LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS

Book and Lyrics ︎ Howard Ashman
Music ︎ Alan Menken
Director ︎ Mike Donahue
Puppet Direction, Design and Choreography ︎ Sean Cawelti
Scenic Design ︎ Dane Laffrey
Costume Design ︎ Danae Iris McQueen
Lighting Design ︎ Josh Epstein
Sound Design ︎Veronika Vorel

Pasdena Playhouse
Puppet Direction, Design and Choreography

This deviously delicious sci-fi musical comedy comes to the Playhouse for the musical theater event of the season with some deliciously devious new twists. Featuring George Salazar (Be More Chill), Mj Rodriguez (Pose), and Amber Riley (Glee) as Audrey II, This Little Shop is unlike any you have seen before.

Read the LA Times Feature on the Puppet Design

Puppet Design

Turning the traditional Audrey II concept on its head and featuring over 30 puppets with the largest having a petal span of nearly twenty feet. The production featured multiple puppet types including rod, black light, animatronics, cable operated, shadow puppets and marrionettes.

The puppets were built by a team of over a dozen craftspersons and brought to life by a cast of five skilled puppeteers.

Photos by Bryce Darlington and Jeff Lorch

It should also be noted that Audrey II designer and director Sean Cawelti deserves much credit for the puppet’s formidable and nefarious appearance, as does puppet wrangler Sarah Kay Peters, and puppeteers Tyler Bremer, Kelsey Kato, Tim Kopacz, and Paul Turbiak for animating the out-of-this-world, reddish-purple plant.” - LA Excites

“But the darkness enables puppetry to bring Audrey II to life. The plant starts as a small shiny magenta branch with a few twigs and roots poking out of its pot and a flower head by which it ingests food. It’s rather cute, as unseen puppetry maneuvers it into winsome little poses. In subsequent scenes, its tendrils grow as tall as a person and wrap around victims, now visibly manipulated by onstage puppeteers.” - The Daily News

“Designed by Sean Cawelti, Audrey II here exists more as a mysterious boogie man, a hovering ghostly monster that basically hides in the shadows instead of being viewed as the enormous elephant in the room that you can't miss. The sole evidence of its existence---besides Riley's terrific voice---is its ivy-like tendrils extending out like the wild tentacles of a sentient horticultural octopus. By the end, when Audrey II's feeding frenzy becomes more pronounced, the form of giant petals synonymous with one's emblazoned image of Audrey II appears and it becomes easier to imagine the activity of this carnivorous plant.” - Broadway World

“The cute little robotic plant (designed by Sean Cawelti) known as Audrey II almost steals the show, dancing its heart out during “Ya Never Know” and stomping along the flower shop’s counters when hungry.” - Quaker Campus

“When an "alien" being is allowed to propagate: the world .. as is shown in the final shadow puppet play reveals... the world is devoured by evil. Brrr.” - On Stage Los Angeles

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