Ammon Arts Community Theater opens 'Little Shop of Horrors' just in time for Halloween - East Idaho News
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Ammon Arts Community Theater opens ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ just in time for Halloween

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AMMON — Ammon Arts Community Theater is offering a musical treat that’s a perfect fit for spooky season. The theater troupe is opening its production of “Little Shop of Horrors” on Thursday night, with additional shows scheduled throughout the weekend and into next week.

“Little Shop” is a sci-fi horror musical that tells the story of Seymore Krelborn, a shy, awkward florist assistant who stumbles upon an atypical plant and decides to care for it. The plant, which Seymore names “Audrey II” after a coworker he’s crushing on, develops the ability to speak and promises Seymore great fame and riches so long as he can provide a continuous supply of human blood.

The show is funny and features infectious music by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, the pair behind Disney classics like “The Little Mermaid” and “Beauty and the Beast.” Jacob Meldrum, the play’s director, says that underneath all the fun, “Little Shop” boasts some serious and relatable themes.

“The thing to remember about this show is that it’s a tragedy,” Meldrum told EastIdahoNews.com. “There’s a lot of music and jokes and laughing and fun, but in the end, it’s about desperation and the lengths we’ll go to get what we think we want.”

“The music is, in the vernacular, a real bop,” Meldrum added. “The music is fun and exciting, and the story is just out there enough to be fantastical, but it hits home enough with its darker, harder, more tragic elements that we hopefully walk away from it thinking a little bit.”

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Photo by Clay Cammack. Courtesy Jorden Cammack.

Bringing this story to life onstage meant bringing Audrey II to life through puppetry. Not only that, but several plants of different sizes were required to represent Audrey II at different points in its life cycle.

“The plant is made up of four different stages in the plant’s growth, and it’s four different puppets,” said Meldrum. “That was a bit of a challenge, making sure we had something that was both appealing and functional, especially since my puppet-making experience in minimal. That was a bit of a challenge, but it was a fun one.”

If bringing Audrey II to life was a bit of a struggle, the talented cast helped to make Meldrum’s life a little easier.

“The cast is incredible,” he said. “The way that they approached the show has just been a delight. I think to a person, they’re all so excited about the show that I’ve never had to worry about maybe somebody not knowing their music or their lines or their dances or maybe people aren’t going to get along. But it hasn’t been that way. Everyone is 100% all in on this production.”

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Photo by Clay Cammack. Courtesy of Jorden Cammack.

You can catch Ammon Arts Community Theater’s production of “Little Shop os Horrors” starting this Thursday, Oct. 20. Shows are Oct. 20, 21, 22, 24 and 25 at 7 p.m. in the Thunder Ridge High School Auditorium. Click here for tickets.

This play deals with adult themes and mild language, so parental discretion is advised. Visit Ammon Arts Community Theater on Facebook or at their website for more information.

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Photo by Clay Cammack. Courtesy of Jorden Cammack.

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