Little Shop Resource Guide for Educators
Science fiction, fantasy, and their many sub-genres have historically been challenging for theatre artists to present on stage, but Little Shop of Horrors can nonetheless be counted among a lineage of plays that did so with triumphant imagination before the musical appeared in 1982. Here are 5 noteworthy moments plucked from sci-fi theatre history.
1610: William Shakespeare writes The Tempest. This romantic tragicomedy takes place on a mystical island populated by sprites, sorcerers, and shipwrecked sailors. The plot twists hinge on the interplay of magic and scientific knowledge, and the supernatural elements of the world provide symbolic complements to this story of love, power, and redemption. Many critics have come to read The Tempest as a prototype of the theatre pointing the way toward speculative fiction, and the 1956 classic sci-fi film Forbidden Planet is overtly analogous to Shakespeare’s play.
1913: The Russian Futurists, a group of iconoclastic artists paving new paths for performance, present Victory Over the Sun, an opera written in an invented language by Mikhail Matiushin and Alexei Kruchenykh. In the opera, the sun is ripped out of the sky and buried by The Strong Men of the Future. A time traveler appears with news from other eras, and great machines like airplanes crash onto stage. With abstract, out-of-this-world costumes by the soon-to-be-legendary Kazimir Malevich, Victory Over the Sun completely bewildered audiences with its depiction of alternate worlds and unrecognizable futures. Simultaneously, the Italian Futurists were generating a new breed of ultra-brief performance art pieces known as sintesi, which showcased their love of speed, technology, and all things futuristic.
1920: Czech writer Karel Čapek presents his play R.U.R., which stands for Rossum’s Universal Robots. Čapek effectively coined the word “robot” for this play, though a contemporary lexicon would likely call his robots “cyborgs.” The play follows the proliferation of sentient humanoid machines as they overtake and eventually eradicate the human race. A dark parable of both fascist conformity and technological hubris, Čapek’s work was both visionary and prescient.
1920: German Expressionist dramatist Georg Kaiser completes Gas II, the final installment of an epic trilogy tracing the descent to apocalypse. In this last episode, human beings have been flattened into becoming no more than labor functions, and identity is reduced to costumed color-blocking (i.e., the Blue or Yellow Figures). Kaiser’s characters speak in exclusively technological garbles and in dizzying fits of ovoid phrases with syntax that recalls the voices of spaceship computers from 1970s sci-fi epics. This otherworldly (yet all-too-real) play ends with an explosive release of poison gas that destroys the universe.
1929: Russian avant-garde pioneer Vladimir Mayakovsky produces his play The Bedbug, which satirizes the failures of Soviet bureaucracy and the increasing conformist orthodoxy of the Communist state. The play follows Prysipkin, a man who winds up frozen in ice for fifty years and, once he has been thawed, finds the future to be a strange new world, devoid of nature and absurdly mechanical. He is kept like a zoo animal, caged and probed by scientists looking to learn about the human species’ behavior before their dystopian “evolution.”
More about Little Shop of Horrors:
Reviews of "Little Shop of Horrors"
"Portland Center Stage's production of Little Shop of Horrors is smart, hilarious, beautifully produced and a flat-out rocking kick in the pants."
Little Shop of Horrors Resource Guide for Educators
Oh, Horror! Oh, Horticulture! Little Shop’s Hysterical Lineage
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"Little Shop of Horrors" Cast and Creative Team
Learn about the fabulous team we've assembled for this delightful musical thriller!
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Learn about the man who inspired a hit musical — and set a world record — when he filmed The Little Shop of Horrors.
A Behind The Scenes Look at Audrey II
Since early July, our props department has been busy creating Audrey II, the beloved blood-thirsty plant puppet – or four puppets, to be exact.
Current & Upcoming
Improvisation Classes for Beginners
Whether you're looking to get more confident in social situations, think quicker on your feet, or get in touch with your imaginative side, these "one-off" improv classes will set you on the path to success!
Adult Class : TWELFTH NIGHT, Before & After
Join veteran actor Joe Costa for a unique opportunity to take a “deep dive” into both Shakespeare’s text of Twelfth Night, and the PCS Production. Participants will read the play out loud as a group, with “intermissions” provided for lively discussion of themes and content. Interested participants will have a chance to act in selected scenes, guided by the instructor.
Improv Comedy: Love, Shakespeare
Witness the Magic of unscripted Elizabethan comedy! Step into the offbeat world of Love, Shakespeare, where seasoned Portland comedians attempt something audacious: performing a fully improvised Elizabethan play based on your suggestions!
Albina Music Trust presents A Brown Branch Christmas
Celebrate this holiday season with A Brown Branch Christmas at Portland Center Stage. Now in its fourth season, this two-night big band celebration features directors Domo Branch and Charlie Brown III guiding a heavy 15-piece lineup of regional and national musicians.
BIPOC Affinity Night DJ Party with ALoSo
Join us for a double feature BIPOC Affinity Night, featuring a live DJ set by ALoSo, plus holiday craft market vendor tables, art exhibits by Albina Music Trust Wall to Wall Sound and Jason Hill's Favorite Things, with complimentary select drinks provided by Multnomah Whiskey Library and Deschutes Brewery while supplies last.
Winter Teen Academy: Scene Work
Calling all teens! Are you looking to expand your acting skills and be the best scene partner you can be for your fellow actors? In this class, we will dig deep into scene study, character motivation, and active listening, while learning the necessary questions to ask in every rehearsal situation. You'll develop fuller characters and deeper relationships on stage by partnering in scene work — and have lots of fun too!
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