{"id":17886,"date":"2016-03-25T00:25:42","date_gmt":"2016-03-25T07:25:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=17886"},"modified":"2016-03-24T19:13:33","modified_gmt":"2016-03-25T02:13:33","slug":"little-shop-fills-the-rothstein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2016\/03\/25\/little-shop-fills-the-rothstein\/","title":{"rendered":"Little Shop fills the Rothstein"},"content":{"rendered":"

The full cast of King David Players\u2019 Little Shop of Horrors<\/em>. (all photos from King David High School)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

On March 16 and 17, the Rothstein Theatre was alive with music and a giant flesh-eating plant, as the King David Players presented this year\u2019s theatre production, Little Shop of Horrors<\/em>. Featuring a cast of students from every grade, the actors and musicians brought to life the dark comedy\/musical. They played to full houses both nights.<\/p>\n

Teachers Aron Rosenberg, Johnny Seguin and Anna-Mae Wiesenthal created the production, which involved 50 students, as well as other staff, parents and community supporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen deciding what play to explore this year, we were looking for a musical that was light and fun and that was not too heavily based around social commentary (as is my usual inclination),\u201d said Rosenberg in his director\u2019s note. \u201cI looked through a list of musicals and, remembering childhood evenings watching Little Shop of Horrors<\/em> with Rick Moranis, Steve Martin and Bill Murray, I sent an e-mail to the administration ensuring it would be an appropriate choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

On closer look, the musical wasn\u2019t that light.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree of the most problematic characters are Mushnik \u2013 the caricature of a greedy Jewish merchant \u2013 Audrey \u2013 the caricature of a helpless victim in an abusive relationship \u2013 and Orin \u2013 Audrey\u2019s abusive boyfriend, and a caricature of a dentist with a self-acknowledged appetite for causing pain,\u201d noted Rosenberg. \u201cPerhaps this play\u2019s innocuous reputation comes from an outdated attitude that treated ethnic stereotypes as playful, sexual violence as bland and dentists as inevitably painful. However, in 2016, our modern sensibilities force this play to take on a new life. The dark and irreverent humor of the play remains but, along with it, our cast has worked to uncover a respectful and critical look at the struggles of ethnic shop-owners in low-income neighborhoods, the horrors of domestic abuse and the ridiculousness of gender-inequity in relationships (not to mention the reality that dentists are no longer painful … usually).<\/p>\n

\u201cWith all the creative commitment and hard work from our cast, crew and community, we are left with something not unlike our original goal\u2026. The plot may not be light but the musical numbers are. And, as for social commentary and all this hullabaloo about the self-destructiveness of greed and power, you can take it or leave it. However, if you leave it, don\u2019t be surprised when a giant human-eating plant comes a-knocking….\u201d<\/p>\n

\"photo
Seymour (Daniel Shuchat) and Audrey (Sydney Freedman).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"photo
Audrey II, played by Alisa Bressler and Hannah Marliss.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"photo
Stage managers Rachel Pekeles and Matty Flader.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The full cast of King David Players\u2019 Little Shop of Horrors. (all photos from King David High School) On March 16 and 17, the Rothstein Theatre was alive with music and a giant flesh-eating plant, as the King David Players presented this year\u2019s theatre production, Little Shop of Horrors. Featuring a cast of students from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17851,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[785],"tags":[3166,1559,5573],"class_list":["post-17886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performing-arts","tag-aron-rosenberg","tag-kdhs","tag-little-shop"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}