Pygmalion (2007) Production Files

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Identifier: PYGMALION2007
Inclusive Dates: 2007
Extent:
Production Files documenting the 2007 production of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion at the American Airlines Theatre.  Directed by David Grindley, with set and costume design by Jonathan Fensom, lighting design by Jason Taylor, and sound design by Gregory Clarke; the British director and design team had worked together previously both in the UK and in the US.  Hair and wig design was by Richard Orton.    
 
The production starred Claire Danes as Eliza Doolittle, Jefferson Mays as Henry Higgins, Boyd Gaines as Colonel Pickering, and Jay O. Sanders as Alfred Doolittle; with Kerry Bishe as Miss Clara Eynsford Hill, Sandra Shipley as Mrs. Eynsford-Hill, Doug Stender as Bystander/Taxi Driver, Kieran Campion as Freddy Eynsford Hill, Tony Carlin as Sarcastic Bystander, Brenda Wehle as Mrs. Pearce, Helen Carey as Mrs. Higgins, Karen Walsh as Parlor Maid and Jonathan Fielding, Robin Moseley, Jennifer Armour, Brad Heikes and Curtis Shumaker as Other Bystanders. Karen Walsh, Tony Carlin, Robin Moseley, Sandra Shipley, Jonathan Fielding and Doug Stender also acted as understudies.
 
This production does not appear to have been nominated for any awards.
Shaw's play is based on the Greek myth of the artist Pygmalion, who falls in love with one of his sculptures and successfully petitions Venus to bring the girl to life.  In Shaw's version, Professor Henry Higgins, an expert in phonetics, bets that using speech training he "sculpt" a lower class Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle,  into a gentile woman who can pass for a duchess. The play casts both the rigid British class system and Victorian womens' lack of independence in a stark light.

Shaw's Pygmalion had its Broadway premiere in October 1914.  Many other Victorian English playwrights were inspired by the Pygmalion myth, including W. S. Gilbert, who was also in turn an influence on Shaw.  Adaptations of Shaw's Pygmalion abound, most famously the musical and film My Fair Lady.
Production files span 2 Hollinger boxes consisting of 21 folders, the cast/family photo, two copies of the Playbill (including one signed by the cast), and a marketing flyer. The stage management bible is also present in CD format, containing folders for: BCEFA, BCEFA copy, Breakdowns (ie. scenes), Calendar, Contact, Costumes, Cue Sheets, Dressing Rooms, Forms, Lighting, Pictures, Playbill, Props, Scenery, Schedules, Script, Sign In, Signs, Sound and Understudies.  Another digital copy of the bible can be found on the Archive 1 server.  Also in the box is another stage management CD entitled "Interlude Music Call CD"; a copy of this is on Archive 1.

The digital holdings on the Archive1 server include folders for:
Education (pdf of the Study Guide)
Media (mp4 interview with Claire Danes, mp3 interviews with David Grindley, Jefferson Mays and Jonathan Fensom; folders with photographs from HIPTIX, Out at Roundabout, Opening Night and social events)
Playbill (25 jpeg scans)
Press (select press scanned by the Archive)
Production Photographs (jpeg, selects only)
Pygmalion (SM bible cd, with a nested folder for the incidental music cd)
Show Art (poster art and window card)

There are 18 pages of set designer Jonathan Fensom's drawings (ground plans, sections, deck treatment, etc) in the flat file cabinet, and another copy of the cast/family photo in the Photographs cabinet.

There is a related collection of marketing materials on the Marketing shelves. Contracts have been removed and housed in the Contracts cabinets; these are confidential and access is restricted. There is also a hard copy of the poster on the Poster shelves. 
Access Restrictions: Open and available to approved researchers by appointment only. See folder details for specific restrictions.
Preferred Citation: Pygmalion 2007, Roundabout Theatre Company Archive
Related Staged Production

Pygmalion (2007)

This box contains the following folders:
Artistic Management
Equity/Visas
Rehearsal Reports
Performance Reports
House Reports
Performance Statements
House Seats
Opening Night
Tony Voters
MAC Agreement
Education
Press

 
This box contains the following folders:
Casting Sessions
Calling Script
Master Script
Blocking Script
Lighting Design
Costume Design
Set Design
Props
Flame and Haze

It also contains the cast/family photo, two copies of the Playbill (including one signed by the cast), and a marketing flyer.  Also in this box are two stage management CDs--one with the SM bible, and the other titled "Incidental Music calling cd" with 7 orchestral sound files of 8 minutes in total.  The content of both cds has also been uploaded to Archive 1.

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