She adds that CREATE has a three-pronged approach to giving these children a leg-up in life. There is firstly a competition where the kids are given a certain topic that they have to interpret in a creative manner. There are also weekly workshops where the underprivileged children are given access to the same training that ACE imparts to more mainstream kids. And then there are productions of this nature, which help them translate the lessons they learn to other walks of life.

Chirag Aggarwal, the musical's choreographer, explains, "You know, all these eight-, nine-, and 10-year-olds have bodies like water. So when you teach them dance forms like waltz, they imbibe it in a holistic manner. Their body language becomes better and when they rehearse the steps for months on end, it gives them immense confidence that can benefit them in whatever profession they choose."

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Karla Singh (third from right) with the female actors in costume

Singh adds that if any of the kids ever enter the corporate world, for instance, it might have been that they would have been tongue-tied in the middle of an important conference. She says, "But an experience like this helps them communicate better. They get exposed to things that are different from their normal life — be it singing, dancing or acting — which makes them stronger human beings."

It's thus a happy coincidence that the effort that ACE is making in helping these children mirrors the plot of My Fair Lady to a certain extent. The storyline is centred on phonetics professor Henry Higgins taking the protagonist, Eliza Doolittle, under his wings, helping the Cockney girl from an impoverished part of London pick up into requisite skills to assimilate with high society. There are, of course, certain tensions that threaten to sully the relationship. But its foundation rests on an earnest effort to help a disadvantaged person benefit from a new lease of life. And that, hopefully, is what the 35 children in Padamsee's production will also gain once they internalise the experience of having been a part of it.

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