Author: packerland

Wendy Hiller, Julie Andrews, and Audrey Hepburn. What do these three ladies have in common? Each lady has dazzled audiences in the leading role of Eliza Dolittle in My Fair Lady. These three accomplished actresses transform with Eliza from a Cockney accented flower seller to regal “Hungarian princess”.  

Our first notable Eliza is Wendy Hiller, who appears in the 1938 British film adaptation of George  Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion. It was only natural for Hiller to be cast in the lead as she had already portrayed the character on the Festival Theatre stage in Malvern Worcestershire, England in 1936.

The film adaptation featured Hiller as leading lady and Leslie Howard as Henry Higgins. The adaptation itself was an Oscar winner for Best Screenplay and Hiller received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.

The film held a first for Ms. Hiller. She became the first actress to utter the word “bloody” in a British film. The line, “Not bloody likely, I’m going in a taxi!” was in the original play and the filmmakers decided to keep the line in the film.

Throughout her 60 year acting career, Hiller was primarily a stage actress, but her most notable film roles include the role of Pat Cooper in the 1958 film Separate Tables, earning her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and the 1974 film Murder on the Orient Express as Princess Dragonmiroff, earning her the Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actress.

Eighteen years after the film Pygmalion, the screenplay was adapted to the hit musical starring Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins and leading lady Julie Andrews as Eliza Dolittle

The musical made its Broadway debut at the Mark Hellinger Theatre in NYC on March 15, 1956. The musical ran for a total of 2,717 performances, with its last being on September 29, 1962. At that time, it was a record breaking run! However, Harrison and Andrews did not appear in all of the performances. In 1957, Harrison was replaced by Edward Mulhare and in 1958 Andrews was replaced by Sally Ann Howes (who you may recognize as the actress who played Truly Scrumptious in the 1968 film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang).

In 1958, Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews reprised their roles in the London production of My Fair Lady. The production ran for 2,281 performances, with Harrison and Andrews exiting their roles in 1959.

Accolades all around! In 1957, the Broadway musical was a Tony Award winner with Julie Andrews receiving a nomination for her leading lady role.

For the 1964 film adaptation of My Fair Lady, producer Jack Warren cast Audrey Hepburn in the lead role, coming as a shock to the many fans of Julie Andrews! This was considered outrageous because fans believed Andrews was the embodiment of Eliza and that the role was made for her.

Another surprise came when audiences found out that Hepburn’s singing voice was not her own, and that it was in fact dubbed by Marni Nixon. While Hepburn’s vocals were not considered “good enough” for the role, her vocals can be heard in the chorus of the musical number “Just You Wait”.

At the 1964 Academy Awards, Andrews won Best Actress for her lead role in Mary Poppins, the award for Best Actor went to Rex Harrison for his role as Professor Henry Higgins, and the award for Best Picture went to My Fair Lady. While the film My Fair Lady received nominations in every major category, Audrey Hepburn did not receive a nomination for Best Actress in her role as Eliza. It is said that the lack of nomination, along with Andrews’ Oscar win, was to show support to Andrews and disapproval to Jack Warner for his refusal to cast her in a role that was viewed as rightfully hers.

While there was much controversy surrounding Hepburn in the role of Eliza Dolittle, Hepburn was a star and icon in her own right. Her prominent films include Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Sabrina, and Roman Holiday, just to name a few. Hepburn was a recipient of an Academy Award for Best Actress for Roman Holiday and a recipient of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards for Best British Actress for her roles in Roman Holiday, The Nun’s Story, and Charade.

ASPI’s very own Abby Frank will follow in the footsteps of the women before her to bring Eliza Dolittle to the stage.

Tickets are on sale NOW and wouldn’t it be loverly for you to join us! Performances run March 20-22 and March 27-29. Just you wait! This production is sure to be anything but ordinary. For more information check out https://abramsspotlightproductions.com/ or call the Box Office at (920)826-5852.

Choreography:
noun
the movements used by dancers esp. in performing ballet, or the art of planning such movements

In other words, choreography is what can take a show from BLAH to WOW!
For ASPI’s upcoming production of “Footloose: The Musical”, we have two choreographers, Ali Carlson and Jennifer Hibbard, dedicated to creating the dance numbers for the show and to teach those dance numbers to the cast.

Ali has been dancing since the age of 3. With her entire family being involved in the theater, she got involved at an early age. However, it wasn’t until she was an adult that she found her passion for choreography.

