The UT San Antonio Dramatic Arts Program held their first production at the Buena Vista Theater at the Downtown Campus, opening on April 10. The cast, composed of college students across the city, claimed their spotlight in the university’s production of “Little Shop of Horrors.”
UT San Antonio students put together the grand “Little Shop of Horrors” stage, decorated with nostalgic details reminiscent of the original 1982 play. The set took nearly a month to bring together. The overarching exterior of Mushnick’s flower shop was a mobile fixture, inside the shop were signs, tables, plants and windows all created by the students. Props of the Audrey II plant were borrowed from the off-Broadway production as detailed by the show’s director Professor Bradley Freeman Jr.
Freeman explained that this was the perfect show to put together as his first play. He described bringing together the production as a manageable production to put together.
“We were looking for a good first show to do, and ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ is really nice,” Freeman said. “It is, although it doesn’t look like it. It actually is a fairly simple show. There’s only one set, and there’s not too many cast members, so ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ just felt like the most ideal show to do as our first show.”
Directing the play is a gratifying experience for Freeman. He detailed how putting the show together was a memorable experience.
“This is arguably my favorite musical. It’s been a dream of mine.” Freeman exclaimed. “Now I actually get to direct it. I got to sort of put my vision on it, and we also were able to bring down one of the original cast members from the show back in 1982, Martin Robinson, to help us direct and give us a clue into how the show originally came together.”
Robinson is a famous puppeteer who created, built and performed the original Audrey II puppets in the 1982 off-Broadway production of “Little Shop of Horrors.” His presence on set provided a bit of magic, according to Freeman. Robinson left some props from the original play for the UT San Antonio production to use in their play.
The ensemble cast dazzled in their portrayal of the classic characters from “Little Shop of Horrors.” Seymour Krelborn played by Angel Reyes, Audrey portrayed by Clarissa Cortez and Mr. Mushnick by Joaquin Lopez all had electric chemistry on stage. Cortez was ecstatic to make her UT San Antonio acting debut in her all-time favorite show.
“When I saw that UTSA was putting on ‘Little Shop of Horrors,’ I had just transferred to UTSA,” Cortez exclaimed. “I’m a marketing major, but I had seen that they had just started the performing arts program and that they were accepting auditions from all majors, so I just had to try out.”
Cortez lit up the stage, complimenting her co-stars’ iconic performances. Reyes was spot on as Krelborn with his perfectly demonstrated quirky, clumsy character maneuvering across the stage. Lopez portrayed Mr. Mushnik comedically and masterfully throughout the night, keeping an engaging momentum to his performance.
The voice of Audrey II, portrayed by sophomore performing arts major Devyn LeSane, appeared in the show numerous times while delivering a captivating voice for the large plant puppet on stage.
“I’m usually a screen actor, and Denzel [Washington] is one of my favorite actors, but one of his pieces of advice is to always start with the stage, because the stage teaches you to be loud, and that way you know how to be quiet on screen,” LeSane detailed. “So I wanted to do this to make me a better screen actor but also just wanted the experience and to be Audrey to a show that was made in the 60s, so to have a Black voice actor in the 60s was huge for that time.”
Levi Villarreal impressively played Orin Scrivello and six other characters in the show and demonstrated a range of personality in all of them, getting in and out of costume for each part he played in the show. He is able to fulfill the roles without a worry in his mind.
“That’s my bread and butter. That’s what I live for is the big personality characters,” Villarreal said. “I get to let loose a lot more versus having to be constrained to what a lot of actors having to underreact or to overreact.”
UT San Antonio’s “Little Shop of Horrors” has everything from a dynamic cast, dazzling set design to otherworldly puppets illuminating the stage.
The UT San Antonio Little Shop of Horrors production will run from April 10-26 at either 2 p.m. or 7 p.m. at the Buena Vista Theater. Prices range from $15.99-30.99 and tickets can be purchased at www.buenavista.live.
