Mayfield High School’s fall musical, Little Shop of Horrors is scheduled to be performed on November 22nd, 23rd, and 24th, and its preparations are well underway.

After the departure of former director Larry Braun, assistant director Jennifer (Jenny) Walker, and technical director Vincent (Vinny) Polowy, students have had to step up, bringing forward a heap of leadership opportunities. And despite the loss of key members of the musical staff, students are optimistic as tech week approaches.

Assistant stage manager Sharmya Avery said that the crew is working at a fast pace. He said, “I would say we were lacking a little bit on the technical side. We didn’t start meeting with the crew until last week, but I would say that the crew has determination to get this show ready for [the] performance.”

According to Avery, many of the tasks that Jenny once handled are now handled by students. “[Leo Shi] has taken over doing all of the blocking for the show, so he writes down every blocking and every time people come on and off stage. With me and Elisha, we kind of like we are there to read lines—we are there to be backup—so if they need us to do anything, that’s what we are there for.”

Another task that students now must tackle is props. Avery said, “The props used to be handled by Jenny. We [now] have prop masters, who make sure we have all the props where and when they need to be.”

Avery continued, “We basically run these rehearsals rather than it being so dependent on Jenny and Vinny. And it’s a lot more hands-on. I would say we’re still trying to find our footing a lot with this.”

Ensemble member Brandon Corpus believes the show is in a good spot headed into tech week. He said, “We [have] got tonight to run act 2, and then tomorrow night for a complete run, and so, surely we’ll pull it together by [tech week]. Ensemble is completely off-book, the principles are just about completely off-book.”

Regarding the crew, Corpus himself has noticed the increased level of student leadership in the crew. “Stage managers take notes all the time. Crew is fairly organized now. Not that it wasn’t before, but it’s the same level if not slightly better because there is a lot of leadership.”

However, things will still need to be worked on during tech week. Avery said, “I know some people are not used to this, and people still feel that we’re behind, but I think we’re getting a good pace. I feel like we’re going to have to still work on things during tech week, which is usually out of the ordinary.”

Despite all of the challenges presented, Avery is confident that they will pull through. “We’re ready to run through act one and two and hopefully by the time tech week happens, we should be fine, so honestly, I think this musical is getting to the point where it’s stage-ready.”

You can purchase tickets for Little Shop of Horrors at mayfieldvocalmusic.org.