Audrey II is the name of the star of Mt Hood Community College's winter production of "Little Shop of Horrors" running from Feb. 25-27 and March 4-6 in the MHCC college theater.

The star begins the play 8 inches tall and finishes standing more than 6 feet. It doesn't have an ego, doesn't ask for breaks, and hasn't requested it's own dressing room.

Sumi Wu is in charge of creating Audrey II and all the costumes for the play. Wu has supervised the construction of four "Audries" since October when she found out the school was producing the play. After working with director Rick Zimmer on last year's play "Return to Forbidden Planet," Wu was eager to return to the program.

When Wu isn't creating monster plants for plays, she's an artist and sells Japanese inspired ceramics. This Stanford graduate changed her major from science to liberal arts and Japanese studies. Wu also found a passion in welding and uses her talents on Audrey II. "I took an interest in theater and dance. There is more of a connection to the audience than art sitting on a wall," Wu says.

With puppeteer Ray Peirott and Matt DeLeon, (the voice of Audrey II), Wu has been working diligently to accomplishing this goal. Wu said she has met her fair share of problems since beginning this project. The plant eats four people in the play, one of those victims is in pieces. Though Wu has figured out a way for the actors to comfortably be eaten by Audrey, more problems have come up. She has to figure out a way for the plant to be able to realistically spit back rat poison and a mechanic. Wu explains, "I know how to make it look real but it also has to work mechanically."

As Feb. 25 closes in slowly, Wu isn't sweating the small stuff. Asked why she took on such a big task, she said, "It seems like an adventure to make it and I'm happy to be a part of this project."