What was your initial vision for the Audrey II puppet, and how did that vision evolve throughout the production process?

Misha Rodriguez (Director): the original version of the Audrey II puppet was generally based off of the Broadway version of Audrey II. So, a giant puppet made out of foam and a giant intricate working that had the mouth closing horizontally. Through changes in budget and design features, we decided to eventually end up with a kind of long vine design, which also then changed to what we have now. I was very thankful for the puppet team because of their adaptability. and I think that the changes really helped in showing a very unique version of Little Shop in that I've never seen anyone do a puppet like ours before.

How did you work with a puppet series to bring the puppet on stage, and what was your process for coordinating.

I was very lucky because the designers really gave me freedom to do whatever I wanted. Once we had the designs, I had freedom to do the movements as I wanted, and I actually worked with Bridget [Trebon, Choreographer] very heavily in separate rehearsals where we figured out how the plant pieces would work and how we pull the ensemble into it. This actually took a lot of time in our process, especially in the rehearsal room where we usually threw around ideas to each other, and that's how we ended up with the choreography that we had.

In your initial proposal, you emphasize how Little Shop can provide opportunity for innovative sustainability regarding the process. How did you ultimately approach incorporate to sustainability into the production design?

Sustainability is really, really important to me as a director. It's part of my pedagogy. For sustainability, we were really lucky in that everybody on the team was really hands-on with the sustainability process. We used a lot of found materials and we went thrift shopping for most of our stuff. And so, the entire puppet is made out of tents that were deconstructed. The tents' bones were used, the fabric was used. There wasn't a scrap left untouched. This  even went through when it came to scenic design and props design. Most of our stuff is made out of found materials. It was very rare that we had to go buy directly from a source.

Cool. Last question. What do you hope audiences will take away from their experience of seeing the Audrey II puppet on stage?

My hope is that people will watch this version of Little Shop and see the puppet and realize that you don't have to do a show any one way. There is nothing that says that Audrey II has to look exactly the same every single time and that goes for every show out there. I also hope that when people leave the show, they feel empowered to push into whatever they felt in their own projects and have that creative freedom.

The puppets used in this production of "Little Shop" are a bit unique compared to previous, more well-known iterations. What inspired you to go "out-of-the-box" and how did you go about it?

Juleanna Green (Director): Our designs began with conversations with Misha [Rodriguez, Director] about their vision for the final product. Due to our limited budget on this process, our puppet team and directing teams were in much closer communications on specifics and materials than on a typical process. We were also interested in sustainability, which led us to thrift stores; our puppet team thrifted the majority of our materials, which was certainly a factor in going out-of-the-box; we were at the whim of the people of Harrisonburg, and the items they had donated to thrift stores!

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in designing and building the Audrey II puppet, and how did you overcome them?

We faced the biggest challenges with the largest iteration of Audrey II. We knew what our vision was for shape and structure, but until we were shopping, we didn’t know how we would put it into practice. Once at a thrift store, Luke found a few tents, and had a brilliant idea; tent poles and tent fabric. Tent poles are malleable, but also strong; tent fabric is light and airy. These materials offered a brilliant opportunity for the stage presence of Audrey II in her largest forms.

Putting the large leaf pieces together was the next challenge; we were experimenting with materials we had never used before, discovering the best way to attach things, insert other things, and even paint the materials. We found our groove through a lot of trial and error, and a lot of hands-on discovery!

What materials did you use to create the puppet, and how did you choose them to create a unique look and feel?

Most of our materials were thrifted, which made our selection process particularly unique. One find that I am particularly proud of is now the heads of the handheld Audrey II puppets; while walking around the thrift store, I saw two lamp shades that fit the shape we were looking for, and there were two that were exactly the same in different sizes. We cut them in half from top to bottom, turned them on their sides, and voila! The baby Audrey IIs were born. That find was completely unplanned; we didn’t know what we were looking for until we found it.

How did you approach designing the various stages of the puppet's growth, from the small hand-puppet to the massive plant that eventually takes over the entire flower shop?

When designing the plant’s growth, Luke [Freisner, Puppet Designer] and I were in constant communication about the vision. Ultimately, I took charge on the smallest puppet (which I lovingly call the baby), and Luke took charge of the larger of the hand puppets (who has many names, from teenager to Girly Pop!). While the entire puppet team helped with construction of all of the puppets, Luke and I each had one that we took as our focus. The larger puppet was all hands on deck! We had many puppet building sessions in my living room (special shoutout to my roommates, who have been living in the Puppet Factory for three months), everyone took pieces to work on individually, and we even had some build sessions in the studio lobby, to put everything all together.

What advice would you give to aspiring puppet designers who hope to create something as iconic as the Audrey II puppet?

Be creative! Don’t feel stuck in what has been done before. Pay homage to the past productions as you wish to (we certainly did!), but also lean into your own vision and dreams! Puppet designers are lucky, in that anything can be a puppet; take inspiration from the opportunities, and hone in on the story you are trying to tell with your particular version of Audrey II.