‘Little Shop of Horrors’ blossoms on NSCD stage March 7-9

“Little Shop of Horrors” will bring the laughs and oddities to the auditorium of North Shore Country Day this weekend.

The fun and funny show (appropriate for grades 6 and above) will be performed at 7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, March 7-9, at North Shore Country Day, 310 Green Bay Road in Winnetka. Tickets for the show, which can be purchased online, are $10 for adults and $5 for students and alumni.

The production — led by upper school theater teacher and performing arts department head Julia Macholl and technical theater director Austin Gruber — follows Seymour Krelborn, a floral assistant, as he begins to feed an unusual plant he names “Audrey II.”

As Krelborn’s luck would have it, Audrey II has other plans, which include a sinister plot to take over the world.

According to the release, the show’s production team has worked hard to bring the show to life amid some challenges, like an auditorium that was not built to hold a stage.

Another challenge was the need to work with crew members new to theater.

“This is an opportunity for students to fulfill one of their theater requirements,” Gruber said in a school press release. “Anybody can sign up, regardless of skill level. A lot of kids will come in here having never touched a power tool before, and they leave building an entire set that is functional and moves and that people walk on.”

The staff and crew also had to figure out “how to bring a carnivorous alien plant to life,” the release says. The young plant, Audrey II, is played by hand puppets operated by freshman Lily Bogie and senior Noah Youderian, who plays Seymour.

The third version sits on the floor and Bogie operates it from the inside, and the final, largest version — big enough to swallow a person whole — is junior Kelly Wyne operating it from behind.

Freshman Teddy Cole voices all four versions of the plant and “has had to learn how to use her voice to show the plant’s growth and character development, from very meek at the beginning, then growing stronger, more powerful and aggressive by the end,” the release says.

“I’m so excited to see these characters come to life,” Macholl said in the release. “There’s such a degree of work, work, work to get to where we need to be, and that discipline is such an important part of the process. But I think there’s a nice window once we get to where students really take ownership of the show. It’s so cool to watch.”

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