May 2, 2016

Little Shop of Horrors is one of the most beloved and well know pieces of American musical theater. It is also a piece that many people "think" they know. It has been a great opportunity to get back to the heart of what the original writers created; a satire, a critique and a warning. As we find ourselves in the throes of a charged political season, we are asking ourselves questions about "Who are we as a nation?" "What do we really value as individuals?" and "What are we willing to do as individuals and communities to gain and/or maintain power?" this is the perfect time to re-encounter the promises of Audrey II and to look deeply at ourselves.

 We are having an amazing time creating this production of Little Shop of Horrors for the Drexel Co-Op Theatre Company. We have a cast of twenty four Drexel students, a fantastic five person rock band, and a ten person stage management and technical crew. Miriam Giguere, our nee Performing Arts Department Chair, is creating some excellent choreography and Charlie Gilbert from University of the Arts is Music Directing. We have an award winning design team as well Dom Chacon is our Lighting Designer, Jill Keys is our Costume Designer, Colin McIlvaine is our scenic designer, Amanda Hatch is our props designer and Patrick Ahearn is our puppet designer.

 We are creating this new production in the URBN Annex Black Box theatre. This is really exciting as our audience will be inches away from the action; in fact this production will literally come at the audience from every direction. Its really exciting.

 The Drexel Co-Op Theatre Company is an incredible experiential laboratory for the creation of new theatrical productions. It is a professionally modeled hands-on, production opportunity for our students and our guest artists. It is an great opportunity to engage members of our Drexel Performing Arts faculty as well as an opportunity to develop fruitful collaborations with faculty members for other well respected universities. We have also been able to develop several exciting on campus audience development opportunities: one with Shivanthi Anandan and the Van Rensselaer residents and Nick Perez and the Liberty Scholars. 

 I am very excited to share the work of our Little Shop of Horrors team with the Drexel community.