The MavTheatre program has been working on their fall show titled “Little Shop of Horrors, performance dates Oct. 17-19 at the Raymond E. Hartfield Performing Arts Center.
The show follows the lead character, Seymour, a collector of exotic plants, who runs a plant store. He finds an unknown plant and takes it under his care naming it after his love, Audrey. Later, Seymour finds that the aptly named Audrey II grows after being fed blood. Determined to grow Audrey II further, Seymour feeds unlucky customers to the plant.
“Seymour is a sweet character, but that contradicts what he’s doing as he’s constantly killing people to feed his plant,” junior Andrew Tran. “It’s fun to play that role.”
The second star of the show, Audrey II, will not be an actor, but instead a puppet, puppeteered by three students; Guari Bhushan, Eleanor Guillett and Wyatt Counts.
“[Using puppets] for the plants makes it easier to believe that these plants are coming after the customers instead of it being people in costumes,” Guillett said.
There is more to the show than just acting and puppets; MavTheatre’s tech department still has a large role to play in achieving the desired performance quality.
“Tech theatre in addition to the acting director, the tech world helps create the world that the actors and the characters are in to bring it alive for the audience,” Tech Theatre teacher Joel Taylor said. “We know when we’re an audience member and watching the show that it’s not real. But what we try to do as audience members and what we want to do is to suspend our disbelief. That’s where the tech, the set designs, the costumes and the lighting come into play.”
Tech theatre can be involved in large, visible effects such as props and lighting but it can also develop smaller details, such as sound design.
“Sound design allows for the audience to hear certain sounds that aren’t loud on stage, so we play an extra effect over it so it will echo through the theatre,” freshman Aven Moran said. “It allows everyone to be immersed in the experience.”
The theatre acting and tech departments have been preparing and rehearsing 4 days a week after school, and all work is going towards their upcoming musical.
“This year is really interesting, I’m working with a lead theatre teacher who has some huge ideas for the show,” Taylor said. “Now we get to make that real. Students are doing an incredible job of pulling stuff together and creating it.”
