Elk Grove, Buffalo Grove stage 'Little Shop' this weekend

The rock musical, "Little Shop of Horrors," complete with its bloodthirsty plant, Audrey II, turns up on not one, but two high school stages this weekend.

Students at Buffalo Grove and Elk Grove high schools are presenting the musical comedy featuring four Venus Flytrap puppets, one larger than the next.

Shows are 7 p.m. tonight (Friday) and Saturday at Elk Grove High School; and at 7:30 p.m. tonight and Saturday at Buffalo Grove High School.

"It's a total coincidence that we're both doing it," says Lauren Stenzel, co-director of the Buffalo Grove edition with Beth Wells. "And not just the same show, but on the same weekend."

Elk Grove High School Director Joe Wolfe says the show drew a buzz of excitement among students, who wanted to try out. They were familiar with the 1986 movie version, that starred Rick Moranis and Steve Martin.

"They knew the story and knew the music," Wolfe says, "and it ended up drawing kids that don't usually try out for the musical."

The plot revolves around a down-and-out floral assistant, Seymour, who becomes an overnight sensation when he discovers an exotic plant with a taste for human blood.

Seymour falls in love with co-worker Audrey and names the plant, "Audrey II," for her. Little does he know, however, that the more he begins to nurture his flowering plant, the more demanding it becomes.

Both schools rented their larger than life puppets from the Christian Youth Theater group in Cary. As the puppet grows big enough to eat entire characters, it takes some delicate staging to pull off its maneuvers.

At Buffalo Grove, junior Lindsey Smith moves the plant's tentacles from inside its body, while senior Ryan Gore delivers its lines from up on the catwalk above the stage.

At Elk Grove, the plant's songs are sung from the orchestra pit.

Both productions have casts of 40 students apiece, and a smaller pit orchestra and extensive tech crew working behind the scenes to grow the flower shop and its famous plant.

Elk Grove's principal cast members are Tommy Ritondale, Kaitlin Olivero, Matt Wilkinson, Olga Bednarek, Samantha Gatwood, Marisa Marques, Patrick Connaghan, Kevin Quatman, Kenton Wykoff, Nick Czurylo, Antonio Liga, Rachel Casali, and Lizzy Volkamer.

Buffalo Grove's principal players are Michael DeMarco, Julie Baird, Roy Sye, John Loessy, Ryan Gore, Aleks Zivanovic, Laura Burke, Colleen, Sinclair, Joe Lah, Mack Rivkin, Trevor Harris, Miguel Melgar, Brian Pawlak, Elise Hackl, Yany Aguilar, Laura Broderick, Sharon Cho, Lexie Polk, and Lindsey Smith.