BWW Blog: Bringing Little Shop to Life

Tech week has begun at the University of California, Riverside! If you've worked on a production, you may be familiar with the term 'tech week'. Tech week is when rehearsals are usually extended a couple of extra hours per night and it's extremely grueling, but it's also when you get to see all production elements come together off paper for the first time.

I'm assistant stage managing our fall production of Little Shop of Horrors, which is very exciting! I've stage managed various productions in the past, but this is my first musical at UCR. Doing a show that's loved by many theatre and cinema fans alike can be challenging because there's an added layer of pressure to make it your own while still paying respects to the original production. As an assistant stage manager, you're there from the first production meeting all the way to strike. That means you truly get to see the show start from a script and design concepts to a full-length, live, magical production.

There's an entire team of people dedicated to creating the magic an audience gets to see when they come watch the show, and I think they can go under-appreciated. I wanted to highlight the hard work they've put in the past few weeks to make our version of Little Shop of Horrors come together. It starts with the production manager and director. They work together on creating a vision while following guidelines that the department has set in place. Next in line are the designers for set, lighting, sound, props, costumes, etc. They worked on their concepts and plots weeks before auditions were announced, and are still here during tech week making sure their original concepts are implemented and polished. Then there's the stage management team going above and beyond to make sure this show runs smoothly and efficiently. They come early to set up and stay later than everyone to tie up loose ends. Although the job can be exhausting, I love being a part of the team. Next up, there's the crew who comes in and works extremely hard to make sure every aspect of this show is ran properly and pays attention to all the little details to make this show the best it can be. Their hard work should not go unrecognized as they are a true asset to this show coming together the way it is. Last but not least is the cast; witnessing them bring life to the characters in this show is truly remarkable. They started with reading a script for the first time, to putting in countless hours at rehearsals crafting their roles to tell the audience a story about this little flower shop on Skid Row.

To the cast and crew of Little Shop of Horrors that read this blog; let's finish this week strong and have an amazing run! It's been a great experience working on this show and one that will be missed when it's over. I can't wait for everyone to see what we've created very soon! Remember, "Don't feed the plants!".