Flowers spilled over a table and onto the floor at the J.J. Ferrara Center in Hazleton earlier this week, a young fellow picked his way through them carrying something that looked like part of huge Venus flytrap, and two cast members crouched by garbage cans, the better to represent the Skid Row ambience of Mr. Mushnik’s flower shop.
One look at that scene tells you the folks at Pennsylvania Theatre of Performing Arts are about to present “Little Shop of Horrors,” and if you stick around you’ll meet Mr. Mushnik’s employees — Seymour and Audrey.
“Seymour is kind of a classical, endearing dork,” said Joshua Plesce of Berwick, who will play that part in the show, set for Nov. 1 through Nov. 10. “He’s got everything you can picture for this archetype — the button-down shirt, the nerdy glasses, the squeaky voice.”
“He’s a poor kid in a poor part of town,” Plesce continued. ‘Audrey is Seymour’s love interest, and he sees her as an unattainable dream.”
But while Seymour sees the lovely Audrey as far above him socially, she sees herself as unworthy of the worship he wants to give her.
“She doesn’t have confidence,” said Jessica Schafer of Lehighton, who plays Audrey, noting that when we meet the character she is involved in an abusive relationship.
That’s the most serious aspect of the show, director Adam Randis said, and while the rest of the production can come across as light-hearted, he wants to make sure that part doesn’t.
“We in no way want to minimize the pain abusive relationships can bring to people, especially women,” he said.
But other than that troubled relationship, “most of the violence in the show is cartoon violence.”
Think people tumbling into a carnivorous plant.
Said plant, named Audrey II by Seymour, starts out so small “you can fit it in your hand,” Plesce said. “By the end it’s at least 6 feet tall.”
Supplying a voice for Audrey II is veteran PTPA cast member Zachary Sessock of Hazleton.
“It starts out not even as a voice, just making noise,” Sessock said, noting that by the end of the show he makes the voice “big, ominous, menacing.”
Meanwhile, while Audrey II is growing, Audrey I and Seymour are falling in love and singing a duet.
“Suddenly Seymour is standing beside me. He don’t give me orders, he don’t condescend. Suddenly Seymour is here to provide me sweet understanding. Seymour’s my friend.”
“It’s powerful,” Schafer said. “She takes the feeling of not being worthy and finally finds relief from that. She can be with Seymour.”
So, are you looking for a happy ending? Perhaps you will see one; perhaps not.
In any case, Plesce said you will find “a lot of fun and upbeat songs.”
And, during this week of Halloween, you will find a show that, just like a trick-or-treater at your door, may be something other than what it appears to be.
“It’s a tragedy masquerading as a comedy/farce,” director Randis said.
Show times are 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays through Nov. 10 at the J.J. Ferrara Center, 212 West Broad St., Hazleton. Tickets are available at ptpashows.org/.
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