The Cy Woods Theater Company is set to perform “Shrek: The Musical” on Feb. 5-7. This will be the last theater production before their UIL season starts.
Senior Isabella Jaramillo, who will be playing Fiona in the musical says she is elated to be finishing out her high school theater career with such an important part.
“It’s definitely a once-in-a-lifetime role,” Jaramillo said. “And I’m glad I get to share the stage with my friends for the last show.”
Acting alongside her is junior Brandon Bartos, who is playing Lord Farquaad in his first ever-musical with a big singing role. With only a few days to go before opening night, Bartos says he’s been mentally preparing himself for the long hours of rehearsal.
“[Playing Lord Farquaad] is very fun,” Bartos said. “But it’s a little painful for the knees because I’ve got to be on my knees the whole time.”
Junior Griffin says the key to a good show is consistency. Consistency with acting, with voices and with singing. Griffin will be playing Pinocchio, and with that comes some added baggage, since Pinocchio is supposed to talk AND sing in a high-pitched voice.
“I’m a guy and so I’m not used to singing these like soprano notes and I’m kind of freaking out sometimes,” Griffin said. “But it’s definitely fun to explore how my voice can do all those different things, but it’s definitely challenging.”
Taking a look behind the scenes, senior Lily Dauphine will be running the sound board during all four performances of “Shrek.” To prepare, she started programming the microphones early on during production to have them ready for rehearsals. With that out of the way now, she says she’s really looking forward to seeing the audience’s reaction to the show.
“It’s kind of my biggest thing with doing theater,” Dauphine said. “I just love seeing the people come in, they laugh at the show or they’ll tell me things after the show. They’ll go, ‘I noticed this, or this.’”
Junior Erenia Gonzalez shares her peers’ excitement for the upcoming show. Gonzalez has been in charge of the set design for the musical and claims having only a month to design and build the entire set was the biggest challenge, but will have the biggest reward.
“I’m really excited to see all our visions come to life with me and all the directors,” Gonzalez said. “And I’m also excited for people to see the actors’ performances.”
There will be four performances of “Shrek: The Musical”: Thursday, Feb. 5 at 6:30 p.m; Friday, Feb. 6 at 7 p.m; Saturday, Feb. 7 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online.
