Spring musical comes back to North Harford bringing entertainment to the Hawks Nest on April 11 & 12. This year’s musical will be the horror comedy rock musical, Little Shop of Horrors.
The story follows a florist shop worker who raises a plant that feeds on human blood and flesh. “It’s a sci-fi, comedy, and horror musical about a plant from outer space that eats people to grow,” explained musical director and French teacher Mrs. Larissa Arist.
“Our directing team chose this musical because it’s fun and something NHHS hasn’t done before,” stated the director. There is a big team behind the musical, not just including the actors. Along with Arist, who is the director, choir teacher Ms. Katelyn Hemling is the vocal director, and band teacher Mr. John Wojciechowski is the pit (band) director. Along with the directors, history teacher Mr. Charles Selfe and Spanish teacher Ms. Mary Capellan will be helping with backstage and tech for the show.
“It was a very hard decision casting the lead roles this year. We needed performers who captured the essence of the character and could sing well,” said Arist. “Several talented students auditioned,” she continued.
From auditions on, the group will be rehearsing everyday after school until the show in April. Looking forward to seeing their hard work pay off, Arist says “I’m always so proud of the performance both onstage and behind the scenes. Our students are amazingly talented and work as a team to create brilliant theater.”
Junior Alexandra Manzari is playing Audrey in the upcoming musical. “My character works at the flower shop with the leading male, Seymour,” Manzari stated. “She’s in an abusive relationship with a sadistic dentist but she [doesn’t] think she can do better. She dreams to live on a small suburban street and a normal nuclear family,” the junior continued.
“For my auditions I came in and sang two song snippets and memorized two monologues for the two characters I was going for,” Manzari explained. After the first audition, she got callbacks where she was asked to sing Audrey’s big solo song, “Somewhere That’s Green.”
Junior Autumn Ferguson plays Ronnette in the upcoming musical. She describes Ronnette as a “hobo” similar to her previous character she played in last year’s musical, Legally Blonde. For auditions, she said “We had to perform a song and I also had to learn a reading.” Along with that audition, she got a callback for Audrey. “I was out of town so I had to submit a callback video of me doing a different song,” explained Ferguson.
Ferguson has had a lot of experience with the spring musical. “This is my third time doing the musical,” explained Ferguson, “I’ve been doing theater since I was really little and it’s really fun, it was really cool to get to know a lot of people who enjoy the same things that I do.”
Along with Ferguson, Manzari has also been performing in the musical since Freshman year. “I’ve been obsessed with theatre since elementary school and it’s something that I really enjoy doing,” said Manzari when expressing her love for performing and theater. The junior says she’d “love to go into some aspect of the entertainment industry when I’m older.”
Ferguson is most looking forward to the musical environment. “It’s so fun to work on a project together with a bunch of your friends and then get to perform it and show it off to everybody,” she stated. Adding to what Ferguson is excited about Manzari says “I’m most excited for tech week when I get to see the show fully come together and to sing. The songs in this show are so good.”
