Warming up for role of Audrey II
Actor-singer needs a fan to keep cool in costume
What: Little Shop of Horrors Where: McPherson Playhouse When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday Tickets: $25 and up. McPherson box office at 250-386-6121 or rmts.bc.ca
Navigating the Malahat with hillock-sized maneating plants perched on her SUV drew a few curious looks. Even if they weren’t real. So says designer Barbara Clerihue, who crafted the jumbo plant puppets depicting Audrey II in Kaleidoscope Theatre’s new production of Little Shop of Horrors. To transport these monstrous green creations from Shawnigan Lake to Victoria, she roped them to the top of her van.
“People probably thought I was going to Burning Man or something,” she said, chuckling.
Two of the Audrey IIs (there are a total of five, including a little one) were borrowed from a Little Shop of Horrors production at Shawnigan Lake School. Clerihue radically revamped the giant props, which were worse for wear after their previous incarnation.
One of her key challenges was creating a person-sized chamber inside the largest one. This space will be occupied by Sasha Moriarty-Schieven, who plays the role. Her head sticks out where Audrey II’s tonsils would be ... that is, if plants had tonsils.
Ordinarily, the role of Audrey II is sung offstage, with puppeteers controlling the character’s movements. So there’s no need for the actor to wear the costume. But director Roderick Glanville realized Moriarty-Schieven (previously a professional musical-theatre performer) is more than just a singer. So he didn’t want to waste her acting talents away from the spotlight.
“It’s a stronger choice to put the person in the scene, speaking to someone,” Glanville said.
The 29-year-old actorsinger — wearing enormous false eyelashes made from feathers — said rehearsing inside the puppet has been singular experience. It’s hot. And when Audrey II’s mouth shuts, it’s like entering Maxwell Smart’s Cone of Silence.
“I have occasions when the musical director will start shouting at me: ‘You’re off time! Catch up!’ Because I can’t hear very well in there at all,” said Moriarty-Schieven, who uses an electric fan to keep cool onstage.
The production is a fundraiser for Kaleidoscope Theatre, which specializes in theatre for young people. If the show sells out McPherson Playhouse, it will raise $50,000.
Little Shop of Horrors, with a cast of 16, stars two graduates of the Canadian College of Performing Arts: Ian Crowe as Seymour and Julia French as his girlfriend, Audrey. Tara Britt is the choreographer, with musical direction by Yanik Giroux (the actors sing to recorded tracks) and lights by Rebekah Johnson.
Moriarty-Schieven studied theatre at Hampshire College in Massachusetts. Afterward, she spent three years as a singer-actor based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. However, Moriarty-Schieven, finding it hard to make a living, eventually returned to Victoria.
“As far as success goes, I worked constantly for those three years. But you’re making $500 here, $1,000 there, gas money somewhere else. And I had two day jobs as well,” she said.
In Victoria, Moriarty-Schieven has worked with companies such as Four Seasons Musical Theatre and the Victoria Operatic Society. She’s enjoying belting out the blues songs for which Audrey II is renowned — even if she must perform from within the bowels of a puppet costume.
“That style is my favourite,” she said. “If I had a choice, that’s what I’d always sing.”