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Seguin hits the stage in "My Fair Lady"
Published July 16, 2006
The Seguin Art Center will perform one of the stage’s most well-loved musicals of all time for its summer comeback performance next weekend.
“There are a handful of musicals such as ‘West Side Story,’ ‘Carousel’ and ‘My Fair Lady’ that both audience members and artists within the theater constantly go back to because of their timeless qualities and the fact that they never really go out of style,” said music director Karl Hedrick. “‘My Fair Lady’ is just one of those rare musicals where everything works together perfectly — the music, the words, the characters — everything plays off each other. I think it is a perfect musical for SAC to have a comeback year with.”
A cast of about 35 veteran actors and newcomers will perform the 1956 production, based on the George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion.” The play is based in 1910, when phonetics professor Henry Higgins bets a new acquaintance he can pass off a common flower girl with a thick Cockney accent for a duchess.
Eliza Doolittle succeeds in acquiring a flawless upper-class English accent but only after enduring a ruthless series of phonetics and culture exercises, which require the peasant girl to speak with a mouth full of marbles and even take a bath.
SAC board member Bill Keller, who’s playing Alfred P. Doolittle in the performance, agreed “My Fair Lady” was a natural choice for the organization’s return to the genre.
“The music is really strong, and it’s always been a popular play,” Keller said. “As it turns out, this is the 50th anniversary of the play, which was first performed in 1956, but that was serendipity — we didn’t plan it that way.”
The play’s casting allowed SAC to pull from existing talent within the community and cultivate some of its own. Out of a cast of 44, seven are teachers or retired teachers and 18 are Seguin High School students or alumni.
“The cast is a really good fit,” Keller said. “Some are folks who have been with the art center a long time, and others are brand new. The way we keep this going is to involve new people in the theater.”
A10-member chamber orchestra comprised of professional and preprofessional musicians from Seguin and the surrounding areas will accompany the performance with percussion, strings, winds and brass.
“My Fair Lady” will be performed at 7 p.m., July 21-22 and 28-29, and 2 p.m., July 23 and 30, at TLU’s Jackson Auditorium. Tickets are $20.
For more information, call (830) 379-1442 or visit www.seguinartcenter.com .
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