PYGMALION NOW
by Doug Zschiegner
You’ve heard this story many times – mostly as a musical about a Cockney flower girl who transforms. There is a flower girl in this one, but she’s an immigrant from Rwanda and this is London now. She meets an eager dialectician who makes her his “experiment” by teaching her to speak better English. Her mother (her father in the original story) is a hotel maid, with a wicked tongue and a strong urge to make a better life for herself. Eliza is trained in speech and manners and – eventually – is successful at passing. But “success” for the teacher is not the same as success for the student. The ending may not be what you expect.
- Cast Size: 5M 6W
- Running Time: 90+ minutes
- Royalty Rate: $75 per performance
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About the Playwright
DOUG ZSCHIEGNER spent 15 years as Asst. Director/Asst. Professor at Niagara University Theatre’s BFA program, where he directed Company, The Threepenny Opera, She Stoops to Conquer, The Real Thing, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Into the Woods, Bat Boy: The Musical, The Drowsy Chaperone, She Loves Me and The Laramie Project. Besides teaching there, he adapted and directed The Macbeth Insurgency and CyranA (published by Next Stage.) As Associate Director at The Kavinoky Theatre he directed It’s A Wonderful Life, Secret Order and Rock ‘n’ Roll. He’s also a member of Road Less Traveled Production’s Resident Ensemble, directing premieres of Insidious, Very Fine Use of a Grenade andtwo Buffalo Stories events. Doug directed over thirty shows and ran Education/Outreach for eight years as Resident Director of Mill Mountain Theatre, an Equity company in Roanoke, VA. Acting credits include Race at RLTP, Atticus Finch at Studio Arena, Brutus with Shakespeare in Delaware Park, narration for the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the film Marshall, plus over three-dozen roles by Shakespeare around the country. Doug’s guest directed and/or taught at Virginia Tech, Franklin & Marshall and Dickinson universities and Walnut Street, McCarter, First Stage, Roanoke Children’s Theatre, Indiana Rep and GEVA theatre companies. His MFA is from U of Delaware’s Professional Theatre Training Program. That last name is pronounced CHEEG-ner.
Review Pygmalion Now.