My Fair Lady

Port Angeles Light Opera Association
P.O. Box 327, Port Angeles, WA 98362 - (360) 457-5630

presents

My Fair Lady
1995

The first encounter between Professor Henry Higgins, the brilliant, crotchety, middle-aged bachelor who is England's leading phoneticist, and Eliza Doolittle, the little cockney gutter sparrow, takes place near the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, late on a cold March night. Eliza is selling violets. Higgins is out on his endless quest after new varieties of London's speech. A handsome young aristocrat, Freddy Eynsford-Hill takes no notice of her when she tries to sell him violets. A Colonel Pickering, a linguistic expert, too, comes to stay with Higgins at his flat. Eliza's squalid father, Alfred Doolittle, outlines his optimistic if somewhat unorthodox philosophy of life in the rousing With A Little Bit of Luck. Eliza comes to Higgins' flat to be instructed in the English language, so that she may transform herself into a "Iidy." Pickering challenges him to "metamorphose the guttersnipe into a paragon of verbal correctitude." Higgins looks upon her not as a person but as raw material for his experiment. Higgins drills Eliza for weeks. As no hint of progress is made Eliza loses her courage, Higgins loses his temper, and even Pickering's patience wears thin. In her anger and futility, Eliza creates a set of sadistic fantasies involving her professor. At last she improves, and they all proclaim the victor in The Rain in Spain. In the flush of his first success he resolves to put Eliza to a preliminary test. He will introduce her to his mother's snobbish guests at the Ascot Race Meeting the following week. Eliza expresses her own towering exaltation in I Could Have Danced All Night. While not romantic, her sense of triumph is tied up with a new feeling for Higgins. Eliza, strikingly pretty in her new gown and hairdo, appears at the races. Instructed to restrict her conversation to the weather and everyone's health, she says her little set pieces flawlessly. The illusion is shattered when her enthusiasm for the horse she is backing impels her to indulge in a bout of violently unladylike cheering. Freddy Eynsford-Hill falls hopelessly in love with the new Eliza, and later pours out On The Street Where You Live at her window. Six weeks later Higgins, in a crucial test, presents Eliza at a full-dress Embassy ball. She is the object of admiration and everyone speculates on her identity. It becomes obvious that Eliza must take in Karpathy, a European phonetics expert. At the height of the ball Karpathy invites her to dance and comments on the pureness of her English.

Pickering and Higgins, back at the flat, give themselves over to an orgy of self-congratulation. Neither of them takes into account Eliza ' s personal accomplishment in the matter. Eliza has absorbed the sophistication and the courage to see the unfairness of this, and she blows up, demanding recognition. The Professor is not so much affronted as astonished; it is as though a statue had spoken

from its niche. Infuriated and frustrated, Eliza storms out of the house. She encounters Freddy and turns her fury on him. Eliza aimlessly walks the streets of the town, the remainder of the night. She encounters her father, drunk and dressed for a fashionable wedding. He has become wealthy, and Eliza's mother is marrying him at last. Doolittle gives an account of his celebrations in Get Me To The Church on Time. Higgins discovers that he is hurt that Eliza has left him. He meets her at his mother's flat where she has gone for advice. They argue violently and she storms out. It is only a moment after her departure that Higgins finally wakes up to the fact that Eliza has become an entirely independent and admirable human being. He realizes that he will have a difficult time getting on without her. This he admits to himself in I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face. Back at his flat he sinks into his chair prepared to face a bleak, lonely future. But just then-a moment before the final curtain falls-a figure emerges from the shadowy corner of the room, and Higgins recognizes Eliza. He leans back with a long, contented sigh and speaks softly: "Eliza? Where the devil are my slippers?"

Musical Numbers

ACT ONE

Overture and Opening Scene
Why Can't The English?
Wouldn't It Be Loverly?
With A Little Bit Of Luck
Reprise: With A Little Bit Of Luck
Just You Wait
The Servants' Chorus
The Rain In Spain
I Could Have Danced All Night
Ascot Gavotte
On the Street Where You Live
Promenade
The Embassy Waltz

INTERMISSION

During our 20-minute intermission, refreshments will be sponsored by the North Olympic Youth Symphony.

