Written by Julia Lane, Graphic by Ana Vergara
In a few short weeks, SCAD’s “Little Shop of Horrors” production will take the stage in the Lucas Theater. Though the annual spring musical is thought by many as a sign of summer’s rapid approach, the process of building the world for the stage begins many months before. With “Little Shop of Horrors,” it’s hard to think of Skid Row and not have the blood-sucking, world-dominating alien plant come to mind. For Production Design Professor Tyler Schank, who is leading props and the construction of the show’s infamous antagonist, Audrey II, “Little Shop of Horrors” is an endeavor months in the making.
I had the pleasure of sitting down with Professor Schank to discuss the process of designing and building the standout puppets and what it was like to teach classes for this challenge.
Professor Schank has led two collaborative classes for Audrey II – one during winter quarter and one this quarter. Most students from the first class returned this quarter to continue their work. In winter quarter, Schank and his students were working with the director of the show, Christian Delcroix, and set designer, Erica Hemminger, to figure out the “life cycle of the plant,” referring to the plant’s four different stages throughout the show and what each puppet has to do according to the script. “‘Little Shop of Horrors’ is traditionally very campy,” Schank says. “We wanted to make it more realistic, not cartoony, with scarier colors.”
The plant transforms throughout the show, making it necessary to have four total puppets to reflect its growth. The first puppet, known in the art department as Pod 1, is the plant’s smallest form and its most desaturated. Since the plant gets its life source from blood, it only makes sense that the first time we see it, it would be starving and barren of color. The vibrancy of the puppets increase as the show goes on – by Pod 3, the plant has a steady diet of Seymour’s blood to keep it from wilting, and it only gets fed more from there.
Schank informed me that Pod 3 was executed in a way exclusive to SCAD. While Pod 3 is normally represented as a pot in the center of the stage with the puppeteer’s legs covered in vines, SCAD’s Pod 3 pushes this further. The mechanics of the puppet were reconfigured so that the puppeteer is standing, concealed by a fake window while the plant remains elevated instead of on the floor.
Another unique aspect of the design is balancing the nature of the plant with its personified qualities. Schank and his students accomplished this by designing leaves at the top of the plant that function as eyebrows, allowing for a more dynamic performance and giving the plant the ability to express emotion. With Audrey II still being a plant, there is certainly inspiration from mother nature, such as realistic texture, vines, and patterns inspired by tree frogs.
At this point in the quarter, construction is well underway of the physical puppets, and the scale of transformation is incredible. While Pod 1 is merely a few inches big, by Pod 4, the plant has grown to about 9 feet in size!
When I asked Professor Schank if he had ever gone through this process before, he laughed and said no. Schank says, “It’s been a great learning curve. Without the excellent fabrication skills of my students, the puppet would not exist.”
See Audrey II come to life from Thursday, May 23rd, to Sunday, May 26th, 2024, in the Lucas Theater!
Julia studies Production Design at SCAD, focusing on Set Design and Themed Entertainment Design. Her role as Copy Editor fulfills a dream of being paid to correct people’s grammar, which she normally does for free. You can often find Julia at the Forsyth Farmer’s Market, people watching around town with an iced chai, or listening to movie scores; sometimes all at once.
