JERSEY: JCHS Theatre Department excited to present “Shrek the Musical”

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By Steven Spencer

Students and staff in the Jersey Community High School Theatre Department have been preparing for months getting ready for their spring musical and are excited to bring “Shrek the Musical” to the stage from Thursday, Mar. 13, to Sunday, Mar. 16.

Since October the students have been hard at work preparing the sets, costumes, lighting, music, songs and choreography.

Theatre Director Brett Beauchamp said for a musical like Shrek there are a lot of fairytale sets and characters that the students will be bringing to life.

“There’s so many different venues in this one,” Beauchamp said about the changes in the set. “We’re bringing a lot of pieces on for this one. We’re utilizing our curtains, we’re covering up the castle with the curtains. We bring on five or six different pieces that are on platforms or rollers.”

Last semester the Theatre Department presented the play “Be My Ghost,” which required lots of work dressing the set to create an old New Hampshire inn where the characters spent most of their time. However a musical like Shrek requires more set pieces and work from the crew to help transport the audience for the different scenes.

From Shrek’s swamp to Lord Farquaad’s castle, the crew has been working on different pieces to help transport the audience to the fairytale settings.

“With this one, we go from the swamp to the city of Duloc, where the castle is at, we go to the dragon’s lair where Fiona is in the tower. They travel, so we bounce back and forth so much,” Beauchamp said.

With so many location changes, the stage crew has to be as well choreographed as the dancers.

“The crew is very busy. We don’t want a scene change to go longer than 30 seconds, so we practice it. We choreograph those just like the dances are choreographed and they’re doing a great job with that,” Beauchamp said.

In addition to the set pieces, the costumes help bring the animated characters from the film to life on the stage. It’s hard to miss Sebastian Robinson as a big green ogre playing Shrek, and although Lord Farquaad is small in stature Jeremiah Kanallakan gives the character a big personality all while walking around on his knees.

Beauchamp said one of the biggest challenges for this musical is showing Fiona as an ogre while avoiding full green ogre makeup. In order to portray that character trait of Fiona’s, the cast and crew had to come together with lighting, set design and costuming to show the audience.

“One of the biggest hurdles, I would say, is that we have to show without showing her that Fiona is an ogre,” he said. “We don’t have time to make her up. Shrek is made up the whole time. So our lighting and set designer, they have a barn. There’s a sheer wall of red that is barn-like, but you can see through it. She is in there with her ogre ears on and our lighting guy, Jacob, rigged up a light behind her so we see a silhouette of her. So we don’t see her face but we’re able to establish that without painting her until the very end. You’re creating all those fairytale characters, it’s very visually pleasing.”

This year’s spring musical is a little bit bittersweet for Beauchamp. While it’s a busy, exciting and funny production that requires a lot of work from the cast and crew, it’s also Beauchamp’s final production as the Theatre Director after 32 years and 65 shows.

Beauchamp, a 1988 JCHS graduate, first became involved in theatre as a freshman helping with the lighting.

“I was one of those kids who loved athletics but was terrible,” Beauchamp said. “Bill Church said why don’t you do some audio-visual stuff and do the lights for the show. We were doing West Side Story and I did the lighting and it was a life-changing experience. It opened up a whole new world to me.”

Beauchamp said he went on to do some acting and performing in high school, and when he got the “teaching bug” he came back to JCHS and directed the play his first year back as an instructor. By his second year, he took on the play and musical.

“We had a rebuild when I first got here, along with band and choir, so we’ve put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into it to get it to the level it is,” he said. “When I say that I don’t mean me. It’s the kids. They put in the time. They want to be excellent.”

Beauchamp said it’s been a labor of love but he’s had great support from his wife and children. What stands out to him is the support that the school and community have shown to the kids who dedicate so much of their time each and every show. 

From a new theater to a new lighting system the district has helped students get everything they need to put on an excellent show while the community has had no problem coming out to support the student-run productions.

“I try to keep the kids and myself in today. I don’t want them thinking about tomorrow. We’ve got things we have to get done today, but it’s weird,” Beauchamp said. “It’s a lot of mixed emotions.”

Assistant Director Cara Rojas will be taking over as Director next and Beauchamp said he can’t think of a better person for the job.

“She was in my program years ago and was outstanding. I can’t think of anyone better to take over. For about three years she’s been working with us. She’s ready to go.”

The cast for “Shrek the Musical” features Sebastian Robinson as Shrek, Anna Beauchamp as Fiona, Loial McCoy as Donkey, Jeremiah Kanallakan as Lord Farquaad and Emma Beauchamp as Dragon.

Performances will take place at JCHS at 7 p.m. from Thursday, Mar. 13, to Saturday, Mar. 15, with a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday, Mar. 16. Those interested can call the school office for tickets at 618-498-5521.