{"id":2446154,"date":"2019-07-09T21:45:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-10T03:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=309137"},"modified":"2019-07-09T21:45:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-10T03:45:00","slug":"theatre-aspen-stalwart-mark-martino-returns-for-little-shop-of-horrors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/theatre-aspen-stalwart-mark-martino-returns-for-little-shop-of-horrors\/","title":{"rendered":"Theatre Aspen stalwart Mark Martino returns for \u2018Little Shop of Horrors\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Theatre Aspen’s “Little Shop of Horrors” will run from July 11 to Aug. 17.<\/strong>
Courtesy photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Director Mark Martino calls \u201cLittle Shop of Horrors\u201d \u201ca near perfect musical with infectious and irresistible music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martino is back for his 11th season directing with Theatre Aspen, a stretch that began with a 2008 summer production of \u201cLittle Shop.\u201d He\u2019s at the helm again for this summer\u2019s run, which opens Thursday night at the Hurst Theatre in Rio Grande Park.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Little Shop\u2019 is a hilarious and touching book and a fantastic, silly story that is an homage to the horror flicks of the early \u201960s and a man-eating plant. What\u2019s not to love?\u201d Martino said.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s excited to be back in the tent, where he has directed memorable shows including last summer\u2019s \u201cRagtime\u201d and titles like \u201cHairspray,\u201d \u201cAvenue Q,\u201d \u201cLes Miserables,\u201d \u201cThe Full Monty,\u201d \u201cPeter and the Starcatcher\u201d and \u201cCabaret,\u201d which in 2016 won five Colorado Theatre Guild Henry Awards, including Best Choreography and Best Production of a Musical.<\/p>\n

Martino, a New York-based director and choreographer, has worked at many of the nation\u2019s leading theaters including the historic Cape Playhouse, Florida\u2019s Maltz Jupiter Theatre, Boston\u2019s North Shore Music Theatre and The Music Theatre of Louisville.<\/p>\n

\u201cYear after year I look forward to working with the dedicated, tireless, talented group of creatives, cast and crew who come together every summer to make some magic in the mountains,\u201d Martino said. \u201cI love getting in the room with the cast for a lot of hard work in a very short time, with more than a couple of laughs along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a book and lyrics by Howard Ashman<\/a> and music by Alan Menken, this sci-fi musical \u2014 based on the 1960 Roger Corman film \u2014 follows the story of geeky flower shop assistant Seymour who is infatuated with his co-worker Audrey. He discovers an unusual plant in the flower shop that feeds on human flesh and blood. Seymour turns into a local celebrity as the town watches the plant grow exponentially. Little does everyone know that this giant man-eating plant is demanding that Seymour feed him flesh and blood in exchange for Seymour gaining fame and romance.<\/p>\n

Despite Martino\u2019s numerous accomplishments in show business, he admits that he wasn\u2019t always sure the theater was the right path for him. Martino was actually a teacher for a few years before he eventually realized that show business was his true calling \u2014 first as an actor and then as a director and choreographer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think deep down there was always a pull to the creative arts as the place where I\u2019d be able to fulfill my potential and live my best artistic life,\u201d Martino said.<\/p>\n

Martino has been a working artist in show business for over 40 years. Once he left teaching and took the plunge to move to New York in 1979, he never had another \u201creal job\u201d again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been lucky enough to always make my living doing what I love most,\u201d he explained. \u201cThis career has allowed me to work all over the world and to be in a profession that is all about collaboration, trust, respect and love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although his annual time in Aspen is short-lived \u2014 just a couple weeks, for instance, setting \u201cLittle Shop\u201d \u2014 Martino makes the most of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy stay in Aspen is brief, so there\u2019s only time to get the show up and on its feet before I have to leave again,\u201d Martino said. \u201cI always love the walk to the Hurst Theatre tent. It is serene and stunning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martino notes that he saw hundreds of actors in New York, Denver, Aspen and around the country to find a cast of nine led by Blake Stadnik as Seymor and Julie Kavanagh as Audrey.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll nine are triple threats who sing, dance and create funny, endearing and very human characters,\u201d Martino said.<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Theatre Aspen’s “Little Shop of Horrors” will run from July 11 to Aug. 17.Courtesy photo Director Mark Martino calls \u201cLittle Shop of Horrors\u201d \u201ca near perfect musical with infectious and irresistible music.\u201d Martino is back for his 11th season directing with Theatre Aspen, a stretch that began with a 2008 summer production of \u201cLittle Shop.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2446154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-21 03:04:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2446154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446154\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2446154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2446154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2446154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}