Can Someone Help Me? *dreading Little Shop*
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Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Play Suggestions
Forum Discription: Need help finding a show that's right for your theater? Ask here.
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2838
Printed Date: 11/25/24 at 8:47am
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Topic: Can Someone Help Me? *dreading Little Shop*
Posted By: Lima
Subject: Can Someone Help Me? *dreading Little Shop*
Date Posted: 11/25/07 at 4:21pm
Hi, I'm Lima, and I'm a techie for my high school's theater group. (I know this forum is for community theater, but I swear, my high school is really classy when it comes to putting on shows)
So, I'm trying to decide what show we should put on next year. I don't make the decision, but if I come up with something good, my idea will be listened to/respected.
Backstory:
+Last year we did Les Mis. It was amazing, but we all needed a year to rest (this year) before we did another large show
+We *had* a great male lead, but he graduates this year, and we don't have any up-and-comers that we can see
+Our theater department receives relatively little money/attention from the school's administration, so a show with cheap rights would be nice
+We have a reputation (tech-wise) to uphold, but we're losing about 6 techies (out of 30)
Requirements:
+Show can't have homosexuality/drug use/outright sex (so, no avenue Q)
+The cast isn't exactly diverse (so no Hairspray). We lack gospel voices
+The Tech Director hates what he calls "30 's book musicals"
+No Miz, Beauty and the Beast, or (*shudder*) Anything Goes
+We don't really have a fly system/trapdoors (so Phantom is out) although we sometimes improvise
+We have great operatic voices and broadway voices
+Dancing is not great, but I'll whip the dancers into shape if need be (I have 11 years experience)
Oh, and at current we're slated to do Little Shop of Horrors. It's *decent*, but we (the techies) really want to do something more impressive/big. Plus almost every highshool does Little Shop, and, honestly, we try to achieve something better.
If anyone can think of a nifty show, I'd love them forever/give them cookies. It's a hefty list of requirements.
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Replies:
Posted By: tristanrobin
Date Posted: 11/26/07 at 7:17am
"Weird Romance" - a techies' dream.
If you don't know it, "Weird Romance" is a science fiction musical with lots of opportunity for tech show-off stuff (including hologram characters!). There is opportunity for vocal showing off as well (speaking of "Little Shop," Ellen Greene also was the original lead in this off-Broadway).
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Posted By: pdavis69
Date Posted: 11/26/07 at 9:31am
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I think you are selling Little Shop short. We open Little Shop this week at our playhouse and this will be one of our most technicaly advanced sets, with revolving buildings and huge doors on winches, special effects not to mention a main character who is a plant. If your tech group wants a challenge talk you directors into not renting the plant puppets but building them yourselves. You sound fairly full of yourself this should be a fun challenge for you.
"+The cast isn't exactly diverse (so no Hairspray). We lack gospel voices" I take this to mean you have an overly caucasian group and yet you still chose to do a show (Little Shop) which traditionally has a greek chourus of African-American girls. (That's what the script calls for folks. Although our trio has two caucasions and one asian, and they're fantastic.)
Give Little Shop a chance it is only technically limited by your imagination
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Patrick L. Davis
Fort Findlay Playhouse
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Posted By: Lima
Date Posted: 11/26/07 at 10:32am
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Sorry if I sounded stuck up or anything, I realize that now. Looking around, I see that you guys can all wipe the floor with my theater, but high school theater around here is- sad. I always have issues with tone on the internet. Really, I'm a nice girl, I swear.
Um, and because of liability issues (aka my school is sexist), the girls (the entire tech crew) aren't allowed to use power tools. I mean, we get by by calling drills electric screwdrivers and cheating on the weekends, but we still have to try to keep set to a minimum and focus on the lighting (heehee. focus.)
So you see, Little Shop, if we did it would probably be- underwhelming. Sorry, I forgot to put the "power tools" bit on the OP.
And as for the greek chorus- we have some people who can do it vocally, but Hairspray, is, you know, based around race relations which wouldn't exactly work with our cast. (Your assumption was right)
I'll check out Weird Romance, though. It sounds really interesting.
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Posted By: pdavis69
Date Posted: 11/26/07 at 10:41am
Good luck with the show. Realy there arent any power tools needed in creating the puppets needed to realy wow the audience. Dont let them hold you back. Go forth and wow 'em.
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Patrick L. Davis
Fort Findlay Playhouse
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Posted By: MartyW
Date Posted: 11/26/07 at 11:17am
I knew I could count on you... I thought about responding, but said, Na Patrick will do it...
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Marty W
"Till next we trod the boards.."
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Posted By: pdavis69
Date Posted: 11/26/07 at 12:54pm
I had to resond. Some child had the audacity to talk badly about my show. (Just kidding on the child thing Lima)
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Patrick L. Davis
Fort Findlay Playhouse
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Posted By: JoeMc
Date Posted: 11/26/07 at 1:15pm
G'day lima!
