Call to Audition for Pygmalion

FEST Production: Pygmalion

Performance Dates in 2025: March 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 30

Time: 7.30pm (Sundays 3.30pm)

Director: Daniel Toyne

Assistant Director: Cornelia Groeger

Producers: Gulmira Jumayeva and Julie Ng

Set Design: Isabel Bohlman         

We are in the process of building our production team! If you are interested in helping out creatively backstage, please send an email expressing your interest to [email protected].

About Daniel

Daniel is a FEST member and was, for forty years, a teacher of English Literature, in UK, Singapore & Germany, specializing in Shakespeare, women poets & 20th century drama.

He has been involved in community theatre for many years, both as director and actor – major roles include Prospero, Gloucester and Undershaft (Major Barbara). He has also directed works by Shakespeare, Priestley, Miller, Pinter, Bennett and many others, often working on school tests in performance. Daniel directed three projects for FEST and appeared in ShakespeareFrankfurt’s King Lear. Now retired and living in UK, he is active with his local community theatre, as well as finding time for theatre, opera and music around the country. He is currently working on a public lecture – Shakespeare & Foregiveness – to be given in California later in the year.

About the PLAY

First performed in Vienna in 1913, Bernard Shaw’s masterpiece is inspired by the Greek myth of creating the perfect woman. PYGMALION is a social commentary set within the structures & conventions of a comedy of manners. Both of these aspects of the play will be developed in the FEST production as it explores Shaw’s concerns of poverty, class, gender & the types of societal structure we accept. In retelling his fable, we will ask the audience his question – what are our values, and how are they demonstrated in the way we treat each other.

Auditions for Pygmalion will be held on two days. You can choose to sign up for ONE of the four following audition slots:

Sunday, 3 November 2024 9.30am – 1.30pm (Kulturhaus)

1. 9.30 – 11.00am

2.  12.00 – 1.30pm

Monday, 4 November 2024 6.30pm – 9.30pm (Kulturhaus)

3.  6.30pm – 8.00pm

4. 8.00pm – 9.30pm

We will have call backs, if needed, on Thursday, 7 November 6.30pm – 9.30pm

Please send an email to [email protected] to secure an audition slot. State the date and time of your audition slot and which role(s) (see below) you would like to audition for. Should you need more infos regarding a specific role you can click on the following link: https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/pygmalion/characters/

We will send you a confirmation email with further infos.

Please click to download the audition registration sheet and remember to bring a printed and completed copy to the audition.

We will provide sides on the day of the audition.

Pygmalion Cast Requirements
Actors need to present the following ages:

* brief stage time

** moderate stage time

*** considerable stage time

Professor Henry Higgins *** (Male, 30-50)

An old bachelor who specializes in phonetics and who is an acclaimed authority on the subject of dialects, accents and phonetics.

Eliza Doolittle *** (Female, 20s)

An uneducated, uncouth “guttersnipe,” the flower girl whom Higgins decides to mold into a duchess.

Colonel Pickering *** (Male, 30-50)

A distinguished retired officer and the author of Spoken Sanskrit. He has come to England to meet the famous Higgins. He is courteous and polite to Eliza, and he shares in Higgins’ experiments in phonetics ion teaching Eliza to speak like a duchess.

Alfred Doolittle ** (Male, 50+)

Eliza’s father. He is a dustman with a sonorous voice and a Welsh accent, who proudly believes in his position as a member of the “undeserving poor.”

Mrs Pearce ** (Female, 40+)
Professor Higgins’ housekeeper of long standing. She is the one who first sees the difficulty of what is to happen to Eliza after Higgins and Pickering have finished their experiment with her.

Mrs Higgins ** (Female, 70+)

Henry Hoggins’ mother, who thoroughly loves her son, but also thoroughly disapproves of his manners, his language, and his social behavior. 

Mrs Eynsford-Hill ** (Female, 50+)

A lady of the upper-middle class who is in a rather impoverished condition, but is still clinging to her gentility.

Clara ** (Female, 20s)

Mrs Eynsford-Hills daughter; she tries to act the role of the modem, advanced young person.

Freddie ** (Male, 20s)

Mrs Eynsford-Hills son; he is a pleasant young man who is enchanted by Eliza upon first meeting her.

Bystanders* (Female/Male)

Maid* (Female/Male, 20s)

Policemen* (Female/Male)

BREAK A LEG and most important: HAVE FUN!