ACT TWO

Entr' Acte
You Did It
Reprise: Just You Wait
Reprise: On the Street Where You Live
Show Me
Reprise: Wouldn't It Be Loverly?
Get Me To The Church On Time
Hymn To Him
Without You
I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face

Alfie Doolittle "With a Little Bit a Bloomin' Luck" played by Bill Bahrt

Alfie Doolittle "I'm Gettin' Married in the Mornin" played by Bill Bahrt

From Left: Carol Philpott & Lucy Higgs

Carol Phillpott

Bill Bahrt as Alfie Doolittle

Eileen Knight as Lady Boxington

Jane Millet as Mrs. Pearce

From Left: Pat Morgenroth, Rebecca Robinson & Marian McGilvra

Cockney players Mara Shideler, left, Ann Kennedy and Bob Kennedy attempt to extract spare change from opera patrons Lisa Riggs, Shawn Dawson and Eileen Knight

Detail painter David Nerbovig of Sequim works on the wainscoting appearance of a stage staricase.

Jenni Lyons, left, Janet Tait and Carol Philpott add high fashion and dignity as members of the upper crust Ascot society.

Fashion designer Jennifer Johnson of Sequim, left, helps Jenny Dreessen with the fitting of two of her may costume changes.

Cast of Characters

Eliza Doolittle ........................... Jenny Dreessen

Henry Higgins .......................... Robert McAllister

Colonel Pickering ......................... Harry Jackson

Alfred Doolittle ............................... William Bahrt

Freddy Eynsford-Hill .................. Shawn Dawson

Mrs. Higgins ......................... Marci Jo Columbia

Mrs. Eynsford-Hill ........................ Julie Anderson

Harry ..................................................... Don Scott

Jamie .......................................... Steve Robinson

Mrs. Pearce ...................................... Jane Millet

Professor Karpathy ................ Chris Reinertsen

Mrs. Hopkins ............................... Mara Shidelor

Bartender ..................................... Rick Harrison

Lord Boxington ................................. Bill Anabel

Lady Boxington ........................... Eileen Knight

Angry Man ....................................... Bill Anabel

Angry Woman ........................... Mara Shidelor

Butler ............................................. Joe Wolfley

Bystanders .................... Judy Donaldson, Rick Harrison

Chauffeur ...................................... Joe Wolfley

Flower Girl ............................ Jenni Lyons Tait

Footmen .................... Doug Beat tie, Jared Lyons Tait

Hoxton Man ......................... Steve Robinson

Maids in Henry Higgins' Household .................... Marian McGilvra, Rebecca Robinson

Mrs. Higgins' Maid .................. Martha Baker

Policeman .......................... Jared Lyons Tait

Selsey Man ..................................... Don Scott

Queen of Transylvania ............ B.J. Sorensen

Servants' Chorus .................... Doug Beattie, Vivian Beran, Marian McGilvra, Pat Morgenroth, Rebecca Robinson, Joe Woltley

Cockney Quartet .................... Michael Hibbard, Ian McKelvie, Lance Rasmussen, John Schmidt

Buskers .......................... Martha Baker, Arlene Sawyer, Joe Woltley

Chorus and Dancers .................... Bill Anabel, Julie Anderson, Martha Baker, Lucy Bamhardt, Vivian Beran, Judy Donaldson, Ann Kennedy, Bob Kennedy, Terri Kirsch, Jared Lyons Tait, Jenni Lyons Tait, Toni Morehouse, Millard Orr, Carol Philpott, Lisa Riggs, Arlene Sawyer, John Schmidt, Michael Sherf, Shelli Sherf, Mara Shideler, Jerrie Tiderman, Larry Tipton, Gene Unger, Joe Woltley

Production Team