One such song has been "Feed Me" from Little Shop of Horrors.
Much to my own dismay, several people in the world have not seen the movie, let alone knew it was a play. To the warming of my heart I've even had friends who were in the play!
I once wanted to audition for the play but my mother said no (it was a long time ago as you might guess). "The plant cusses," she said. I'll go in for puppeteering auditions one day, I'm sure. I could use the workout!
Anyway, Feed Me was stuck in my brain and I figured the best way out of it was to build myself an Audrey II puppet. That didn't work, and luckily my buddy Tim said he would perform Seymour to my Audrey II at an upcoming convention where we performed for around 300 - 400 people in the Costume Talent Contest.
From 2 pieces of 4" thick foam I carved an upper part of the pod, and a lower part of the pod, fitting them together. I pinched out the inside of the mouth and around where the tongue would be, and tore the teeth from white foam which I glued in after adding color to the pod.
There are also 2 stems that connect to the pot and then to the pod. One stem seen in the top picture below is a puppet sleeve wherein my arm goes into a hole in the back (or could through a hole in the bottom) of the pot and then into the pod. The second stem in the second picture, as seen also in the video, is so I can stand behind the plant and operate the pod at the pod instead of going up the stem from within the pot (as in the first picture when I can walk around with the plant).
It looks airbrushed, but it was merely painted by using really watered-down acrylic paints. The leaves are from fake plants I bought at the hobby store, the pot (of course) is from Home Depot, and the stem is green material, as are the vines.
The wall was painted cardboard box pieces, cut down and re-fashioned for this performance. I also made myself a black hood and glove to perform with.
Tim's wonderful wife, Traci, did the video from in the audience and Tim edited it down to just our performance. You'll see Boba Fett walk by as well. Ha ha.
As a side-note: During the day, I had a way to walk around with the puppet dressed in the same clothes that Tim wore for the stage performance, and some folks thought it was all the same Seymour! You can also hear in the performance that the audience was not expecting the great performance Tim delivered!
We had to perform without microphones also, so you hear the recorded music and us singing LOUDLY over that. Yep, that's really his voice as Seymour and really me performing the voice and puppetry of Audrey II.
Hope you enjoy the video:
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v524942ZpPkXMCN
