BHS Drama Club to Perform 'Little Shop of Horrors'

The following is a press release from the Barnstable High School Drama club. 

The Barnstable High School Drama Club will present Little Shop of Horrors by composer Alan Menkenand writer Howard Ashman, also well known for such classics as Disney’s Aladdin, Beauty and the Beastand The Little Mermaid.

The play is based on a campy 1960 horror film that featured a then unknown Jack Nicholson, Little Shop combinesgreat doo-wop, Motown, and early ‘60s rock and roll music in a spoof of schlocky monster movies that pitsnebbishy florist Seymour Krelborn against Audrey II, an alien plant that requires blood to survive and isbent on conquering the world.

The cast, which numbers well over 65 and ranges in age from 6 to “21-plus,” includes not just BHSstudents, but faculty members and several of their children as well. Students are also building the sets,creating the costumes and creating the many special effects the show requires.

As usual, the club relies on a stalwart group of regulars behind the scenes to make everything runsmoothly. Notable among them are carpenter Wallace Seaver and jack-of-all-trades Duncan MacAllister,who are always ready to offer technical advice and volunteer their time and considerable talent to build the sets.

The show’s musical director, Michael Gross, has been a familiar presence in the BHS Drama Club for 15years, and pianist extraordinaire Carolyn Kunze has been a mainstay of scores of the club’s shows for“more years than I prefer to count.”

Then there are the costumers and seamstresses like Joan MacAllister, Maura Shanahan, Rose Kohler,Marie Fortunato, and Lynne Barry, who are responsible for designing and building scores of costumes.“They are the backbone of the show,” the club’s advisor, BHS English teacher Ed O’Toole says. “Thekids love them, and all they do is work hard and then keep working even harder. Their dedication is agreat example for the students. We’d be nothing without them.”

As always, the BHSDC promises some exciting surprises that will make Little Shop particularlymemorable. “All I’ll say is that we’re going to bring the house down this year,” club vice president CharlieNash hinted. Last year’s production of Grease, which played to over 4,000 theatregoers, will be a toughact to follow, but the BHSDC has always been up to a challenge.

A last reminder form club president Taylor Melchiono: “Whatever you do, don’t feed the plants!”

Little Shop of Horrors will be presented in the Barnstable High School Performing Arts Center at 744West Main Street, Hyannis. Shows will be March 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, and 23 at 7 PM. All tickets are $10.More information can be obtained and reservations made (and they are strongly suggested) by calling(508) 771-6246.