On Monday, Nov. 23 and Tuesday Nov. 24, over 30 students gathered outside the auditorium to audition for the musical Little Shop of Horrors.

This musical has been critically acclaimed as well as revised and performed on many stages around in the US and in England.  The book was written by Howard Ashman with Alan Menken and musical composer. Menken has composed music for many Disney musicals such as Beauty and The Beast and The Little Mermaid.

The musical premiered 1982 as an off Broadway show. In 1986, it was made into a film and in 2003 it was revived and performed on Broadway.

Taking place during the late 1950s, the musical is set in a rundown city. During this time, Seymour, the main character who works in a flower shop, is having trouble advancing his career. Suddenly, an opportunity comes up in the form of a plant and amazing things start happening to him as well as some of the other characters in the musical. The music is written in the Doo wop style, which was popular during this time period.

Mr. Carl Helder, a choir teacher and Musical Director for the show, watched and evaluated the auditions. He has been coordinating school musicals since 1994. During the auditions, he noticed that there were a variety of voice types.

“A bunch of students with different voice types such as altos, sopranos, and tenors auditioned. Honestly, I have no idea how the casting is going to play out yet. As usual, there are a few main character roles that need to be filled.  The rest of the students will be in the ensemble,” Helder said.

During the audition, Helder required each student to perform about 16 measures of a song as well as briefly act out a scene from the musical.

“There were 4 or 5 songs and each song required a different voice type. They had to perform about 16 – 32 measures, which is equivalent to a verse and a chorus,” Helder said.

The audition took around 5-10 minutes and in that time, Helder said he was able to get a good sense of the performers vocal range and acting experience.

Last year, there were around 40 people who wanted to be in the actual musical, but there were an additional 30 students who participated in other aspects of the musical such as set design, costumes and crew.

Christopher Barker, the Director of the show, will be working alongside Helder to put together the production.  Mrs. Rachel Beeksma will be doing Choreography and Mrs. Juliet McKinley will be the Stage Manager.

Stella Pereira, a sophomore, participated in last year’s musical Beauty and The Beast. For this year’s audition, she performed the song Suppertime, which is featured in the musical.

“I was pretty nervous at the start, but the directors already knew me so I got accustomed pretty quickly,” Pereira said.

She thought her audition went pretty well and hopes to get the role of Crystal or Audrey 2.

The musical performance will take place on Feb. 4, 5, and 6.