The cast of Shrek prepares for their upcoming shows with dedication. Shrek is a story revolving around being true to oneself and accepting others as they are. Students at Metea will be performing Shrek the Musical in the school auditorium. Opening preview week is on Apr. 15 which also serves as a character meet and greet. The final performances are on May 2, May 3, and May 4.
There are two different lead casts, and the preview show will star the first lead cast and a few understudies while the two lead casts will swap between the three final shows. The actors and tech crew started preparing for the show in February. Students involved in the musical have an ensemble of different teams supporting them.
“We have a huge team,” musical director and choreographer Brenda Perez De Tejada said. “I have a light designer. I have a sound designer. I have a costumer. I have an assistant director, a vocal coach, an acting coach, [and] a music director. So, we just make sure that we are preparing and getting on the same page about what our show is going to be like and be about.”
To prepare for the show, students make sure they are in the best physical and vocal shape possible. They also rehearse daily and work their way up to bigger rehearsals such as dress rehearsals and tech week.
Actors believe that dress rehearsals are a crucial part of preparing for the show. During dress rehearsals, the crew and performers make final checks with costumes and mics. Actors also use the opportunity to practice quick changes, so dress rehearsals are important to ensure that the show runs smoothly.
“[Dress rehearsals] is where all the magic comes together,” sophomore Claire Johnson said. “If we didn’t have our dress rehearsals, we wouldn’t know how to do our quick changes. We wouldn’t know how things land with different set pieces. We wouldn’t know if a costume piece is going to affect our movement. So it’s just kind of like the cleaning [up] aspect of the show.”
Dress rehearsals also allow students to visually see the characters they are portraying. Tejada believes this process is especially important for the script of Shrek.
“[They] are not just playing high school students in a show,” Tejada said. “They are fully becoming fairy tale creatures, which is not something they’re used to. So allowing them to get into character and see the physical character is super important for them and it allows them to embody that new fairy tale creature that they’re gonna be.”
When rehearsing, the tech crew incorporates set pieces as early as possible. This is another preparation measure to allow the run crew to have as much practice as needed for transitions to be smooth on show day.
Sophomore Jensen Trinko from the build crew expresses the overwhelming nature of the days leading up to show day.
“It’s been really stressful, at least for me,” Trinko said. “I’ve seen it come off and a lot of my friends too, just because it’s such a big set and it’s such a big show that they’re doing so much. And we’ve repainted a lot of stuff too because it wasn’t the exact shade like I think we repainted a tower like twice.”
However, Tejada believes that all the hard work is paying off.
“I think they are super, super prepared,” Tejada said. “I am really proud of all of the students. They have put all of their efforts forward and they know their show. So we’re getting close to the finish line. Little details still need to be finished, painting needs to be finished and all that but the students overall I think are in a really good spot to continue growing up until the show.”
Tejada encourages Mustangs to come to support their classmates.
“[Everyone] should come watch it because they should support all of their fellow Metea Valley Mustangs,” Tejada said. “These students have put in so much work, so many hours of dancing, of singing, of painting, of tech, of playing in the pit orchestra rehearsing all their pieces.”
