Current Events

Cast of spring musical, “Little Shop of Horrors,” selected

Elise Brown
December 6, 2011

After a three day process of auditions and callbacks, the cast list for the West Linn Theatre Department’s spring musical, “Little Shop of Horrors,” has been chosen.

“Little Shop of Horrors,” written by Howard Ashman with music by Alan Menken, is based on a 1960 (non-musical) film directed by Robert Corman. It was later made into a musical film by Frank Oz in 1986. The musical originally ran off-Broadway in 1982 and had its first Broadway run in 2003.

“Little Shop of Horrors” focuses on Seymour (Reed Sturtevant, senior), a young and awkward flower shop employee, Audrey (Caroline Hitesman, senior), his co-worker with an abusive boyfriend named Orin (Oliver Muggli, junior), and the Audrey II (Toran Almodovar, senior), the blood-sucking plant that Seymour takes care of to give his flower shop better business. Other characters include Mr. Mushnik (Joey Joyce, junior), the owner of the flower shop, the “Greek chorus,” Ronette (Keeley Anderson, sophomore), Chiffon (Arianna Robin, senior), and Crystal (Taija Channel, junior). The cast has a total of 16 actors.

Performances will be held on Feb. 23 through 25, as well as March 1 through 3, all at 7 P.M. The production is directed and choreographed by Jessica Murray, drama teacher, with Annie Kaiser, performance arts building coordinator, designing costumes; Jon Ares, performing arts technical coordinator, designing lights; Kevin Egan, band teacher, directing the pit orchestra; and Jennifer Davies, musical theatre actress and private voice teacher, as a guest vocal director.

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About the Contributor

Elise Brown, Co Editor-in-Chief

Elise Brown, senior, has always felt comfortable standing up and giving her opinion in front of everyone and for the most part, she enjoys it very much. That is one of the many reasons why she heads the debate team, and also why in June she earned a place in the National Speech and Debate Competition in Indianapolis.

Out of the 250 people entered in the competition, she finished 151st in the country. Before she earned her rightful place in Nationals, however, she needed to prove herself in Districts and State.

Her 10 minute long speech about socialism and its benefits took first and second in Districts and State, respectively.

“In the National competition the judges didn’t appreciate politics or controversy as much as they did in Districts and State,” Brown said. This was confirmed from one of the judges she conversed with in order to find out what she could do better.

Brown’s interest in current events started in the eighth grade. She then did the Amplifier, the high school newspaper to help communicate her ideas about the world with her fellow peers, she also did the debate team to better understand the problems throughout the world and learn how to solve them somewhat.

“Debate involves knowing what is going on in the world,” Brown said.

This year for upcoming competitions, she has a speech in the works that she feels will top her last one. This year’s speech is about interdependence inspired by the “you didn’t build that debate,” caused when President Barack Obama told business people that they did not create their businesses on their own.

Brown’s passion for debate has influenced what college she will go to, what she will study in college, and what she wants to do in her life. Brown’s goal is to graduate high school and then travel to Massachusetts and attend Wellesley College, a very well known and prestigious college, where Brown hopes to study political science.

To achieve this goal she has taken part in a number of rigorous courses and activities such as Speech and Debate, AP Government, AP Economics, Honors Law, AP English and journalism. Once Brown achieves her education goals, her next goal is to become a political commentator.

“I want to change people’s minds,” Brown said. Brown has chosen the path to become a political commentator because she believes political power lies with the media.

Brown has worked very hard throughout high school and continues to work hard through her senior year. She has taken many challenging courses to achieve her goal of going to Wellesley, and will need to continue down the very rigorous path to success to accomplish her goals.