you see a student that you have had as a beginning actor, and they’ve been in the program for a while and they audition for you, and you give them the lead role and you watch how they’ve grown. It is really great to see how they’ve grown from the beginning to where they are now.”
The two leads in Pygmalion— Derek San Filippo as Henry Higgins and Hannah Hedgecock as Eliza Doolittle—are at different stages in their careers, yet they play very well off each other, according to Thomas. While Hedgecock has appeared in several productions and is nearly ready to graduate from the theatre arts program, this is only the second time that San Filippo has appeared on stage. The last time was in the comparatively minor role of Zeus in the play The Odyssey.
Nevertheless, said Thomas, “his understanding of the character is spot-on. He understands Higgins exactly right.” Many people who have watched My Fair Lady, the musical based on Pygmalion, perhaps picture Rex Harrison in the role. As Thomas evaluates the character, Higgins “is brilliant, driven and focused on what it is he wants to do – in this case it is phonetics and the universal language he wants to develop. Because of that, everything else falls by the wayside, not because he wants to be mean, or rude, or to ignore other people.”
During auditions, Hedgecock nailed down the role of Eliza Doolittle, the lower class flower vendor whom Higgins transforms into a British lady, by being able to switch easily from “the very hard Cockney accent” of the flower vendor to the cultured accent of the “prim and proper” lady that Doolittle becomes. “She was able to make that distinction between the two far better than anyone else,” said her director. “She is really great.”
For Thomas, the fact that many people know the story of Henry and Eliza from the movie and stage versions of My Fair Lady presented an interesting problem. Shaw’s Pygmalion has a different ending, and Thomas was determined to remain true to the playwright. The ending as Shaw wrote it leaves the question of the future relationship between Henry and Eliza an open question, whereas in My Fair Lady they realize their attraction for each other. Interestingly, Shaw in a reflection following the production of Pygmalion, said he thought Eliza eventually would marry another character, Freddy. Audiences at the Stagehouse Theatre, commented Thomas with a mischievous smile, will have the opportunity to decide for themselves.
In the movie, an unforgettable scene was when the newly prim Eliza accompanies a refined group to the race track, where she gets caught up in the competition and screams at the horse she bet on, “Move Your Bloomin’ Arse,” much to the horror of her companions. There is no such scene in Pygmalion, but there is a scene that nevertheless shocked Victorian audiences. At the home of Henry’s mother, Eliza is asked if she plans to walk across the park. “Not bloody likely!” Eliza responds. In those days “bloody” was considered a curse word, tantamount to “dropping the F-bomb in church,” Thomas commented. The director said we should all watch for that scene.
Another challenge for the production is the Stagehouse Theatre’s relatively small stage, which needed to accommodate three different sets – the interiors of Henry Higgins’ home and the home of his mother, and the exterior of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Thomas gave credit to set designer Craig Everett for solving that problem.
Eliza Doolittle is not the only character in the play who speaks with an accent, Thomas noted. Brian Rickle was brought in to help other actors in the production speak in a variety of accents, including high British, Cockney and Irish.
Accents were very important in George Bernard Shaw’s day, and perhaps still are. “We still classify people,” Thomas commented. “In some ways we have it in the States. If we hear someone with a southern drawl, or a crisp New England accent, we may think things about them, regardless of who they might be. I like Eliza’s line: ‘The difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves but how she is treated!’”
Thomas said “that idea of self-respect is something I would like people to take away from the play. Maybe we need to treat each other with a little kindness.”
Tickets for the plays may be obtained via the box office at (619) 644-7267. Play dates are 7:30 p.m. Oct 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, and 12, with additional Saturday matinees at 2 p.m., Oct. 5, and 12.
-DHH-
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