My Fair Lady

My Fair Lady
a musical by Alan Jay Lerner
Kepler´s Drama Group Season 2007/2008
CAST:
Eliza Doolittle
Marlene Starke
Professor Henry Higgins
Christopher Rehm
Colonel Hugh Pickering
Stefan Reuter
Mrs Pearce, Higgins’ housekeeper
Steffi Gutzan/Marlies Klein
Alfred “Alfie” Doolittle, Eliza´s father
Oliver Hauber
Mrs. Higgins, Higgins´ mother
Kristina Derka/Claudine Mutschler
Freddy Eynsford-Hill
Thomas Ruppert
Mrs. Eynsford-Hill, his mother
Elisa Starke /Angela Derka
Harry and Jamie, Alfie’s friends
Timo Schäfer & Tim Kolberger
Zoltan Karpathy, a Hungarian linguist
Timo Schäfer
Higgins´ servant
Sophia Müller/Anja Keicher
Lord and Lady Boxington
Tim Kolberger & Anna Miller
George, the bartender
Valentin Fischer
Queen & Prince of Transylvania
Claudine Mutschler/Gesine Fels & Moritz Hiller
footman
Valentin Fischer
policeman
Tim Kolberger
flower girl # 1
Nicoletta Sack
flower girl # 2
Rebecca Eichler
flower girl # 3
Lavinia Moroff
flower girl # 4
Anna Miller
flower girl # 5
Isabelle Fischer
angry woman
Claudine Mutschler/Gesine Fels
Mrs Hopkins
Anja Keicher/Sophia Müller
music/piano
singing lessons
choreographies
technical staff
stage and props
website
Christine Roser
Claudia Winter-Baker
Kristina Derka
Manuel Bergold, Moritz Hiller, Tim Kolberger
Anja Keicher/Mr Keicher/Mrs Keicher
Constantin Scholl
director
Martin Vielhaber
Inhalt
Der Sprachwissenschaftler Professor Henry Higgins ist der festen Überzeugung, dass
die Ausdrucksweise eines Menschen seinen Charakter formt und ihn einer
bestimmten Gesellschaftsschicht zuordnet. Nach einem Theaterbesuch verfolgt die
ungebildete, arme Blumenverkäuferin Eliza Doolittle ein Gespräch zwischen Henry
Higgins und Oberst Pickering. Der Wissenschaftler glaubt, jedem Menschen mit
einem intensiven Sprachtraining einer gewählteren Ausdrucksweise eine bessere
Zukunft bieten zu können. Eliza nimmt die Idee ernst und sucht das Haus des
wohlhabenden Higgins auf. Sie möchte durch den Sprachunterricht ihre Chancen
verbessern, einen eigenen Blumenladen eröffnen zu können. Der Wissenschaftler ist
zunächst von der Aussicht, dieses Mädchen zu unterrichten, nicht begeistert. Doch
Oberst Pickering macht aus dem Vorhaben eine Wette und weckt so den Sportsgeist
des Professors. Das Blumenmädchen zieht in das Haus des überzeugten
Junggesellen und unterzieht sich den langwierigen und oft nervenaufreibenden
Sprachübungen. Ihr Vater dagegen sieht in Higgins eine potentielle Geldquelle für sich
selbst. Wird sie es schaffen, beim Ball in der Botschaft nicht aufzufallen…?
Special thanks go to:
Rudi Sack, Mr and Mrs Keicher, Mr and Mrs Starke, Mrs Rupert,
Jonathan Vielhaber, Lisa-Marie Breitling, Mrs Roser, Mrs WinterBaker, Mrs Maas for hairstyling and make-up, our sponsors and
our caretakers.
Plot
Henry Higgins, an arrogant professor of phonetics, is convinced that language
defines every person’s character and social position. He boasts to his new
acquaintance, Colonel Pickering, that he can teach any woman to speak so
"properly" that he could pass her off as a duchess. Outside Covent Garden opera
they meet the young flower girl Eliza Doolittle who is very poor and has a
terrible Cockney accent. Eliza finds her way to the professor's house and offers
to pay for speech lessons, so that she can work in a flower shop. Pickering loves
the idea and when Higgins claims that he can pass her off as a duchess at the
embassy ball, Pickering bets with him that he can’t. Higgins takes Eliza on free
of charge as a challenge to his skills and starts her education. Whereas Eliza’s
father sees his chance to get some money out of the professor, Eliza tries really
hard to master the English language. Will she manage to pass her test...?
“With hope, faith and a little bit of luck” (Alfred Doolittle)
Without these three things our jubilee production could never have been realized. Having
started as a project in some classes of my esteemed former colleague, Mr. Klotter-Bucher,
Kepler’s Drama Group has become an essential part of our school. 10 years are a very long
time for a school drama group as its members structure is constantly changing due to
timetables, school commitments and the inevitable loss of actors simply because their school
time comes to an end. This will be the case with nine (!) of our members after this play. Many
of them have continuously appeared in all plays ever since I took over the director’s seat, so
this means the end of an era.
The production of “My Fair Lady” certainly marks a highlight in our history, as this is the
first musical production we have ever done (and perhaps it will be the only one, too!).
Usually, a project like this starts with expert singers who then learn how to act. With us, it
was the other way round: many actors - especially the male ones - had to learn how to sing,
which many of them had never seriously done before!
This worked out so well that in July we were even able to win a “Theatheo”-award at a theatre
contest in Pforzheim performing parts of our current production!
All this would never have been possible without those lots of helping hands in the
background: Mrs Roser, who plays the piano, Mrs Winter-Baker, who took care of the singing
lessons, Mr and Mrs Keicher, who spent a great many hours constructing our stage and
sewing costumes, Mr Starke who helped building the stage, Mrs Rupert who agreed to sell the
drinks, our sponsors, the school parent council and the “snack mothers” who supported us
with money, which was urgently needed and so many others…
The licence holders first refused to issue one for us at all, then agreed after a lot of negotiation
and finally charged us 3,000 €! So we’re very, very grateful for every ticket sold and every
single donation. Feel free to make one if you like…and our actors will do everything to
reward you by giving their very best in our production of “My Fair Lady”.
M. Vielhaber, KDG director