Ryann Redmond, Mary Beth Piel & More to Star in PYGMALION at Gingold Theatrical Group

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw will continue Gingold Theatrical Group's 18th season of Project Shaw. Inspired by the works of George Bernard Shaw, Project Shaw is a special series of play readings that aim to provoke peaceful discussion and activism. Shaw’s Pygmalion will be presented at Symphony Space’s Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre (2537 Broadway at 95th Street) on Monday July 24, 2023, at 7PM. To reserve tickets, visit symphonyspace.org/events/vp-shaws-pygmalion.

 

Pygmalion, Shaw’s most famous and beloved play, as well as the basis for the musical My Fair Lady, is a rollicking comedy that reminds us of the importance of being as fully connected to both our heads and hearts as we can, and to live our lives as fully as possible. A celebrated professor of phonetics makes a wager that he can pass a bedraggled Cockney flower girl off as a duchess at an ambassador’s garden party by giving her the tools of education. But, before the lessons are over, she has become his teacher, as well: helping him learn to face his emotional self as an aware human. The play is a sharp lampoon of the rigid British class system of the day and a commentary on women’s independence.

 

"This play in its musical incarnation is how most people came to know Shaw,” says director David Staller. “That spectacularly ubiquitous original poster and cast album artwork by Al Hirschfeld showing Shaw as the puppet-master controlling his Higgins and Eliza characters were in every home for generations. This reading of Pygmalion is a terrific opportunity to experience this brilliant comedy as Shaw originally conceived of it. These colourfully quirky characters are wonderfully complex in their hopes, fears, sexuality, and personal exploration. Though the musical is based more on Shaw's award-winning screenplay from 1938, it’s easy to see why this play remains one of the most loved of all his works. It's a wild ride through women's rights, class systems, gender roles, and the vital importance of communication!"

 

The cast of Pygmalion will feature Kate Hamill, David Lee Huynh, Laura Patinkin, Mary Beth Peil, Robert Petkoff, Ryann Redmond,Justin Robertson, Thomas Jay Ryan, Thom Sesma and Jennifer Van Dyck.

 

Pygmalion will be directed by David Staller.

 

Additional readings for the 18th season of Project Shaw will be announced at a later date. This season, every play will be presented in a concert-reading format at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater at Symphony Space. Tickets are $40 and will be available for purchase by calling 212-864-5400 or visiting www.symphonyspace.org. Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre is an accessible space. Infra-red hearing devices will also be available. To learn more about Pygmalion, visit gingoldgroup.org/pygmalion.

 

Now celebrating its 18th year, Gingold Theatrical Group's Project Shaw made history in December 2009 as the first company ever to present performances of every one of Shaw's 65 plays, including full-length works, one-acts and sketches. They will also present plays by writers who share Shaw’s activist socio-political views and embrace human rights and free speech, including Anton Chekhov, Henrik Ibsen, Elizabeth Robins, Rachel Crothers, Arthur Wing Pinero, Oscar Wilde, James Matthew Barrie, and Harley Granville-Barker. GTG’s other programs include its new play development and educational programs. For those interested in lively off-site discourses, each Project Shaw event is followed by a talk-back with cast members.  This script-in-hand series is also a direct link to Gingold’s SPEAKERS’ CORNER New Play Development Program, dedicated to creating new plays inspired by these classic works of theatrical activism.

 

GTG recently completed a highly acclaimed Off-Broadway engagement of Shaw’s Candida, which will be streamed online in July of this year.

For more information about Project Shaw and all the programs at Gingold Theatrical Group, call 212-355-7823, email info@gingoldgroup.org, or visit gingoldgroup.org.

 

ABOUT GINGOLD THEATRICAL GROUP

 

Gingold Theatrical Group, now in its 18th year, creates theater that supports human rights, freedom of speech, and individual liberty using the work of George Bernard Shaw as our guide. All of GTG’s programs are inspired by Shaw’s humanitarian values. Through full productions, staged readings, new play development, and inner-city educational programs, GTG brings Shavian precepts to audiences and artists across New York, encouraging individuals to breathe Shaw’s humanist ideals into their contributions for the future. Shaw created plays to inspire peaceful discussion and activism and that is what GTG aims to accomplish. GTG’s past productions include Man and Superman(2012), You Never Can Tell (2013), Major Barbara (2014), Widowers’ Houses (2016), Heartbreak House (2018), and Caesar & Cleopatra (2019).  

 

Founded in 2006 by David Staller, GTG has carved a permanent niche for the work of George Bernard Shaw within the social and cultural life of New York City, and, through the Project Shaw reading series, made history in 2009 as the first company ever to present performances of every one of Shaw's 65 plays (including full-length works, one-acts and sketches). GTG brings together performers, critics, students, academics and the general public with the opportunity to explore and perform theatrical work inspired by the humanitarian and activist values that Shaw championed. All comedies, these plays boldly exhibit the insight, wit, passion and all-encompassing socio-political focus that distinguished Shaw as one of the most inventive and incisive writers of all time.

 

Through performances, symposiums, new play development, and outreach, as well as through our discussion groups and partnerships with schools including SUNY Stony Brook, Regis, the De La Salle Academy, and The Broome Street Academy, GTG has helped spark a renewed interest in Shaw across the country, and a bold interest in theater as activism. Young people are particularly inspired by Shaw’s invocation to challenge the strictures society imposes, to embrace the power of the individual, to make bold personal choices and to take responsibility for these choices. GTG’s new play development lab, Speakers’ Corner, created to support playwrights inspired by Shaw’s ideals, is now in its second cycle. Through monthly prompts and feedback, writers develop work inspired by or in response to a specific Shaw text. Plays developed through Speakers’ Corner will be nurtured in workshops and readings with the expectation that GTG will publish or produce them. GTG encourages all people to rejoice in the possibilities of the future. All of GTG’s programming is designed to inspire lively discussion and peaceful activism with issues related to human rights, the freedom of speech, and individual liberty. This was the purpose behind all of Shaw’s work and why GTG chose him as the guide toward helping create a more tolerant and inclusive world through the exploration of the Arts.

 

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