Sigourney Weaver and Ridley Scott praise high school production of Alien

Sigourney Weaver and Ridley Scott have praised New Jersey high school students for their stage adaptation of 1979 sci-fi movie Alien.
Earlier this month (Mar19), the cast and crew of North Bergen High School hit headlines after footage of Alien: The Play hit social media and impressed viewers with how ambitious it was and how realistic the sets, costumes, and Xenomorph alien looked, despite being mostly made from donated and recycled materials.
Clips posted online showed the cast faithfully recreating scenes from the film, in which an alien comes aboard a ship travelling through deep space. The scenes included the famous “facehugger” moment and Ripley, the character played by Weaver, defeating the alien by sending it out of the ship’s airlock.
The clips went viral and caught the attention of the actress, who recorded a video praising the play.
“I saw a bit of your production of Alien. I just want to say it looked incredible. You put so much heart and soul into that and the alien, I must say, looked very real to me,” Weaver said. “I just want to send our compliments, not only from me, but from James Cameron (director of the sequel Aliens) and the original screenwriter, Walter Hill. We all say bravo, well done. And just one more thing – you know, the alien might still be around. So when you’re opening your locker, just do it very slowly.”
Scott, who directed the original, also sent the school a letter praising the team and offering to pay for another performance.
“My hat comes off to all of you for your creativity, imagination and determination to produce such an ambitious show,” he wrote. “Thanks for doing Alien, I felt very complimented… Scott Free (production company) will advance some financial help to fund an encore performance of Alien. How about your next TEAM production being Gladiator?”
The cast and crew responded with their own video thanking them for their praise, while the student actress playing Ripley said to Weaver, “Thank you so much for contacting us and giving us that shout out. It meant the world to us and literally brought me to tears.”