Little Shop of Horrors

[jrogers4014]

Hi!
My school is doing Little Shop of Horrors in Feb. 2007. It is our winter musical. The Wizard of Oz will be our Spring musical. I was just wandering if anybody had any stories from when they did Little Shop? What was your set like? Does anybody have any pictures?

Our set is going to be set on a turntable. The shop will be on one side, and Skid Row will be on the other. I can't wait to get started!

Thanks!

[SocksOnly]

I know absolutely nothing about Little Shop of Horrors. However, if you need anything for The Wizard of Oz, let me know. We've still got some scenery (and some costumes, I think) from when we did it a few years ago. I'm fairly certain we can loan stuff out to you.

Sorry I can't be more help on the topic at hand- best wishes.

[Van]

Wow Little shop ! I love that show. I find the hardest part to pull off, or come up with is the dentists laughing gas machine < the one he asphyxiates in > finding the large half spheres to make the helmet is difficult and then getting it to fit and not fog up is a pain. Obviously there have to be holes in it so you don't kill the actor, Yes killing actors really is a bad thing, yet if the holes are obvious then it kind of kills the illusion that he just suffocated. I was able to mount some 12 volt "muffin" < pc 24mm cooling fans> fans in line with the hoses that ran up to the top of the helmet. This kept a positive airflow going which kept the actor alive and kept the helmet from fogging up. So that's really a props thing not a set thing but it's one of my biggest memories of the show.
Set wise, we had a 20'L X 14" tall wall that rolled on and off stage to reveal the shop. I had to build a roll-up door that covered the entrance to the shop. "Skidrow" was played in front of the wall. One of my favorite pieces was the back end of a '68 dodge panel van. It was made to look as if it was on blocks and the do-wap girls appeared out of the back at several points in the show. When I went to the junkyard to pick up the back half of the van. I also got a torn up pick-up truck bed, cut it up and made a surround for the Band. We hired a local person to build our Audrey. Since we have one of the Premeire Puppet theatres in the country right here, we had to build our own. It's a hoot of a show to do and I love the final cue, dropping vines all over the audience. It was another of my Favorites. Good luck, Have Fun and by all means if you run into any brick walls don't hesitate to ask for help. I for one would be happy to lend a drawing or suggestion.

[Footer]

Are you building or renting the plants? I have done the show with the revolve route and it works rather well.

[Moose]

My high school is doing Little Shop of Horrors this year too! We're not using a turn table though. We're having the main set being built about 16 feet back from the plaster line and that's going to be the inside of the flower shop. Then we'll have a traveller close in front of that and have backdrops/flown in flats for the other scenes like skid row and the dentist office. That's the basic concept we're going with for the set. I'm really in love with this show too because i watched the frank oz version as a kid, and I used to ask my parents for an Audrey II to eat my older brothers. Speaking of Audrey II, I know my school is renting the 4 puppets from NY and it's going to be a really hefty amount of money from our budget that's going to it. Not to mention we're only going to have the actual puppets for about only 2 weeks before the show, which limits the practice time for the person operating the puppet and the voice to be "in sync" with each other. Besides the cons of the cost of the puppets and the amount of time you have to work with it, you do have the pros of the effect it's going to have in the end.

The one thing I know my director hasn't discussed with me yet is some of the props, such as the laughing gas machine. So I would be really interested in how your theatre is going about the props! It would make me happy inside...

Good luck, if I have anything to offer about how we're going about things in our show, I'll be sure to share!

[Van]

You know, building the puppet wasn't so hard. used a rattan armature, and built the larger peices out of Highdensity foam < Urethane or latex type >. If I remember correctly the construction drawings are availible from the publisher. The Puppeteer for Audrey needs to be someone in VERY good shape with abs of steel and the back of a coal miner. I suggest finding someone from a gymnastics team, a cheerleader, someone like that. It does take quite a bit of time for them to get synced with the singer. I didn't see where you are from JJ but I beleive either Oregon Childrens Theatre, or Portland Opera assoc. wound up with the puppet I built. The Company I was with at the time went under, and our props went the way of the wind along wiht a lot of my tools !

[gafftaper]

We rented the pupet, dentist chair, and gas mask from a local guy.

As for the gas mask... His approach was to create something that looked more like a NASA helmet than scuba gear or a fire fighter's mask. He used a water cooler jug, cut it down and put it on a shoulder mount. He made a "darth vader" sort of mesh piece over the mouth so you can hear the actor. It also had a set of white battery powered christmas lights all around the inside of the helmet so you can see the actor well.

That's one really fun show. Enjoy.

[jrogers4014]

Hey guys!
Thanks for all the tips and stuff, they all sound great! My school did this show 10 years ago and our technical director built all of the plants. I really don't know what happened to them. We just ran out of time for this show. About 3 weeks ago we closed Camelot, so we all needed a break.
Keep posting!

[Van]

Originally Posted by jrogers4014

Hey guys!
Thanks for all the tips and stuff, they all sound great! My school did this show 10 years ago and our technical director built all of the plants. I really don't know what happened to them. We just ran out of time for this show. About 3 weeks ago we closed Camelot, so we all needed a break.
Keep posting!

You do Way too many Musicals ! Little shop, Oz AND Camelrot ? Wow Gluttons for punishment !

[bcfcst4]

My school did Little Shop at the beginning of the year for our fall musical and we had the basic set be the flower shop. We a bunch of platforms to raise it a bit from the stage floor, and on each side of the stage we had 12 foot flats that were painted to look like bricks with graffitti all over them. On the stage left side we had a stoop and a door leading into the shop, and on the stage right side we had our scaffolding bolted into the floor and painted to be the fire escape. For the dentist office we had a platform roll on with some short walls, a shelf, and the chair. The walls of the office were gray and had red smeared handprints on it (we had a lot of fun with those). We rented our plant from a local theater guy, and the show turned out amazingly. Tons of fun, a nice break from the smiles and cheer musicals we usually do.