Little Shop of Horrors Co-Director Celebrates Remarkable Show

February 13, 2023

By Susan Rice, Co-Director

As we look back on last week’s successful run of Little Shop of Horrors, we want to say how wonderful it was to work with these performers, musicians, and support crew. Our students are amazing, and this has been a project-based experience to remember. Theater is experiential. It’s collaborative. It’s hands-on. It’s authentic. The story in Little Shop of Horrors transcends the 1960s era it’s set in and reflects many aspects of society and struggles within the human experience that persist today. While this story doesn’t necessarily address those issues straightforwardly or seriously, and in the end – it’s more of a cautionary tale of woe – the issues displayed here of cultural stereotypes, classism, poverty, domestic violence, substance abuse, and codependent, toxic relationships are real human issues that harm real people every day. We took the opportunity to discuss these issues with students and hear their perspectives on these issues. Theater is art, but we know that art often imitates life.

As the Trio and larger group of Motown Girls served as the “Greek Chorus” of the show, reflecting back to us the ethical dilemmas, warnings, social commentary, and judgments of society on individual character choices in our story, much has been written about this show serving as a larger metaphor for capitalism, gentrification, greed, class struggle, and the American dream. In retelling this story, we reflected those themes in this production through the use of color and other materials, the presence or arrival of wealth, violence, animal instincts, the American dream, and our ongoing human struggle with nature. 

It was an incredible experience for us to share these last few weeks with these students and hear their perspectives, see their growth, experience their talents, and to just be in their presence. We are very proud of the hard work they put into making this show come to life. We know that you are proud of them, too. We became a strong and cohesive team during this production, and it was an honor and a pleasure to put it together for our community. The best expression of the kind of experiential learning that Charles Wright Academy provides; we started with a challenge and applied student choice and voice, critique and revision, reflection, authenticity, sustained inquiry, and more to create solutions and share a public product with you, our audience.