Over time, the school’s drama department has put on a number of amazing, student-directed production. This year, drama went out with a bang heard around the school with their last production of the year – Shrek Jr. and The Big Bad Musical.
The production was a bit of a “two-for-one” special where the audience members were first greeted by The Big Bad Musical, followed by Shrek Jr.
The first was, simply put, a series of comedic witnesses testifying against the Big Bad Wolf before a courtroom full of well-known characters from folktales such as the “Boy Who Cried Wolf” and the “Three Little Pigs.” After a short intermission, Shrek Jr. Followed the plotline of the very first Shrek movie.
Both halves included outstanding performances, but one that seemed to be all the buzz during the Big Bad Musical was Kayla Bennett’s portrayal of a startlingly insane Snow White. With smeared red lipstick and wild hair, she kept an eerily straight face as she screamed about being subjected to torturous, never-ending whistling from the Seven Dwarves.
Apart from Bennett’s hilarious performance, the Three Little Pigs and each prompted endless laughter from their audience. Adam Christenson and Tyler Reeder were respectively Pig 1 and Pig 2, the much more idiotic of the trio. Pig 3, played by TJ Sullivan, kept his less intelligent counterparts in check, but became noticeably and comedically agitated with their blunt stupidity as it went on.
As for Shrek Jr., Andrew Cheesemen, Forrest Sprague, and Maya Radcliffe were all spot-on in their portrayals of Shrek, Donkey, and Gingy. Everything from their costumes to their delivery of famous lines was greatly memorable.
Without a doubt, all participants in the production of worked hard, something that translated in their exceptional performances.
“We spent about a month of class time reviewing, rehearsing, and working on the set. We also spent hours after school and during lunch running lines together,” said Paige Day, who played one of the Big Bad Wolf’s backup “Wolfettes.”
Vivian Covarrubias, one of the two girls in charge of publicity for the play, put it best: ” You get to watch as the characters overcome all of these new things and there’s a lot great music and incredibly talented actors.”