By By ERIN VER BERKMOES / Niles Daily Star
NILES - Near the street where you live.
Niles High School presents its 2005 Spring Musical, My Fair Lady by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, on Saturday and Sunday, March 5 and 6 at the Niles High School Auditorium.
Gary Vigil who is a senior and playing the part of Henry Higgins said, "I like doing things behind the scenes, like painting sets, as well as being on stage acting in front of the audience." Vigil was also a member of the Joseph cast last year.
This is the first year for the drama club at Niles High School and it is quite successful with 25 to 30 members and it continues to grow.
The club was started by Vicki Schoff and Kathy Heide, who are the parents of students in the club.
The four actors also added that they enjoy being in drama club with people who enjoy the same thing they do and that the group is preparing them for things in the future.
The musical My Fair Lady is an adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's clever comedy Pygmalion.
In the show Professor Henry Higgins, England's leading phoneticist and a confirmed bachelor, encounters Eliza Doolittle, who is a Cockeny flower girl, outside of the Royal Opera House. Eliza's use of the English language is quite horrid and Higgins makes a wager with his associate, Colonel Hugh Pickering that he can transform the girl into a "lady" by teaching her to speak in a way that evokes "the majesty and grandeur of the English language."
Eliza suffers many indignities and constant drilling from Higgins, but is finally introduced to the High Society at the Ascot races. Freddy Eynsford-Hill, who is the son of a snobbish friend of Henry's mother, is enchanted by Doolittle's beauty and charm, falling hopelessly in love with her.
As a final test, Eliza is presented to the Queen of Transylvania at the Embassy Ball and has to undergo the scrutiny of her sycophant, Professor Zoltan Karpathy, a Hungarian phonetics expert and a former student of Higgins. Karpathy says that due to her mastery of the English language, that Eliza is not only of foreign birth, but royalty, and a Hungarian princess to be precise.
Higgins and Pickering are intoxicated with their triumph and congratulate each other and celebrate their so called success by completely ignoring Eliza.
Eliza is quite upset about being ignored and leaves Higgins and returns home with Freddy to find that she isn't recognized by her former companions. She then turns to Higgins mother for advice, while there Higgins discovers her and they argue.
Higgins realizes that he has changed just as much as Eliza and that he has fallen in love with her. Higgin's then dejectedly returns home alone to find her waiting for him.
My Fair Lady is a musical for the entire family, with its collection of well-loved songs, witty lyrics and unforgettable melodies.
Performances are Saturday March, 5 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday March 5, at 2:30 p.m.
Tickets can be purchased in advance Monday through Friday, in the High School's Vocal Music Department (room 63), from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. or prior to each show at the door for $7, and $5 for senior citizens.