Loy Norrix has produced numerous musicals, varying in genre and theme, but this year, the theater department stepped into new territory. “Shrek The Musical” will open on Friday, Dec. 5 in Loy Norrix’s Kasdorf Auditorium and run for two weekends.
“We wanted to do a fun musical with a story that people know,” said director Dan Lafferty. “It’s sort of geared towards a younger audience. Shrek is a great musical because it’s fun for kids and adults.”
Shrek’s familiar face helps draw a bigger audience in. Many students grew up with the movie, making the characters instantly recognizable. This also adds pressure to the cast to meet specific expectations.
“We have a lot of things we haven’t really done before. We got puppets, certain characters are puppets, some small and some big, we have a lot of different costumes,” said Lafferty. “There’s some magic in the show that we’re going to try to figure out how to do that hasn’t been in our other shows. Our other shows have been realistic but this one is fantasy.”
The new props and costumes help bring a special light to the musical. This is what makes Shrek stand out.
Loy Norrix’s version of Shrek is based on the Broadway musical. The Broadway musical follows the same general storyline of the movie but with a few extra songs and various other minor changes.The addition of songs means more rehearsals, more vocal work and more choreography than a typical straight-from-film adaptation.
“Shrek The Musical” is really going all out, and to compensate, they need a bigger staff.
“We have 40 actors. I don’t know our exact number for the stage crew, about 30. We have five student stage managers,” said Lafferty.
Not all of the staff are students, though. To help take some of the weight off the students, some parents step in and take roles.
“We ask all the parents to help out in some way. Since I’ve been here, we’ve always had the same set designer, and he’s one of the parents. He has helpers who help him,” said Lafferty. “He and I come up with ideas together. He comes up with a design and builds it with help from a lot of volunteers, some students, some parents.”
Other parents help the production by taking on roles that the students are unable to do. For a show of this scale, the extra hands have allowed the production to continue smoothly.
The technical and behind-the-scenes staff are also working at full capacity. The crew has to adapt to the new elements Shrek offers.
“Technical aspects of theater are often overlooked, as you don’t really applaud for them that long,” said chief audio technician and junior Alex Ludwa. “Most of the money the theater collects goes into the technical aspects. This show is very technically involved and very good.”
Fairytale creatures, puppets and a certain ogre will very soon take over Loy Norrix’s stage. The school’s selection of “Shrek The Musical” as its 2025 musical is a choice that proves to be one of the most challenging and ambitious productions the program has attempted. With new challenges, hurdles and a beloved story at its center, Shrek is shaping up to be unlike any show Loy Norrix has put on before.