Jennifer has danced jazz and ballet since the age of 7 and has received a secondary major in dance from Butler University, Jordan College of Fine Arts. Fun fact: Jennifer started and ran her own dance studio for 10 years.

Both have many years of choreography experience under their belt, so who better to explain the importance of choreography and how it goes from rehearsal to the stage!

The choreography process begins by creating the dance numbers. That creative process takes a lot of preparation and is different for every choreographer! One approach is to work with the Director of the production to get a feel for the style of the show, which is different for every production. The choreography is one way to set apart one musical from the next. For example, the free-spirited nature of “Footloose” is going to be different from the sultry atmosphere of “Cabaret”. For the next step, the choreographer looks at the cast and their abilities and creates the dance numbers from there. Other factors in the beginning stages of choreography include the spacing in the theater and the timeline of the production.

For this end of June production, choreography rehearsals began at the beginning of May. Teaching the choreography to the cast usually begins after the music has started- it’s important for the cast to know the music first before learning movement. Once the teaching portion is complete, it’s then time for REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW! A Dance Captain is crucial for running reviews at rehearsals. For “Footloose”, Bella Frank is serving in the role as Dance Captain. Did we mention the role is crucial? The show would not run without her!

What are our two choreographers most excited about for “Footloose”?

Jennifer- To see the enthusiasm and joy the cast portrays. It’s such a fun cast!

Ali- Seeing the performers develop from audition to opening night! That is always my favorite part. They start out scared, then I challenge them (and sometimes I can see the overwhelming feeling… but the actors have such perseverance), to opening night where they know they GOT THIS!! It’s such a great feeling to know that I had a part in their development from start to finish.

Come see the choreographers and the cast kick off their Sunday shoes for ASPI’s production of “Footloose: The Musical”! Tickets are on sale NOW! Showtimes include June 21, 22, 28, and 29 at 7pm and June 22, 23, 29, and 30 at 1pm. To purchase tickets, check out the ASPI website at AbramsTheatre.com or by calling the box office at 920-826-5852.

Special thanks to Ali Carlson and Jennifer Hibbard for their contribution to the blog post. You may have recently seen Jennifer and Ali on stage for ASPI’s production of “Cabaret”. When not on stage, you can find Ali behind the scenes as ASPI’s Resident Production Coordinator as well as ASPI Board Secretary.

In our last post, we talked about all the volunteers and community support that it takes to make ASPI a success. After the last blog post, you may be thinking, so where do the funds come from to maintain the theater building, daily operations, and production costs?

ASPI needs not only the community’s time and talents, but also monetary support. The theater is largely funded through ticket sales, so come see our shows! Invite your friends. Spread the word about this hidden gem in Abrams.

(Also, those yummy concession stand snacks also go back to support the theater. Supporting the theater never tasted so good ?)

Other ways the community can contribute to the theater is through sponsorships, advertising, and donations.

Sponsorships start as low as $25 per year through $500+, and sponsorships are acknowledged with our gratitude in the production programs. Did we mention that sponsorships at the higher levels get discounted ticket prices? Click here  to learn more about how you can sponsor ASPI.

Advertising is a way for businesses to support the theater and vice versa. A full page black and white ad is only $180 for the year. This ad will appear in the season’s programs of all four productions. With 8 performances per production there is the potential of reaching 3,000+ people. Advertisers also receive 2 complimentary tickets to 3 of the 4 shows that year. That is a $90 value! Through the advertising, ASPI also seeks to support and promote area businesses.

And finally, ASPI accepts monetary donations of any amount. That is how we were able to fund our new cushioned chairs, through the generous donation of the Bond Foundation . A quick and easy way to donate is online at our website. Follow the link here.

Looking ahead, the financial vision of ASPI is to be debt free of the mortgage in approximately 5 to 7 years. In the long term, other potential updates to the theater space include additional bathroom space, a new roof, an updated sound system, and LED lighting for the stage.

Also looking towards the future, the theater is looking into ways to make good use of the theater space during down times. This includes renting the theater space for weddings, gatherings, and funerals. Most recently, the theater hosted an Abrams Spotlight Wedding Show, which brought together Northeast Wisconsin wedding vendors for a spring wedding show in a unique and quaint setting.

Again, the theater thrives off community support, whether that be through volunteering time, attending shows, spreading the word, or through financial support. We want this community theater to be at the heart of its community, for the community to see the theater as their own.

Want to be part of ASPI and the theater family? Have questions about how you can financially support the theater? Contact the box office at (920)826-5852!

Special thanks to Jim Klein for his contribution to the blog post!