ALIEN Director Ridley Scott Responds To New Jersey High School That Staged Theatrical Adaptation
By: Alan Henry Mar. 28, 2019
A high school in New Jersey has taken the internet by storm with their stage production of Alien. Now, the film's original director, Ridley Scott, has reached out and to offer to assist in funding an encore performance of the production.
"This is maybe the biggest lesson for ALL OF YOU, and your future plans - stay with this determination, and this spirit in everything you do and you will succeed..." he wrote to the students. See the full letter below!
Brilliant ! Ridley Scott writes to North Bergen High School after their production of Ridley Scott's Alien won internet acclaim. ? pic.twitter.com/9UKQi2qg9V
- Carl Woodward (@mrCarlWoodward) March 28, 2019
Photos from the stage adaptation of the film, performed by North Bergen High School Drama Club, surfaced on social media, thanks to Paul Owens. The photos caused the production to create quite a buzz across the internet.
Last night the North Bergen High School in New Jersey put on 'Alien' as their school play and it looks absolutely incredible.#hrgiger#Alien#rushmore pic.twitter.com/5jopUecFil
- Paul Owens (@oh_pollo) March 23, 2019
The famous "facehugger" scene from the movie was recreated on stage, and happened to be captured by a parent.
A parent filmed the facehugger scene. pic.twitter.com/oamxaxikM2
- Paul Owens (@oh_pollo) March 23, 2019
Another video was captured by Andrew Fernandez, who posted about his awe of the production to Twitter.
I love that north bergen high school did alien last night as their school play, so I'm gonna keep tweeting about how great it is..everything was made from recycled materials .. so nuts amazing I'm so proud of my hometown pic.twitter.com/EEMEbankDz
- Andrew Fernandez (@bhsdrew) March 23, 2019
The social media content caused the production to blow up, and get picked up by multiple media outlets. Even the official Alien Twitter account retweeted the photos, saying they were impressed.
We are impressed! 40 years and still going strong... https://t.co/NJGJIZj2oq
- Alien (@AlienAnthology) March 23, 2019
Entertainment Weekly chatted with some of the creatives for the play, who gave some insight into their inspiration and just how the show was developed.
"My inspiration was just that I'm a huge fan of the movie," said the school's drama teacher, Perfecto Cuervo. He said he spent two months of his nights and weekends adapting Alien: The Play from the film's screenplay.
The school's art instructor, Steven Defendini said that the play was a collaboration between three teachers, and 16 students.
"We're a real small drama program, so we're used to doing small plays for the local community," he said.
Defendini said that he and his team used recycled materials to make the visually stunning set and costumes, including making the Xenomorph costume from a standard morph suit, some foam, and a plastic skeleton head.
Earlier this month, the students created a trailer for the production, which can be seen below:
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