Transgender Take on PYGMALION Set for Brief Run Off-Broadway

The Off Broadway company, Always Love Lucy Theatre, has announced that it will present a bold new staging of George Bernard Shaw's PYGMALION, a classic tale of transformation, that will in this production spotlight the issue of Transgender identity - at a time when voices in support of trans rights are increasingly heard across the nation and the globe. The production will run 5 performances only, May 4 - May 8 at Theatre 54@ Shetler Studios, 244 West 54th Street, 12th Floor.

This unique and new production of George Bernard Shaw's classic tale of transformation spotlight's the issue of transgender identity with Eliza Doolittle changing from a common flower girl to a high-class gentleman named Elijah - and with almost no changes to the original script.

Producing Artistic Director of the Company, Saima Huq, will take on the role of the transitioning Eliza and explains "As a South Asian woman taking on the role of Eliza, I kept thinking about the fact that many South Asian women are good friends with members of the LGBT community and that's because we face similar patterns of expectations - How we should be, what a "real" Indian/LGBT person is and does. We figure out how to be Indian/LGBT every single day, we don't have all the answers from day one. Neither does our Eliza/Elijah. So in thinking about Eliza's transformation, I asked myself why couldn't she become a gentleman? There is more than one kind of minority and I thought that this particular change might be a very powerful and supportive route to take."

George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright, critic and polemicist whose influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond. He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as Man and Superman (1902), Pygmalion (1912) and Saint Joan (1923). With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Anthony D. Pound is Artistic Director of the Monsterpiece Theatre Collective. Credits include: Ligea (NYC Premiere), Trophy Thieves (NYC Premiere), A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Importance of Being Earnest. Anthony also works at the New Victory Theatre and was recently honored by the White House with the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award.

The cast PYGMALION features Christopher Romero Wilson, David Burfoot, Saima Huq, Bette Schifman, Tony White, Kristi Cini, Nikki Chawla, Harsh Lochan, Sabrina Zara, and Vincent Bivona.

Tickets are $20 and available online at: http://alwayslovelucy2016.brownpapertickets.com