Skyline College’s theater department is getting ready for its approaching fall production of “The Toxic Avenger” musical in November. 

The musical is based on “The Toxic Avenger” series created by Troma Entertainment, a company that has specialized in producing low-budget horror and splatter films since the 70s. The musical is a Frankensteinesque-superhero story that centers around Melvin Ferd III, a nerdy little janitor who is investigating a toxic waste problem in the fictional town of Tromaville, New Jersey. The waste problem oozes deeper than he suspects, leading to him being forcefully dunked in a vat of toxic waste at the behest of Tromaville’s mayor. Emerging from the vat, Melvin is transformed into the Toxic Avenger — colloquially nicknamed “Toxie” — a horrifically deformed superhero with a strong instinct for evil, who must battle the corruption that seeps through Tromaville in the name of environmental justice. 

The rehearsal process has divided its focus into acts one and two, where the cast practice and memorize their lines. According to Nicole Odell, the director, the average rehearsal process usually starts with Jude Navari, the director of music, teaching vocals and harmonies to the actors. After which, Odell helps choreograph and block the actors — basically positioning the actors on stage. 

Odell says that she is most excited for tech rehearsals, the portion of rehearsals where the musical is performed with all of the technical elements incorporated, such as music and special effects. 

“Tech week is always such a crazy, stressful process in any given theater situation. But it’s also, like, when all of the elements just start clicking into place,” Odell said. 

Special effects are an important aspect of “The Toxic Avenger” as the main protagonist, “Toxie,” is covered from head to toe in melted, toxic goo. 

On Tuesday, Sept. 23, Dani Lancaster-Spinks, a professional special effects artist came in to apply a life-cast to lead actor Marlon Brown’s face. 

“Essentially you take alginate, the same material that dentists use when they make the impressions of your teeth. You mix it with water at a one to one ratio and apply it to whatever it is that you want to make a prosthetic for and then you cover it up,” Lancaster-Spinks said. “I covered the whole face, I used plaster bandages, dipped them in water and applied them on the outside of the mask that I just put on. That will create a hard casing or shell that will hold the alginate in. Then you remove that from the face, very slowly and carefully so as not to rip it.”

Brown described the process and feeling of having to sit still for half an hour and have a life-cast applied to his face. 

“I was super worried that I wouldn’t be able to keep a straight face the whole time. But then once the process had started it was a lot easier than I had anticipated,” Brown said. “It felt like slime being put on my face, but it dried pretty quickly and once it had dried it just felt like a weight was put on my face. It didn’t necessarily feel wet or [like it was] running, it just felt like I had some sort of mass on my face.”

Being the protagonist, Brown described his enthusiasm for portraying the titular character.

“I really like how stereotypically nerdy and geeky Melvin is. I think it’s very fun as an actor to dive into and bring to life such a silly nerdy kind of persona,” Brown said. 

On a musical note, Kaylin Alexis, the student who is portraying the Toxic Avenger’s love interest Sara, described her enthusiasm for the songs that she’ll be performing. 

“The song I’m most excited to perform is this very funny song that Sara has called ‘Choose Me Oprah,’ which is about her wanting to sell her book idea to Oprah in order to become famous,” Alexis said. “It’s very ridiculous, but it’s so, so catchy, and it ends with this full, ensemble kind of dance moment. And I think it would be really fun to see.”

Early on into rehearsals, Odell described the initial atmosphere of them and how she hopes that once they finish rehearsing act two, they’ll just have to polish everything up. She is confident that through practice, the cast will perfect their performance. 

“So, you know right now, everything’s real stumbly. Everybody’s just learning everything, and then once it’s learned, it’s like, okay, let’s make it gleam,” Odell said.