fixer79 wrote:Great video yet again, Alex!
You did a stage production of Little Shop of Horrors?! THAT's awesome!
Where can we find more info about that?
Well, if you saw this 2nd place pic of Brandon Balentine from the GBFans' costume contest, you've already seen my set and the largest puppet.
Brandon came and brought his Ecto to promote the show on opening night, and afterwards said he had an idea for some photos. I was the photographer and they came out really good considering my camera has no flash... but the great thing about a stage set is all the lights face it!
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So, some background info. Little Shop was the first play I ever acted in, way back in 1989, and that same director asked me back twice more at other venues, in 1991 and 2008. I was approached about possibly directing it last October, right in the midst of making my Ghostbusters uniform.
I've directed some other plays before, but never a musical, which was intimidating. But there are some other musicals I'd love to direct some day, and I figured there was no better transitional show than Little Shop to be my first musical.
One of the highlights of this show was having the absolute perfect Audrey, a college classmate of mine named Amber Rhodes, come audition for me. Only twice in my directorial career have I ever had my 'dream actor' for a part show up at the audition on their own, and in this case I wasn't the only one who knew Amber was the one. When I told my wife a year before that I might direct Little Shop, she instantly suggested Amber.
Now, I saw three girls who could have potentially played Audrey, but Amber had the purest voice so she was the clear favorite. I was searching for more male vocalists, though, so I didn't post the cast list for almost a week. Amber messaged me on Facebook to ask if she could audition again, because she didn't think she had done well. I thought that was so true to the character-- Audrey doesn't believe in herself either! I nearly drove her crazy, because all I replied was "You did fine", even though in my head I wanted to say, "No need... I will soon be hearing you sing on a daily basis for six weeks."
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For the puppets, we used the same ones from the 1989 show. And the original Seymour from that show came and played Mr. Mushnik for this one, so that was great fun to connect the past show to the current one.
The plant grows ever-larger, which is done with four different sizes of puppet. I puppeteered Pod 1 myself, along with the leaves of Pod 3, and the giant Pod 4, which was quite a workout. I lost two inches off my waist in four days. My sons both appeared in the Skid Row number, it had now become their first play too, and my youngest-- a huge Muppet fan-- got to puppeteer the tongue of Pod 4, standing inside it alongside me.
I had one new puppet (Pod 2) built for a special effect switcheroo, and for that I went to my friend Jaime Hitchcock in Tennessee. Not only is she a Ghostbuster, she's a puppet-builder too.
Jaime came and saw the Saturday night performance, along with Jud Hudson, and they picked a great night because Brandon was back with his Ecto out front.
Here's the album of pics Jaime took all throughout the show.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... 557&type=3 And if you want to browse some of the behind the scenes stuff, check out the Facebook page that I made for the event.
http://www.facebook.com/events/370629603009982/ I hope those slake your curiosity. Wish everyone here could have come and seen it.
Alex