By Sandy Jiang
Staff Writer
Anxiety-filled senior Eileen Zhu opened the cast listings for the 2024 “Shrek the Musical,” hopeful for a chance at being a lead. To her relief, seeing her name next to “Fiona,” Shrek’s love interest, felt like an elephant lifted off her chest.
Aspiring cast members participated in a dancing, acting and singing auditions, but only a select few received call-backs for roles. The judges were Tammi Alderman, Mike Kidd and Sydney Taylor, carefully choosing the right voices and charisma for the right character, ensuring the perfect show.
This musical sets itself apart from previous ones in many ways because the actors act as completely fictional characters instead of last year’s musical which took place in a fictional high school and the actors performed as high schoolers. In the past, the performing arts department has repeated the majority of musicals such as “Annie Jr.” and “Newsies,” but “Shrek the Musical” has never been done before. The musical’s contents are unlike the actual movie. Instead, they are more comedic and allow actors to show off their unique abilities.
“I feel so lucky that I get Caymin and Eileen both in Brighterside and in the musical,” Alderman said. “I’m so excited about them doing something different from Brighterside. They both have great charisma and they’re very fun people to work with.”
It’s filled with performing arts led by Taylor, choreographer, Howie, piano accompanist and Alderman, vocal arts teacher. The show calls for the largest set ever rented for a musical, consisting of various lively backdrops and costumes. Dragonflicks is in charge of all the behind-the-scenes work— lights, sounds, set changes and special effects.
Junior Caymin Tran, a Brighter Side Singer, plays the lead role of Shrek.
“It’s a very daunting and huge responsibility and it hasn’t hit me yet,” Tran said. “I’m very excited and it’s definitely very different and I’m determined to do my best.”
It’s also the first musical at TC to include prosthetics to create a more accurate look for actors. Shrek’s costume uses full-body padding, a helmet piece and clothing that corresponds to the different scenes in the musical. Fiona has two sets of costumes to go with her human persona and her ogre persona. She also has a special set of costumes that are used at the end of the musical as well. Throughout the show, the actor for Lord Farquaad sings and dances on his knees..
Tran’s previous musical role as Coach Bolton is significantly different from his new lively character, but working with familiar teachers goes a long way.
“I’m excited to get more one-on-one training with my Brighterside teachers,” Tran said. “In Brighterside, we always sing in our respective parts—bass and tenor, but we don’t get the melody. It’s a lot scarier since I have the solo, but very exciting.”
Zhu plays the lead role of Fiona. Since Zhu is a Brighterside singer, drama actor and Choreo dancer, working as a performer isn’t unfamiliar territory for her. Balancing all her extracurriculars and academics has led her to this moment.
“The biggest pressure I have about the play is letting the rest of the cast down and not being good enough,” Zhu said. “I don’t want to be unprepared so I’m going to work as hard as I can.”
“Shrek the Musical” is set to play on March 8, 9 and 10 at the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse. Ticket prices and times are to be announced at a later date.