Hollywood has a new town to scout for talent: Bergen, New Jersey. Three teachers and fewer than 20 high school students are being thrust into the spotlight after their production of Ridley Scott’s Alien has won internet acclaim.

Andrew Fernandez (@bhsdrew) I love that north bergen high school did alien last night as their school play, so I’m gonna keep tweeting about how great it is..everything was made from recycled materials .. so nuts amazing I’m so proud of my hometown pic.twitter.com/EEMEbankDz

Perfecto Cuervo, the drama club moderator and play director, got the inspiration as a lifelong fan of the film. But both he and the art director Steven Defendini were a bit apprehensive, given the intricacies of the sets and costumes. “Once he proposed that to me, I said, ‘I don’t even know if that is a thing that is possible but if the students are engaged, then I think we can make it happen, however we make it happen,’” said Defendini.

With no drama department and no great funds to speak of, the costumes and sets of the Alien play were made largely from recycled materials. From start to finish, the production took around eight months. In the process, the teachers spent quite a bit of their own money, roughly $3,500, including funds for food for the students and lighting. “Despite the fact that they were small productions, we put … as much ingenuity and imagination as we can into putting these plays up and doing the most we can with the little amount of money that we have,” said Cuervo.

The elaborately staged play was put on for two nights, 19 and 22 March, and ran for about an hour and 40 minutes. It was posted online by a Reddit user and subsequently on Twitter. Within a night of the final show, the former host of Discovery Channel Mythbusters Adam Savage retweeted stills of the production under the caption “OMFSM [Oh My Flying Spaghetti Monster] i need to see this wow,” and word about the play took off.

Adam Savage (@donttrythis) OMFSM i need to see this. Wow https://t.co/96E872XUTp

The response took the resourceful group by surprise, with their Rumpelstiltskin act earning them the approval of Hollywood professionals such as Rosario Dawson and Elijah Wood. The magnitude is not lost on the children, said Cuervo. “The kids in the play are ecstatic about this.” Even the official Twitter for the Alien franchise retweeted photos from the production with the comment: “We are impressed.”

The sets and effects of the play are even more herculean considering North Bergen high school is one of the most underfunded schools in the entire state of New Jersey. The teachers pointed out their work in the arts does not get as much attention as the sports, but this play has the community (and the world) looking at them in a different light. “One student walked across the stage … a student I’ve never met and he said, ‘Thank you for putting us on the map in a positive way,’” Defendini recalled.

But what the teachers hope their students take away from the experience isn’t the viral fame, but the ingenuity it took to get there. “We really try to teach the kids to be resourceful and to problem-solve. I think the best thing for us was that we showed the kids, and the kids kind of pieced it together themselves, that you can really make something out of nothing,” said Defendini. “You can literally make anything you want, as long as you think outside of the box.”