A crew of over 25 people, 12 songs, 4 months of practice, 3 nights of performing, 1 last production. Little Shop of Horrors, the tale of a carnivorous plant from outer space preying on the meek giving them all their desires to move towards world conquest, was my final production as a student in school. Many afternoons were spent staging, singing, choreographing, fixing faults; all to fully embrace our characters for this perplexing musical. The songs upbeat, but the plot somber. The characters at the low, but the cast at their high.

This production was my last so I was determined to put in my final effort to make this as perfect as possible. I was excited to be a part of this musical as I haven’t had any high school experience with musicals, although in my primary and middle school years it seemed to be the only things I performed in. This musical was different however, because of the varied styles of music genres with elements of soul, pop, jazz and rock all wound up with vines for the plant that is Audrey 2.

I spent my Monday and Wednesday afternoons at school practicing the choreography, acting, singing, and sometimes dancing that would bring the play to light. I also spent 5 Saturdays for additional rehearsals to ensure we could breeze through the acts and spend as much time as possible polishing off the play. This meant I had to take initiative and have my lines memorised. I had less lines but more notes to know so I would spend lots of my free time playing the songs on repeat and the practice tracks to see my progress. I’ve been able to sing from an alto to soprano range but got to exercise the extent my vocal chords could reach by being soprano in this show.

This was my biggest commitment amongst all my assessments of my final year but I am happy with how I pushed through and persevered in times of great stress. I collaborated well with my peers and was even able to choreograph some of the musical scenes when we needed the female ensemble to be doing something else to make the scene less awkward. I had two main roles; one as a high school drop out supporting Seymour and Audrey, and the other as Mrs Luce trying her best to get Seymour onto the cover of Life Magazine.

This couldn’t have been a more perfect ending to my acting at OSC and I am so happy that I was able to do it one last time with this musical masterpiece. I want to thank the backstage crew for their continuous efforts to get everything into place as we messed them up, Mr Kim for putting up with us and our off-key notes, Ms Jackson for being the best director ever and giving me the passion to continue, and my amazing cast who without this show wouldn’t be the same.