Aliens Came to Littleton

Last month, the Littleton Middle School cafetorium was the “in place to be”. The much anticipated middle school play, at long last, was performed for a large crowd. Originally set to open on Friday the 13th of May, the performances were postponed to around two weeks later. This wasn’t the first time that the show The Aliens are Coming! The Aliens are Coming! had been postponed. It had originally been cast and rehearsed to open in May of 2020, two years ago. Opening with a Sunday matinee and following with a Monday and Tuesday night performance, this was the first time in my recent memory (save for a Thursday night) that Littleton drama has had performances occur during the school week. The show being on a school night did nothing to deter the audience from flocking to the show. On the Tuesday evening performance, every row of seats were occupied and the cafetorium was a full house. The play was published before the playwright’s sudden death in 1998, and therefore he never knew that Nevada’s Area 51, the place parodied in this play, would be officially acknowledged by the CIA in 2013.

The play takes place in the American southwest desert in 1982, mainly occurring in the lobby of a motel called the Meteorite Inn run by two siblings, Peggy and Doug, played by eighth grader Aarya Wachasunder and seventh grader Asish Asoo, respectively. Asish’s physical comedy and Aarya’s dry humor were highlights of the show.

Every character in Aliens has their moment of hilarity, there was never a dull moment due to the chemistry the cast has with each other and their understanding of the script. The character of Commander Coburn, played by seventh grader Mac Laflamme, was also a high point in the show. This kooky military man gets physically thrown around, as well as eighth grader Tom Glorioso’s Sheriff Chickamauga.

The costumes consist of 1980s graphic tees, two piece pantsuits, scrunchies, and blue eyeshadow. The Stranger Things influence is hard to miss and the sci-fi movie soundtracks sent every parent in the audience back in time (“That’s E.T!” I heard a parent whisper to her son, who shrugged in reply). Director Tracey O’Neill and her husband Doc know their 1980s pop culture, as anyone who’s met them can recognize, and it comes through in the set and costuming. The lighting design by graduating seniors Carly Buckellew and Dan Glorioso was extremely immersive, the aliens appearing was an exciting adrenaline rush. The flashing lights and glowing piece of meteorite (a salt lamp!) made you feel excited to see the aliens. These invaders were portrayed by seventh graders Allison Phon and Jude McMahon, and sixth graders Elise Miller and Veda Menon. They played the titular terrifying creatures in a hilarious, memorable way.

A production that had gone through recasts, delays, and sickness came to fruition last month. Support local children’s theatre by seeing these hilarious Littleton Middle School Drama productions as well as the high school shows.