30 techies!
Crickey most comeatres are lucky to have 1 knocking around here.
I'm not sure what high school age range there, but here they only go 14
or at a push 17 year olds at the most. I think I there would only be a
hand full of about 3 high schools & 2 colleges, that have any
staging facilities in the whole state.
{[aurguably the largest state in the world] with only about 1 million people, more than 1/2 living in the City of Perth.
[WA State is 1/3 of the 1 million square KM's of the area mass of OZ]
So in the bush. outside the main capital city, there is not that many bods/100 square KM's.}
So theatre in schools is sparse, scarce or a farce.
So from that regards you bods are much better off in getting the chance to do it at all.
I see a few HS around your side of the lake are doing Manof La Mancha,
which can be done on a shoe string, with very little set & props.
as for costumes & props you get them out of a rag bag or fossick
about in a Op Shop.
Or there is Return to the forbidden planet, which may show off
the crews techie skills with flashing lights & what nots, to be in
with the idiom.
However I think LSOH can put up your techie weight & enhance
credits. The same as any production, it don't have to be flash bang
wallop everytime!
Chookas anyway!
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[western] Gondawandaland
"Hear the light & see the sound!
TOI TOI CHOOKAS
{may you always play to a full house!}
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Posted By: Lima
Date Posted: 11/26/07 at 1:37pm
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You know, Little Shop might not be awful.
I was actually for it before my friend (also a techie) convinced me that it was a dumb, high school show.
Heh. Guess I can be a silly victim of peer pressure.
Anyways, I shouldn't be worrying about it now. It's a year away, and I have two shows to be involved in before then.
Thanks, guys.
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Posted By: mikejmurray
Date Posted: 1/25/08 at 11:24am
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A little late on this post but I was just in a production of Little Shop at a college and it was a great experience. The casting is somewhat flexible which I think is good for a high school show. We had a cast of around 17, but as you know can be done with as little as 8. Audrey II presents challenges, but it was amazing to watch our tech crew create the 4 pods. We had an excellent puppeteer as well, which is important. It's a very fun show and hilarious if done correctly.
Also, I do know about high schools doing big productions. In the past few years the high school I graduated from has done Les Mis, Ragtime, Evita, Aida, and this year Mis Saigon. It's a wonderful accomplishment to be able to do shows like that. I am in no way belitling the feat. But it can be easy to get into the "How are we going to up the ante this year??" mentality and try to go bigger each year. Nothing wrong with trying to do better every year. But sometimes you need to do a light, fun show. They have there place. A show like Bye Bye Birdie for example, may not be considered an 'impressive/big' show, but will leave audiences in a good mood and a tune in their head. I think Little Shop is a fun show, especially for a high school crowd.
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Posted By: DramaMamaStill
Date Posted: 1/29/08 at 8:02pm
Lima, I'm Drama Mama husband and over the last couple years you have probably seen some of the sets we have done on $4oo to $700 dollar in construction budgets. First, I would love to be lamenting than I only had 30 Techies, but lost 6 of them to graduation. I start with about 12 to 14 in the Middle School Productions and it dwindles down at about 6 to 8 when we reach the High School plays. However, I do feel sorry for you in the restrictions your students have in power tools. I do all the cutting on the table saws, radial arm and band saw, but that is my choice not our school districts. But even my Middle School students use, with my supervisions; jig saw, skill saws and power drills. I find that as a whole the "Girls," tend to have a much better touch with a power drills than the boys do.
We live in a real true middle class, blue collar town of 5,000 in southern Wis. and much of my crew especially in Middle School come from single parent family homes, and we have become "hot," with the Learning Disability students. The learning and life skill items our tech crews walk away with in hard to calculate. In all the years at many locations and the 8 years I have been involved with this school district we have never had any accidents than a simple band aid could not take care of. Something none of the Phy. Ed. Sports Programs can say and I wonder if your School Board needs to be confronted.
Yes, our school also has restrictions, I can't let students up into the lighting cat walk, the upper counter balance fly systems walks or the loft above the scene shop that we store set props, but our Techie walk away with skills that not only can be used on stage but in their future apartments and homes as well.
Oh, and Lima don't forget the 50's through the 70's. It sounds like your trying to match up with professional touring company's of recent Broadway musicals. What about "Godspell," "Once Apon a Mattress," "Bye Bye Birdie," "Guys and Dolls,"..... It would give the cast and crew a much better prospective of the American Thearte and be a better known traffic draw to the parents and grandparents, that are your tax payers and usually your biggest portion of your house.
"Puck"
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Life is Mysterious don't take it too serious
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