Little Shop of Horrors is coming to Lethbridge in the fall.
Hatrix Theatre and Danceworks are collaborating to bring the popular Alan Menken and Howard Ashman penned 1982 comedy/rock musical about a hapless florist who raises a man eating Venus Flytrap to the Moose Hall, Oct. 26-28 and Oct. 31 —Nov. 4.
Auditions are Sunday, March 12 at the Moose Hall from 7-9 p.m., and will go longer if more people show up.
“It’s a pretty small cast of six to eight people — there’s Audrey, Seymour, the Dentist, Mooshnik and the Go Go Girls,” listed director Brian Quinn, noting Danceworks’ Mark Litchfield suggested they produce Little Shop of Horrors.
“Mark was involved with a production of Little Shop of Horrors with another theatre company years ago,” Quinn said.
“It’s a dark comedy with an edge like Avenue Q and the Evil Dead. And it’s Halloween, so it fits right in,” Quinn said, en route to Medicine Hat for a hockey game as well as to check out the condition of the puppets a Medicine Hat theatre company used during their production of Little Shop of Horrors.
The rehearsals are scheduled to begin Aug. 14 and go until the show opens with a special gala performance, Oct. 25.
there will be no accompanist for the auditions, so auditioners are encouraged to prepare a piece with an MP3, , MIDI file or they can audition a capella. The music from the show will be available on CD if they want to sing a piece from the show itself.
They are looking for actors with experience.
“The dentist is a great comedic role, so we‘re looking for someone who will know what to do with it, and Mushnik is an elderly gentleman about my age, not that I’ll be playing him, so we’re looking for a mature actor for that role,” Quinn continued.
He noted Carrie -Ann Worden , who has starred in several Hatrix shows including “Evil Dead: The Musical” and most recently “Holmes for the Holidays: The Game’s Afoot” is producing the show and will be handling PR for the show.
“She’s on maternity leave then and wants to be involved in the show, so she’ll be doing double duty,” Quinn said, adding they are looking for sponsors for the show.
“New York won’t budge on the royalties. They will cost at least $3,400,” he said, adding with the exchange rate being so low, the production will be expensive to put on.
“So we’ll need some help. We’ll put sponsors in Carrie-Ann’s hands or put a big poster up at the Moose Hall, and do whatever they want us to,” Quinn continued.
They have some talented folks lined up for back stage including set designer Brent DeVos and Juanita Devos, who will be doing sound.
“ We have a lot of sound effects in this show. She’s also filling in for stage manager until rehearsals begin ” he said.
They also have people from the university interested in other back stage roles like makeup.
”It’s going to be a lot of fun,” Quinn said.
