When Chris MacLaughlin auditioned for a role in Holyoke High School North’s production of “Little Shop of Horrors” during the 2024-25 school year, he had no way of knowing his life was about to take an unexpected turn: But turn it did, thanks to the foam-and-fabric puppets created for the show by retired HPS art teacher Phil Christofori.
The spring musical that year was by all accounts a huge success, with audiences laughing, screaming, and getting “a little bit green” during all four of the students’ performances. The carnivorous plant puppet—Audrey II—was a key star of the show.
Here’s a quick plot synopsis, in case you have never seen the show:
When Seymour (played by Aidan Fontanez-Courchesne) finds a mysterious plant after a total eclipse of the sun, strange things start happening at Mr. Mushnik’s (played by Eben Beaudry) flower shop. Meanwhile, Audrey (Ashanty Provost) dreams of leaving Skid Row and her boyfriend, the sadistic dentist Orin Scrivello (Linken Geddis). As the mysterious plant “Audrey II” starts to grow, a great deal of hijinks and horror begins to ensue.
So back to Chris, who was mesmerized watching Mr. Christofori bring Audrey II to life while he and his castmates rehearsed after school each day for their upcoming live performances.
Soon after, Chris began experimenting with carving foam and applying a variety of fabrics to create his own puppets, beginning with digital sketches to refine his concepts before moving on to the actual construction. He’s worked on a number of original puppets over the past two years through his hobby-turned-passion, and he has no plans of stopping any time soon. Now a high school senior at North, Chris credits his teachers Bevan Brunelle and Mark Todd for opening up opportunities he could not have imagined when he enrolled in the school’s Performing and Media Arts Academy (PMA) as a sophomore in 2024.
Chris is now hard at work on a long-term puppet project featuring a character from a dark narrative, and he aspires to pursue theater-based work after he graduates from North next June. Just what direction he’ll take is still not decided, but Chris would love to continue to participate in community theater (and maybe Broadway!) and he is also interested in prop design and other technical aspects of theater production. College planning is also on his mind, while he actively searches for scholarship opportunities to make his future studies possible.